FOUR of the Premier League’s striking stars could give punters a tidy windfall on Boxing Day according to Ladbrokes.
The bookies are offering 18-1 for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexis Sanchez, Kevin de Bruyne and Alvaro Negredo each to net as part of their clutch of festive specials.
It's 11-8 for the eight Premier League fixtures to produce 25 goals or more or 15-8 we see a few more Christmas turkeys than crackers with 20 goals or under.
On Boxing Day in 2014 every Premier League favourite won with punters taking Ladbrokes for £10million – a repeat would be nice. All eight favourites to win again this time round pays 140-1 at Ladbrokes.
Meanwhile, Davie Moyes is earning a reputation for being the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He returns to Old Trafford with Sunderland on Monday and will cast an envious eye on Jose Mourinho who is plotting to take his spending spree past £300million.
Moyes will be lucky if he gets £3m to help steer Sunderland clear of danger and when he took charge of Man United he had the impossible task of replacing Sir Alex Ferguson.
Escaping from Old Trafford without suffering defeat looks mission impossible with United running into form and Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring freely.
United have won four in a row, conceding just one goal, and Ibrahimovic has netted 10 goals in nine games.
On the road Moyes's men have taken just four points from 24 so no wonder United are no bigger than 1-4 at William Hill.
Sunderland will defend for their lives but United should have the guile to break them down. Back them to win by two or more at 4-6 with Paddy Power and consider a 2-0 correct score at 11-2 with McBookie – two of United's last four have brought up that scoreline as have two recent meetings.
Ibrahimovic is 11-4 with William Hill to score first and 8-11 to net at any time.
Chelsea are much bigger than United at 2-5 with Hills and Ladbrokes at home to Bournemouth and that's because top scorer Diego Costa and key midfielder N'Golo Kante are banned. However, their replacements aren't half bad with Cesc Fabregas in for Kante and Michy Batshuayi likely to replace Costa.
The Blues have won 11 in a row because of all-round strength and should still see off a Bournemouth side who are gloriously inconsistent. Bet I'm taking here is over 2.5 match goals at 7-10 with Marathonbet as the visitors are capable of scoring.
Man City are also a “banker” price of 1-3 at Hull and while it's short for an away Pep Guardiola's side will be confident after beating Arsenal. Interestingly there were no away wins on Boxing Day in the Premier League last season.
Talking of the Gunners they must get back on track against West Brom after back-to-back defeats and are 1-3 with most firms. They've beaten the Baggies five in a row at the Emirates.
A treble on Arsenal, Man United and Chelsea pays 7-5 at Marathonbet and add in Man City and it pays around 2-1.
West Ham are worth a look at 47-25 with Marathonbet to win at struggling Swansea and Leicester are 7-5 to beat Everton although best bet could be both teams to score at 4-5 with 10bet.
And in the early game I would have been backing Watford to beat Crystal Palace but will leave it alone after Alan Pardew was replaced by Sam Allardyce.
Sometimes I look at how games are priced up and scratch my head. More often than not bookies get it spot on but now and again they make mistakes.
Damian Walker of McBookie, who tips SPFL first scorers on the site every Saturday, identified two wrong ones at the weekend – Queen's Park at 8-1 and Brechin at 21-5. A nice 37-1 double if anyone backed them.
Today I hope I'm boxing clever with Reading at home to Norwich. How the Canaries can be favourites after four away defeats in a row is anyone's guess.
Alex Neil is under serious pressure and they should be bigger than 13-8 at William Hill. The Royals have won seven of their last nine and lead Norwich by seven points. I'm on them at 15-8 with McBookie.
Elsewhere in the Championship I like Huddersfield at home to a Nottm Forest side with just one point in nine.
In League One best bets are Fleetwood at home to Bury who have lost 12 in a row and Sheffield United at home to Oldham who are without a win in seven.
Bets to Consider
2-0 Man United
Ibrahimovic to score first
West Ham
Arsenal/Chelsea/Man Utd treble
Leicester v Everton both to score
Reading
Huddersfield
Fleetwood
Resident football tipster at Scotland's most read newspaper, the Daily Record, for over 20 years and proud host of one the best betting communities on the web with daily betting tips.
I was trying to work out who the favourite was between Swansea (17/10) and West Ham (7/4) on Coral. You can’t get tighter than that, can you? Turns out it’s Swansea by a couple of pence in the pound.
All 8 faves to win is worth a quid at 134/1 (Coral)
I should have listed them – don’t think I’d be backing Swansea.
WATFORD v Palace
LEICESTER v Everton
Burnley v MIDDLESBORO
SWANSEA v West Ham
CHELSEA v Bournemouth
MAN UTD v Sunderland
ARSENAL v West Brom
Hull v MAN CITY
I’m thinking eight games with no draws is a big ask, so I’m gonna push the boat out with another quid on DRAW at Swansea and the 7 faves (157/1 Coral)
Well, if we can’t have a bit of fun at Xmas, when can we eh?!
I think there’ll be a fair few people lumping on that treble Arsenal,Chelsea and man united. There’s often a surprise when you have so many favourites at home to so called lesser sides, but I just can’t look past it as the main bet this Boxing Day.
It’s hard to see past it and home sides are favoured statistically on Boxing Day.
Zlatan to score in tge last 10 minutes could be a decent requestabet going by last few games, getting booked tae will probably double tge odds
If United are well ahead he could be taken off though with the all the games coming up.
Coral are offering enhanced odds of 2/1 for Chelsea/ Arsenal/ Man. Unt treble from 8am this morning.