WATFORD were overpriced at Newcastle on Saturday and many punters will see value in their 9-2 with the likes of Paddy Power and Unibet to beat Man United.
Marco Silva's men have been one of the stories of the season although they have taken more points away than at Vicarage Road. Although to be fair at home they've faced Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal.
United on the other hand are better at home – seven wins out of seven at Old Trafford and none in their last four on the road.
Impressively the Hornets are sixth highest scorers in the league with 22 and possess what looks to be a great talent in Brazilian youngster Richarlison. He has five goals in 12 games but has missed some easy chances. Richarlison is as big as 9-1 at Unibet to net first.
United are no bigger than 8-11 at bet365 and McBookie and it would be a brave man who backed that. A draw is possible because we know Jose Mourinho can stop teams playing and that pays 31-10 at Betfred.
Maybe best bet is Watford draw no bet which is above evens at 31-10 with Unibet while Watford not to lose is 4-3 at sportingbet.
Spurs dropped two points at home to West Brom at the weekend so will be looking to return to winning ways at Leicester.
Wembley hasn't been kind to Spurs this season and like Watford they've been better way – collecting the same points from one game fewer.
I reckon Spurs will edge this but again they're odds on and I don't like that. Best price is 4-5 at Betfred with the Foxes 4-1 in many places.
Best bet could be to go for goals with Spurs scoring on 20 of their last 21 visits to a Leicester side well capable of scoring and boasting the ever-dangerous Jamie Vardy. Both to score is is 4-5 at Betfred.
Less enticing are the matches between West Brom and Newcastle and Brighton and Crystal Palace.
Newcastle could have lost by more than three at Watford and after four defeats running confidence has drained out of the team. The Baggies remain without a boss but Gary Megson will have been encouraged with the display at Wembley and I can see them winning at 7-5 with Betfred.
Brighton were unlucky lose to Man United while Crystal Palace were fortunate to beat Stoke. The sides meet on the south coast and it's difficult to call. Probably under 2.5 goals and probably a draw.
Recommended Bets
- Watford draw no bet
- Leicester v Spurs btts
- West Brom
- Brighton v C Palace draw
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.
Apologies to the site for my lack of input on the past Middlesbrough/Derby game but my old nemesis ” sleep ” robbed me of time to pitch in with my pre-match thoughts and team news. If ever there was a game you don’t want to miss, its when your own team plays a fellow promotion hopeful away from home at a place we rarely win and then go and put in a team performance likely to make the rest of the league take note.
So I shall summarise on what happened Saturday.
Derby have a wretched record away to Middlesbrough, I think we’d won once in 9 or 10 attempts. Even though we’d turned a corner – all be it for the blip that was the awful result at home to Reading, we really were making the most of our historic purple patch that is October/November. Maybe its as well that I wasn’t around to post because I would of avoided tipping the Rams away at the stadium of light without a shadow of doubt. I think Peter Shilton was the last Derby goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet away there, that’s how bad our record has been there.
Middlesbrough started hard and fast, the kitchen sink was well and truly thrown at us, crosses pinging in to the back post every attack, but every time, nobody connected properly. that was the first 10 minutes, but somehow Derby absorbed the pressure, got half a chance and our main man Vydra hit his 10th league goal with a thunderous strike from around 14 yards. 1 nil the rams. Borough never let Derby settle and the crosses kept coming, yet bad luck and choices kept the score at 1 nil up till ht.
On 47 mins, another quick break from a terrible back pass saw Vydra get into the Borough box and Ayala brought him down. Vydra yet to miss a penalty this season got his 11th league goal of the season. Borough.
With 55 mins on the clock, Traore was brought on to give Middlesbrough a bit more bite, but it wasn’t enough. On 60 mins, Nugent fed a sweet pass to the right flank leaving a 2 on 2 attack and a gilt edged chance to grab a third but the ref stopped play for the foul and dished out a 2nd yellow to Ayala. 7 minutes later Vydra claimed the match ball after a back pass to the Middlesbrough keeper which he miskicked in the air. It onlt travelled 6 yards, but Vydra volleyed it into the net anyway.
Middlesbrough stats, they dominated everything, shots at goal, possession, corners – but no goals. Reading between the lines going into the game, all of Middlesbrough’s previous 4 matches – all wins were against bottom 6 sides, so this was a test against a side en-par with them. The reds fans seem angry that they’ve not competed on their own turf against a promotion chasing side and I think they’re worried about their prospects against similar types of sides with that pedigree that they’re yet to face. Only time will tell.
Derby’s away form is currently promotion standard, 2 good away draws followed by 4 good away wins against quality sides.
George Thorne and Martin made cameo’s again but the gaffer has stated he is afraid to change the Nugent/Vydra partnership because Vydra is thriving in this role.
I don’t know what Huddlestone is still doing in the starting 11 because he’s still a yard or 3 short and with Thorne getting ever match fit with each week, its only a matter of time before he’ll grab his starting 11 chance.
I am confident that tonight, the rams will capitalise on this game in hand when we entertain Ipswich. We’re only 4/6 or thereabouts with most bookies and on Saturday we have another ” easy game on paper ” when Burton come to town.
When this Ipswich game was initially scheduled, Derby were all over the place, nothing quite clicking in to place. I think Ipswich would far rather of played us then rather than now. But for Derby, we’d far rather play them now than 6 weeks ago. A win for the rams will bring us 2 points from 2nd spot.
We’re also currently 4/9 with betfair to beat Burton on Saturday. Should we win tonight, that price will surely freefall. I just hope the win and I manage to jump onto that Saturday price before the markets catch up with that.
With Vydra just 2 goals away from top scorer in the league, a match ball on the mantelpiece and 2 games against sides ( particularly Burton ) that have goals written all over them, I’d be stunned if Vydra hasn’t added a couple to his tally come 16:45pm Saturday.
Best of luck folks.