After a thrilling weekend of FA Cup action, it's back to the bread and butter of league action this week with the English football season now reaching its most pivotal point.
The title race has become more interesting in the Premier League this week with Liverpool dropping points against Nottingham Forest while the promotion hunt is very much on the three EFL divisions.
With plenty at stake across the board, betting on the football pools is once again an exciting market to consider this weekend. As ever, the key to success on the pools is to pick out the matches that are going to be score draws. These results are worth three points on the scoring system as detailed below:
- Score draw: 3 points
- No-score draw (0-0): 2 points
- Home or away win: 1 point
Ahead of this weekend's action, here are our expert football pools betting tips.
Our expert football pools betting tips
Brentford vs Liverpool (Premier League)
After drawing with Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night, Liverpool face another tricky away trip this weekend when they take on Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium. Brentford have a very impressive home record this season and only Arsenal have picked up more points at home than the Bees so it will be a tough match for Liverpool to win.
In their midweek match, Brentford played out a 2-2 draw with Manchester City thanks to a late equaliser which should give them plenty of confidence coming into this one. To compound matters, Liverpool have drawn their last two Premier League matches and are perhaps stuck in a small rut for the first time this season.
West Ham vs Crystal Palace (Premier League)
Graham Potter's first game in charge of West Ham went as well as he could have hoped as the Hammers beat Fulham at the London Stadium and they face another London side this weekend in Crystal Palace. The Eagles have a decent away record and have picked up more points on the road than they have at Selhurst Park this season so they could easily pick up something here.
Palace have drawn two of their last four matches in the Premier League while three of the last four meetings between West Ham and Crystal Palace at the London Stadium have finished in score draws.
Cardiff vs Swansea (Championship)
It's derby day in South Wales on Saturday with Cardiff and Swansea set to go head-to-head at the Cardiff City Stadium. It's one of the standout matches in the Championship this weekend and it's also one of the fixtures most likely to result in a draw.
Cardiff, who are battling against relegation at the moment, have drawn their last three matches in the league while Swansea drew their most recent fixture against West Brom. Additionally, the most recent match between Cardiff and Swansea finished 1-1.
Plymouth vs QPR (Championship)
Plymouth will take on QPR this weekend in Miron Muslic's first league match in charge of the Pilgrims. Since parting ways with Wayne Rooney, Plymouth have dug in and picked up three consecutive league draws, in addition to a shock win over Brentford in the FA Cup.
QPR, meanwhile, are frequent drawers with 11 to their name so far in the Championship this season. Only two teams in the division have drawn more matches than them this season so with both teams trending in draws, this match feels like a no-brainer for the football pools.
West Brom vs Stoke (Championship)
It's almost impossible to not back West Brom on the football pools given how frequently they have drawn matches this season. The Baggies have drawn a total of 13 matches in the Championship this season, a number unmatched by anyone in England's top four divisions.
Their opponents this weekend, Stoke, have drawn a modest nine in comparison but even that is well above the average in the division. The Potters's two most recent fixtures have also ended all square so another draw at the Hawthorns on Saturday is very much on the cards.
Andy is tipster who has been calling Golf tournaments for several years across many different platforms. He has covered all tournaments from the Asian Tour to the Masters.
