This coming Saturday, at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough will welcome the struggling Luton Town for a mid-season clash. The bookies are expecting a routine win for Boro, but what do the statistics say?
Let us recap the key figures and identify some high-value betting markets now!
How the bookies view it: Middlesbrough big favourites
As most of us expected, the bookies favour Middlesbrough to take all three points at home against Luton Town. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that they took out the league leaders on home soil. This has no doubt contributed to the pretty short odds of 5/6 that we are currently witnessing for a Boro win.
Of course, there is a flip side to this coin, too. With Luton sitting at the wrong end of the table and with rather poor results in away fixtures, the bookies have them priced at 16/5 right now.
Head-to-head: Balanced outcomes
Middlesbrough and Luton have met plenty of times over the years. Yet, in recent encounters, the two sides have generally shared the spoils. In fact, Middlesbrough have beaten Luton 2-1 on two occasions at the Riverside Stadium within their last five meetings. As for Luton, they’ve also taken two wins at home, beating Boro by 2-1 and 3-1 margins.
Players to watch: Tommy Conway and Carlton Morris
Since it takes goals to separate teams on the football pitch, we’ve selected a couple of key goal scorers to watch in this clash! For Middlesbrough, it appears their best hopes of scoring goals against Luton lie with Tommy Conway. He remains Boro’s top scorer in the EFL Championship this season, and he’s a man who will be on Luton’s radar!
Switching to Luton, they will inevitably look to their captain, Carlton Morris, to lead them in the hunt to get something from this game. Not only is he their leader, but he is also their top striker with 4 goals from 11 games.
Predicted lineups
Following their win over Cardiff during the week, we don’t anticipate too many changes for the visitors. After all, if it’s not broken, the manager is unlikely to try and fix it! As for Middlesbrough, they are missing the likes of Frey, Ashby, and Paal, but with a 4-1 away win over QPR last time out, these absences aren’t hurting them too badly!
Middlesbrough possible starting lineup:
Dieng; Ayling, Edmundson, Clarke, Borges; Morris, Howson; Jones, Azaz, McGree; Conway
Luton possible starting lineup:
Kaminski; Mengi, McGuinness, Bell; Moses, Krauss, Clark, Doughty; Chong; Adebayo, Morris
Anything else catch the eye?
Given the results between these teams in recent times, it seems undeniable that the Riverside Stadium has been a successful venue for Boro. They’ve actually beaten Luton at home on three successive occasions coming into this game, and we expect them to make it four on Saturday!
As for the possible scoreline and likely events, we noticed both teams have scored in each of the four most recent games between these sides. Subsequently, we believe we could see goals at both ends.
This England Championship match between Middlesbrough and Luton will be played on Nov 9, 2024 and kick off at 12:30. Check below for our tipsters best Middlesbrough vs Luton prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
