the boards of both west ham and arsenal had very big decisions to make over the summer when it came to appointing a new manager. there is a lot of work for manuel pellegrini and unai emery to do at their respective new clubs but they’ve both unarguably made improvements with both sets of fans particularly impressed by the attacking verve shown by their teams.
much of the work that both teams need to do is in defence. that is for the longer term though, in the short term neutrals can look forward to a thoroughly entertaining london derby to kick the premier league weekend off. our odds comparison shows that over 2.5 goals is priced at 4/7 which may look a little short but is a safe option to get our european football accumulator going.
rafa benitez’s time in charge of chelsea isn’t remembered fondly by either the spaniard or the blues’ fans. he’ll get a lukewarm welcome at best when he returns to stamford bridge on saturday evening with his newcastle side. chelsea fans were particularly unimpressed with what they perceived to be an overly defensive style from benitez. that is perhaps fair when talking about a team of chelsea’s quality but benitez firmly believes he has no other optin to secure results at newcastle given the squad he has to work with.
newcastle will make life tough for chelsea who have been struggling for their best stuff as the fixture congestion piles up. however, the blues’ extra quality should eventually tell at home so back chelsea to win to nil at best betting odds of 10/11.
barcelona are finally making the most of real madrid’s poor form. they returned from the short winter break with a 2-1 win away to getafe to strengthen their position at the top of la liga. ernesto valverde is only too aware that atletico madrid and sevilla are ready to pounce on any mistake so he has to keep the wins coming whilst ensuring his players don’t burn out in the run-in towards the end of the season.
any team travelling to the camp nou fears a thrashing and the football odds suggest that barcelona are likely to score several goals against eibar on sunday. however, eibar are a well drilled unit who have conceded just two goals in their last three fixtures. with barcelona content to take the lead and maintain control of the game with a lower tempo, a bet on under 3.5 goals appears good value at 13/10.
ole gunnar solskjaer’s start to life as man united manager has seen all manner of people come out in support of his candidacy for the job in the long term. solskjaer will come face to face with the man who provides the most competition for the united job, mauricio pochettino.
the tottenham manager has suggested that he could remain in north london for the next 20 years but is still widely tipped to take control at old trafford in the summer. there is no question that pochettino remains committed to the tottenham cause but he will do his chances of a new job no harm if he can mastermind a victory over man united on sunday evening. pochettino’s extra experience and tottenham’s form makes the football odds of evens available on a home win too good to ignore.
the other job that mauricio pochettino is being linked with is the permanent head coach role that will be available at real madrid in the summer. temporary manager santiago solari is widely viewed as out of his depth and the team’s recent performances have been disappointing enough for the bookies to install jose mourinho as the favourite to take over before the end of the season.
solari has come out fighting in support of his methods and the players but he is fighting a losing battle against the madrid press and the real fans. real betis fans will be very happy to see yet more chaos surround real madrid ahead of their meeting at the benito villamarín on sunday. this really is a game which could go either way so the best option in the football odds looks to be both teams to score at 1/2.
cesc fabregas left stamford bridge in tears last weekend as he waved goodbye to english football after more than 500 appearances. the midfielder is not ready to retire yet and is set to join monaco where he will get more game time but may find the going even tougher. monaco have a host of problems for their rookie manager, thierry henry, to try and solve including injuries to key players, a lack of experience throughout the squad and terrible issues around squad morale.
marseille will be out to make the most of monaco’s problems when they host the struggling side on sunday night. rudi garcia is himself having problems to solve with his marseille side way off the pace being set by psg and even from the pack chasing the ligue 1 leaders. he’ll make it very clear to his players that this is an opportunity for three points that they cannot afford to pass up which spells trouble for monaco. henry does not seem to have a solution to his team’s defensive woes just yet so it’s surprising that our odds comparison shows you can back marseille to score in both halves at 5/4.
weekend acca conclusions
the bundesliga is still on its winter break and this weekend is all about the coppa italia in italy but there is top level league action in england, spain and france to enjoy over saturday and sunday. to make the most of this football we have picked out the six best bets from the premier league, la liga and ligue 1 and combined them into one accumulator which would pay out at 46/1.
the above bets include a potential cracker at the london stadium between west ham and arsenal, man united’s trip to wembley to take on tottenham and another very tough task for real madrid.