we’ve got two mouth-watering emirates fa cup semi-finals to look forward to this weekend. chelsea and tottenham hotspur kick the semis off on saturday, with arsenal and manchester city squaring off at wembley the following day.
before a ball has been kicked this weekend, pep guardiola’s man city and antonio conte’s blues are the favourites to contest may’s final. however, how can you rule out mauricio pochettino’s in-form spurs, or arsene wenger’s unpredictable gunners?
one thing’s for sure, we should be in for two enthralling and tense semi-finals in the capital this weekend, and who makes it through is anyone’s guess.
with our lives betting odds comparison, top tips, predictions and preview, we’ll be giving you our guide to both semi-finals, doing our very best to help you win some money in the process.
the top two in the premier league get the fa cup back underway on saturday, as antonio conte’s chelsea go head-to-head with mauricio pochettino’s tottenham hotspur. looking at our live odds comparison, the bookies are having an extremely hard time splitting these two, which should make for an intriguing contest at wembley.
sportingbet have the blues as their 13/8 favourites to win in the 90 minutes, with tottenham slightly behind at 7/4 with bet365. meanwhile, you can get the draw at the tempting price of 23/10 at betway. those prices just prove how close the bookies think this one will be on saturday.
in terms of form, you have to side with the lilywhites. pochettino’s boys have won their last eight games on the bounce, losing just two of their last 23 league and cup fixtures. they head to wembley having secured successive 4-0 league wins over watford and bournemouth respectively.
as for chelsea, they have been beaten twice in their last four premier league fixtures, allowing spurs to close the gap to just four points in the table. on sunday, the leaders fell to an uncharacteristic 2-0 defeat to manchester united at old trafford. nevertheless, the blues have conceded just one fa cup goal, beating peterborough united, brentford, wolverhampton wanderers and man united along the way.
in the two premier league fixtures between the pair this season, both have won their home games. with this being such a tough match to predict, we feel the pair could cancel each other out in the 90 minutes at wembley. because of that, we think there’s good value in betway’s 23/10 for the draw in normal time.
on sunday, pep guardiola’s manchester city and arsene wenger’s arsenal meet at wembley for the second semi-final. neither side have set the world alight in the premier league this season, but both will be targeting the fa cup to somewhat salvage something from their disappointing campaigns. the citizens head into this one as the slight favourites with the bookies.
arsenal secured a much-needed three points on monday evening, beating middlesbrough 2-1 at the riverside stadium. as for man city, they ran out easy 3-0 winners over southampton at st mary’s. city remain in fourth position in the premier league, four points above the red devils. as for the gunners, they sit sixth.
guardiola’s boys have seen off west ham united, crystal palace, huddersfield town (in a replay) and middlesbrough. meanwhile, arsenal have won against preston north end, southampton, sutton united and lincoln city to make it through to the last four. both sides have conceded just one goal each along the way.
earlier in the month, the pair played out an entertaining 2-2 draw in a premier league fixture at the emirates. despite going behind twice, arsenal showed great character to seal a hard-fought draw. back at the etihad in december, pep’s boys came from behind to win 2-1 on home soil in their home league fixture.
according to our live odds comparison, the best betting odds you can get on a manchester city win are 10/11 at betfair. for those of you looking to back wenger’s men, bet365 are offering the generous price of 29/10. meanwhile, the draw is coming in at 3/1 (william hill).
although we’re predicting a close game, like the majority of semi-finals turn out to be, we do fancy city to seal the win in the 90. with that said, betfair’s 10/11 for man city to come out on top seems the right choice of bet in this one.