WhoScored Tipster: Pogrebnyak Leads List of Best Bets

Aston Villa vs Fulham - Preview

It may have only been against relegation strugglers Wolves, but Fulham’s thumping victory last Sunday really made everyone aware of quite how good their current form is.

Winning four of their last six games, Martin Jol’s side are taking some serious form into the business end of the season and are well placed for a tilt at the European places.

Villa have only won one in six and Alex McLeish is facing increased pressure from the unhappy fans of the Holte End. His cross-city links twinned with his defensive outlook have not helped his cause, but with their last three Premier League games going under 2.5 goals, 1.72 for a repeat seems a fair enough price.

Having won their last three in all competitions, Fulham’s price of 2.87 is certainly tempting enough, with the Villains having lost nearly half of their home games this campaign.

The catalyst to the Cottagers latest surge has been the Russian forward Pavel Pogrebnyak. His record since moving to West London has been phenomenal, with all five of his shots on target resulting in goals. He is 7.00 to open the scoring, leading the way, (perhaps sarcastically) alongside Emile Heskey in the market.

Palermo vs Roma - Preview

One bet truly stands out for this game, which is the only Serie A game to be played on Saturday.

All the stats point towards this being an over 2.5 goals game (like six of Palermo’s last seven matches), so the price of 1.66 on at least 3 goals seems a bit high.

For a start; Palermo’s games this season have averaged 3.15 goals per game, and 3.84 at the Renzo Barbera. Visiting Roma have been very open under Luis Enrique and average a high 2.77 goals per game also.

Historically these two tend to share goalfests; with five of Roma’s last six trips to Palermo going over the 2.5 goal mark, and in the last three, Palermo managed to score more than that themselves. If you want to back them to repeat that, then the price is 4.5, but to get over 1.5 team goals is also well-priced at 2.1.

Who will get those goals though? Fabrizio Miccoli is, by far, the Sicilians best player this season, with eleven goals and twelve assists. For value though, young Fabio Borini is our tip: his eight goals this campaign make him the Giallorossi’s leading scorer and half of his goals have been the first in the game.

He is 8.00 to repeat that, a great price for the striker who has bagged in each of his last three starts.

Racing Santander vs Barcelona - Preview

Considering they are seven games without a win, the Asturians surprised no-one when they decided a change of personnel was needed this week and parted ways with their head coach.

This happened on the same day that the Blaugrana ran riot in the Camp Nou against Bayer Leverkusen, scoring seven goals to round off a thumping aggregate win.

Racing are hopeless, and relegation looks very likely, but if they go down, it won’t have been because of their defence. Having conceded only 35 goals so far this season – fewer than 4th place Levante – their defence would put them in the top half of the league if their attack weren’t the worst in La Liga.

Scoring against the tightest back line in the league is simply a challenge they didn’t need, but Pep Guardiola’s side will present that to them at the Sardinero, and here is where the betting opportunities arise.

Barcelona to win to nil is an astonishingly good bet at 1.80. Santander haven’t netted against the Catalan side in their last four encounters, and their attack this season is pitiful.

Racing’s defence is impressive – as discussed – but this Barcelona team is special, and if you think Guardiola’s men can score 3 or more goals (which they’ve done on the road eight times this season already) then the price is 2.00, over 3.5 is 3.50.

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