West Ham Vs Chelsea
The Saturday lunchtime kick off is at Upton Park, where Rafa Benitez is still looking for his first win (or goal for that matter) since taking charge of the Blues. Benitez is likely to hear less from the Chelsea boo boys as this match is being played way at West Ham, in a fixture Chelsea are unbeaten in the last 12. West Ham have faltered of late having only one victory in their last 6 matches. The Hammers have also only managed to take two points from their six games against sides in the top half.
Chelsea’s form has dipped alarmingly and they have now not won in six matches, a run which is a record under the Abramovich ownership. Chelsea have gone from free scoring football under Roberto Di Matteo to drab lifeless 0-0 draws under Rafa Benitiez. I firmly believe albeit with Rafa’s negative emphasis Chelsea’s quality will be enough to earn all three points, and we are tipping Chelsea to win at 21/20 with Bet Victor. We also like the look of both teams to score, priced at 4/5 with Bet365 as all four London Derby's involving West Ham have had 3 or 4 goals this season. With Benitez coming in for criticism of playing too defensively in his first two home games, and having left the creative genius of Juan Mata on the bench, we might expect a more attacking display from the former Liverpool manager.
Having said all this it might be worth considering that West Ham ground out a 0-0 draw earlier in the season with Manchester City. Those worried the game may never get going might consider placing a smaller protective wager on the 0-0, best priced at 10/1 with Sky Bet.
QPR Vs Aston Villa
The pick of the 3pm fixtures sees Harry Redknapp's first home game in charge of QPR. The pressure will be sky high on both teams in this relegation 6 pointer. Harry Redknapp takes over with perhaps his most difficult job in football to date, that of firstly recording Q.P.R’s first victory of the season and then the longer term aim of keeping the Loftus Road outfit in the top flight. In fairness to Q.P.R they have showed a lot more fight and spirit in the last two games having led against Manchester United before going down 3-1 and earning a gritty point up in the North East against Sunderland on Tuesday night. However as the weeks go on and games pass by, it’s looking an increasingly desperate for Q.P.R and a lot will depend on the type of players Harry is able to bring in come the January transfer window. Just today reports of Beckham to loftus Road continued, with Joe Cole (a player Harry brought through at West Ham), also rumoured.
Aston Villa have not been much better, although Paul Lambert is assembling a team from a threadbare squad of youth and inexperienced overseas recruits as opposed to Q.P.R.’s poor man’s Chelsea/Man City style on a running a Football Club. Christian Benteke has been the one standout player, and I’m going for the powerful young striker to score in this one, priced at 15/2 to score first and 12/5 to score anytime with Bet365. Aston Villa are attempting to win two games in a row for the first time in 53 games, which really points to the most likely outcome being a draw which is best priced at Coral at 12/5. Harry will restore some fight in this woeful Q.P.R team but I feel it might be some time before he is really able to stamp his mark down and so in this game my top picks would be 0-0 and 1-1, which are 10/1 at Sporting Bet and 6/1 at Blue Square respectively.
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Click to ClaimJon is one of Howtobet4free’s co-founders and as well as producing content for the site also helps run the @howtobet4free_ Twitter account and Cheltenham Festival Facebook page. Jon works in Marketing and Communications in professional sport.
