A 12/1 away-team treble on tonight’s action in England, Scotland and Italy

A pick from each of Newcastle v City, Milan v Inter and Hearts v Hibs...

Don’t know about you, but we’ve already got withdrawal-symptoms from the Boxing Day football. One Premier League match in a day just doesn’t cut it after that. A bit like switching back to salads and plain chicken after a week of calorie-gorging on boxes of Celebrations and tubes of Pringles.

Still, there’s some ball to be watched, which means there are punts to be had, and we’re eyeing up a treble on the visiting sides from the pick of tonight’s fixtures.

Newcastle v Man City: City to win to Nil – 6/5

Pep Guardiola’s side haven’t lost a match all season in the Premier League, so backing them to win against relegation-threatened Newcastle isn’t exactly a left-field call. However, there’s little value in putting your money on the Citizens in the Win-draw-win market, as they’re currently priced at 2/7.

As far as this game is concerned, it’s all about finding that value, and perhaps the best way to do so is to look at the visitors to win and keep a clean sheet. For all their attacking flair, City have only conceded 12 goals in the league so far, and the Magpies have only scored 19.

At 6/5, this market strikes a nice balance between probability and price.

AC Milan v Inter Milan: Inter to win – 6/4

Inter are the away team in name only, so home advantage is pretty much nonexistent for AC. The nerazzurri have been in decent form this season and currently sit in third in Serie A, sixteen points and eight places above Gennaro Gattuso’s rossoneri. Tonight’s derby is a Coppa Italia fixture, but that gives you some idea of the respective strengths of these two sides.

Whatever team they put out, Inter are simply a better side than Milan. They should win, and 6/4 seems a fairly generous price on them to do so.

Hearts v Hibs: Hibs to win – 7/5

There’s plenty of risk in this one. Hearts have been on good form lately, winning three and drawing two of their last five matches, including an astonishing 4-0 victory over Celtic. Hibs, meanwhile, have stumbled twice recently, going down away to Aberdeen and at home against Rangers.

But in general the Hibees have looked a solid side this season, and are probably just about the better side here. As the cliché dictates, form goes out the window for derbies, and that’s certainly true of Edinburgh’s biggest clash.

With Hibs priced at 7/5, there’s value in believing there’ll be sunshine on Leith after tonight’s clash. (Or at least there would be if it wasn’t kicking off at 7.45pm).

A £/€1 stake on the above markets returns £/€13.20 including stake.

Odds correct at time of posting.

Thunder studs-first into the shins of the latest Football Betting over on PaddyPower.com