Football Tips: Our trader’s Saturday Cheat Sheet – including a 21/1 Man Utd v Leicester Bet Builder

Leeds to beat Southampton

The fortunes of these two changed before the international break with Saints falling to three consecutive defeats and Leeds picking up their first two wins of the Jesse Marsch era.

Saints are clearly safe of any relegation trouble, and I think Leeds are good value to get a home win here and consolidate their position outside of the drop zone.

They appear to have turned a corner under Marsch, with the squad buying into his philosophy straight away. Two injury-time winners in their last two games were a huge relief to the Whites, and they probably never wanted the international break to arrive!

Nevertheless I think the confidence they can take from those two wins can spur them on.

Wigan to beat Bolton

The Latics look to be soaring the League One title, hitting a consistent run of form at the perfect time with four wins from five.

They’ve kept three clean sheets in this run which has added to their very solid defensive numbers this season. For Bolton, the playoffs is out of reach now, coming into this one 11 points off 6th. We’ve seen a dip in performances of late, only managing two goals in their last three, which may suggest they’ve taken a trip to the beach a few weeks early.

Wigan look the bet at close to even money, and for braver punters I’d also have a look at the win to nil market.

TREBLE: Sadio Mane, Phil Foden & Romelu Lukaku all to score

On paper, Liverpool, Man City & Chelsea all have relatively straightforward fixtures, and you wouldn’t be surprised if they each notched up three goals or more – so I’m going for a treble with some of their star players to get on the scoresheet!

Mane is fresh off once again scoring a winning penalty against Egypt, this time to send Senegal to the World Cup finals in Qatar. He should come back oozing confidence and expect him to get score sheet against Watford.

Foden has seven goals in 21 league appearances for City this season, and with the title race back on expect them to want to put in a performance to send a statement out. If they score four or five you would expect Foden to be on the scoresheet.

Lukaku was rested by Belgium during the international break, but did score on his first start in Chelsea’s last five games against Middlesborough in the FA Cup. If he can put his off-field troubles to the side, I’d expect him to have a host of chances at home to Brentford.

Norwich to win at Brighton

Has there ever been a Premier League fixture with both sides picking up 0 points from their last 6 games? It’s certainly not a common theme, but here we are blessed to see the two worst form sides in English football go head-to-head.

At least one side has to pick up points here, and I’m siding with Norwich. In their six defeats, they’ve managed to score in four which suggests there’s still some fight left in them. Similar to my banker, Brighton look to be on the beach very early, and failed to score in five of their 6 defeats.

It’s a similar issue for them as last season where the XG numbers are strong, but the team are failing to find the net. All things considered, I would’ve thought the prices would be much closer than they are, so Norwich to win looks to be a decent long shot for me.

Harry Maguire to score

Getting a goal would be the perfect response to the boos Maguire received during the international break and for him, there’s no better team to be coming up against than his former club Leicester, given the amount of set-pieces they have conceded this season.

The Foxes have shipped 46 league goals this season with 14 from set-pieces. Their inability to defend corners properly was exposed again in their last away game at Arsenal where Thomas Partey was left unmarked for a fairly simple header early in the first half.

Maguire should be licking his lips at the prospect of coming up against some of his former team-mates.

Harry Maguire to be booked

It’s a Maguire double this weekend – as he’s my Bet Builder selection too. To my eye, he’s been out of sorts of late, getting caught out of position and mistiming challenges, and to be booed by the England fans last week must have hurt.

This week he’s up against the likes of Iheanacho, Barnes and Maddison, all pacey players who all have very quick feet. I can see Maguire being too slow in a few exchanges if Leicester are looking to play on the counter attack, notching his 10th yellow card this season.

It’s also worth noting if he picks up a yellow in this one he is suspended for two games, returning just in time with a clean slate for the Liverpool fixture in a fortnight.