Friday 2nd June 2023

In Across the Leagues EXTRA today:

• FA Cup final…
• Man City v Man Utd…
• Standout stats…

FA Cup Final: Bet Builder picks at 37/1 and 81/1…

To mark the big occasion this weekend, I’m sharing my members-only Across the Leagues FA Cup final preview with you - for FREE. Containing standout stats for Man City v Man Utd - and a couple of massive prices…

We like finals…

December’s World Cup final gave us a memorable 45/1 winning Bet Builder…

And last weekend’s Football League Playoff finals landed us a 34/1 treble…

All four of those matches produced draws in normal time. With three of the four going all the way to a penalty shootout…

Last month’s National League Playoff final also went the distance to extra time and penalties. As did this week’s Europa League final…

The big games can get tight. And in a final, it’s rare to get an overwhelming mismatch in terms of the quality of opponents.

All of which suggest we should consider the draw for our FA Cup final selections this weekend…

FA Cup Final - Bet Builder:

Manchester City v Manchester United

Wembley Stadium - 3pm, BBC One

At odds of over 3/1, the stalemate gives us a chunky price-multiplier in the very first line of our latest cup-final Bet Builder:

• 3 of the last 9 FA Cup finals have paid out on the draw - heading into extra time with full time score-lines of: 1-1, 2-2, and 0-0

Let’s stir some more standout stats into the mix…

Cards & Bookings:

• 4 of the last 5 FA Cup finals have gone Under 3.5 Cards (stats bets apply to normal time only)

• 6 of the last 7 Manchester derbies have gone Under 3.5 Cards

• Man Utd were ranked joint-1st in our Premier League 2022/23 stats for Most Booking Points payouts. Landing ‘Most Cards’ bets in over half of their games (55%). While City were the best-behaved team in the division in this category (13%)

• Saturday’s referee is Paul Tierney. He took charge of the 2020/21 EFL Cup final between Man City and Tottenham, showing a total of 3 Yellow Cards (30 Booking Points)

Corners:

• 6 of the last 7 meetings between Man City & Man Utd have paid out on Under 10.5 Corners. With City winning the Most Corners in 5 of those 7 derbies…

• Man City ended the season ranked no.1 in the Premier League stats on our website or Most Corners. Winning the Corners Match Bet in 32 out of 38 games (84%). In comparison, United were joint-15th of the 20 teams, winning the Most Corners in just 37% of games

Taking those facts & figures over to the bookies’ Bet Builder coupons…

This 5-legged stats combo comes out at 37/1 with Paddy Power & Betfair Sportsbook:

Draw
Under 3.5 Cards
Under 10.5 Corners
Most Cards - Man Utd
Most Corners - Man City

• Tip: in order to select each leg, you may need to ‘minimise’ the Bet Slip on the Paddy Power & Betfair Sportsbook websites. Otherwise the bet-box can obscure the screen on some devices

• Various Bet Builder markets and coupons are also available with the likes of Bet365, Skybet, William Hill, BetVictor, Boylesports, Betway, Unibet

We can work with the Player stats in the cup final, too. Using the standout performers as listed on the Team Stats pages on our website. These guys warrant support in the Anytime Scorer and Player Card markets…

With this 4-pronged player-themed Bet Builder coming out as an exciting 81/1 shot:

Player to Score - Erling Haaland
Player to Score - Marcus Rashford
Player Shown a Card - Luke Shaw
Player Shown a Card - Bernardo Silva

And as a single, the top-rated man for a Player Card bet is Luke Shaw - with odds of 2/1 available for the United left-back. He was booked in February’s EFL Cup final at Wembley…

TODAY’S PICKS

See above for full details

Man City v Man Utd

• Bet Builder: 5 legs as listed above @ 37/1 Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook

• Bet Builder: 4 legs as listed above @ 81/1 Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook, 64/1 BetVictor, 60/1 Skybet

• Player to be Carded: Luke Shaw @ 11/5 (3.2) Bet365 (called ‘Player to be Booked’), 2/1 (3.0) Skybet, William Hill. Markets also with Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook, Betfred, BetVictor, Unibet, Betway, SpreadEx Sports, Sporting Index Fixed Odds

I’ll be back next week, with the Champions League final on the horizon…

Enjoy the football…

P.S
Want to get in touch? Email me at: oliver@acrosstheleagues.co.uk

Best wishes,

Oliver Upstone

Across the Leagues