Wednesday 12th November 2025

In Across the Leagues EXTRA today:

• Defenders keep on scoring in the Premier League…
• Big prices from the back…
• Long throws in fashion… 

Congratulations to last week’s Predictor prize winner, Diddle, with the top score of 54 points…

On the overall 2025/26 Leaderboard, ruda100 is still in 1st place, but not by much…

• Follow your progress on the Leaderboard here  

There are International fixtures this week. Our Predictor game continues with Round 12 on the weekend of 22nd November. 

In today’s free bonus email, I’m sharing with you the latest analysis from my members-only Across the Leagues service:

The case for the Defence at 28/1…

Everton defender Michael Keane gave members our latest big-price scorer payout over the weekend…

The Toffees centre-back diverted a corner kick into the roof of the net. Landing our Anytime Scorer bet at top prices of 23/2 and 10/1.

• Keane also paid 28/1 for Last Goalscorer if any of you took that route in the Everton-Fulham match on Saturday (I know that Across the Leagues member John B did)

The 6’3” centre-back is just one goalscoring defender of note in the Premier League right now…

Other names paying out for smart/ speculative backers at chunky odds over the weekend included:

• Matthijs de Ligt (centre-back) – scored an injury-time equaliser for Man Utd in the 2-2 draw at Tottenham: 12/1 Anytime Scorer and 28/1 Last Goalscorer

• Kyle Walker-Peters (full-back)– on the scoresheet in West Ham’s 3-2 win over Burnley (11/1)

• Dan Ballard (centre-back) – a 40/1 First Goalscorer in Sunderland’s 2-2 draw v Arsenal, and 20/1 to Score Anytime

• Malo Gusto (full-back) – 20/1 First Goalscorer in Chelsea’s 3-0 win against Wolves, and 9/1 to Score Anytime

Along with central defenders Gabriel Magalaes (Arsenal) and Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Michael Keane has contributed to what has been a profitable tactic for us so far this season in the Premier League and Champions League:

Backing defenders to score at big prices…

• In total, we’ve had 17 such settled bets, returning 58.5 points to level 1-pt stakes. For a profit of 41.5 pts, and a 244% ROI

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The official Premier League stats page tells us that Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven is the top-scoring defender in the division so far in 2025/26, with three goals to his name…

Followed by half-a-dozen men on two goals each, including Ballard and Keane:

Another name of note in this department is Arsenal centre-back Riccardo Calafiori, who is top of the official Premier League stats this term for Total Shots by a Defender (12)…

Calafiori has one goal-scoring appearance so far in 2025/26: landing a clean sweep of Scorer odds by getting the only goal of the game in the Gunners’ 1-0 win at Man Utd on the opening weekend. Paying 9/1 Anytime, and around 20/1 apiece for First and Last scorer.

On the yet-to-find-the-net watchlist, consider the likes of Nottingham Forest centre-back Nikola Milenkovic, who I also mentioned a couple of weeks ago…

Milenkovic is Top 10 in the Premier League for shots by a defender right now, but is yet to find the net. Last season, he finished as the joint top-scoring player in the division in this category, with five goals (alongside Josko Gvardiol of Man City, and Marc Cucurella of Chelsea).

A logical question here would be:

Why are we seeing so many defenders pop up with goals?

I’m no master tactician. Sending up a big lad for a corner or free kick has always been a feature of UK football, of course…

While in big-match situations such as cup finals, and the Champions League knockout stages (see also: next summer’s World Cup…), we’ve discussed before the underdog menace of an unlikely scorer coming from defence or midfield - while all the pre-match attention is on the star strikers at short odds…

One in-fashion angle of analysis in the Premier League right now is to look at long throws. With a consensus that managers like Mikel Arteta (to name but one) are behind an increased focus on set pieces in the English top-flight – with long throws being a big weapon.

It follows, then, that if tall defenders are going up for corners and free kicks, their physical presence can also have a match-changing impact if they go up for long throw-ins launched and looped into an opponent’s penalty box.

Source: PremierLeague.com (as of 29th October 2025)

A cursory Google search today on the phrase, ‘more goals from long throws in Premier League’ comes up with articles with headlines such as:

‘Long throws back in fashion and more dangerous than ever…’

‘Stats reveal extraordinary increase of latest set-piece trend…’

‘Long balls, long throws: Is Premier League becoming more direct?’

Countered a little by this one:

‘Premier League has turned a tactical corner but set-play trend will surely fade…’

One thing’s for sure. With bookies offering odds such as 10/1 for Anytime Scorers and 28/1 for First/ Last Goalscorers – you and I will continue to look for defender-betting opportunities in the weeks ahead…

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Get onboard for the next bets…

With International fixtures starting from Thursday evening, and then English League One and League Two games taking centre stage in our Friday email…

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Enjoy the football…

Best wishes,

Oliver Upstone

Across the Leagues Extra