Weekend Picks - Going for goals at Blackburn...

Friday 19th August 2016

In your Across the Leagues email today:

• Use me, use our website...
• Weekend Picks – this week’s standout stats and prices...
• Going for goals at Blackburn...

Welcome to your first Across the Leagues weekend analysis email...

Every Friday I’ll be hunting out the best value prices for the standout trends identified on our website.

I’ll be naming my Picks – which are my idea of the best value prices available, having studied the stats... team news... latest match info... and above all, the odds and betting markets on offer.

Use me, use the website...

There are dozens of matches every week, and pretty much every team will have standout betting trends that develop throughout the season.

Not every ‘standout stat’ means we have a standout bet, though. Sometimes the opponent won’t match (the Head-2-Head comparison tool on our website comes in very handy). Sometimes the bookies will be on top of the trend and the price won’t be any value.

The bookies don’t get it right every time though, and we’ll be looking to pounce when it looks like they’ve got it wrong... see below for our first value Pick of the season.

You can of course use the Team Stats and League Stats tables on our website (as well as the Head-2-Head tool) to find your own bet opportunities, too – and I’d encourage you to do so.

And as more form goes in the book and more games are played, the data on our exclusive site will become more and more useful to you.

I’m here to do the hard work for you though, and if you prefer to simply follow my Picks then your Friday email is the place to be. The latest Picks are also updated on the Latest Bets page on the website every time I send any bet advice out by email.

Let’s get started...

Round 2 of the Premier League kicks off with the first ‘Friday Night Football’ feature on Sky Sports this evening – Man Utd v Southampton...

It’s a bit too early in the season for me to be betting on the Premier League, but I’ll certainly be making the most of the live TV games – half of this weekend’s 10 fixtures are on Sky & BT Sport.

In the Football League the games come thicker and faster and we have 3 games’ worth of form in the book already. Still early days, but it can pay to latch onto to a trend early when the situations fits – and a couple of games in particular catch my eye this weekend...

Pompey on the radar...

On that makes that cut on the stats but not on the price is Portsmouth v Colchester...

Portsmouth are yet to win a game, but have won the Most Corners in 3 out of 3 games so far. They’ve only scored one goal in League Two but have won themselves plenty of corners – 10-1, 8-3 and 14-4.

If this trend continues – winning corners but not scoring goals – then we’ll be looking to bet on Pompey in a range of Corners markets (such as Corner Handicap). I’ll leave it for this weekend though, seeing as Portsmouth are short odds-on for the Most Corners at just 4/11 (1.36).

We can get better value by following the stats elsewhere...

Going for goals at Blackburn...

Blackburn Rovers v Burton Albion

Sat 3.00pm

• Over 2.5 Goals bets have paid out in all 4 Blackburn games and all 4 Burton games in all competitions so far

These two are early front runners on the ‘League Stats – Championship Goals’ table on our site, with Blackburn 3 out of 3 for Over 2.5 Goals payouts, and Burton the same.

Add in a League Cup game each that has also gone Over the goals, and we have a strong early-season match-up for a ‘high goals’ game.

Blackburn have conceded 9 goals in 3 league games, losing all 3 – which has put them bottom of the Championship. Burton conceded 4 goals in their first game since being promoted (lost 4-3), and since then have lost 2-1 and won 3-1.

Crucially, from a betting point of view, in the total of 8 games played by these two sides so far this season, there has been just one Clean Sheet – with Blackburn losing 3-0 at Wigan...

The Both Teams to Score option is a general 4/5 (1.80) this weekend, but with the way these teams have started I’m surprised to see Over 2.5 Goals priced up as the outsider in the Under/ Over market. As such, this looks a bit of value for us...

Enjoy the weekend football. I’ll be back on Monday with a look at the latest results and stats trends from across the leagues...

Best wishes,

Oliver Upstone

Across the Leagues