A trio of Top Scorers coming back...
Thursday 18th June 2020
In your Across the Leagues email today:
- League Two Playoffs starts today…
- Championship returns this weekend…
- Plus – Serie A in Italy…
It’s good to have the Premier League back…
Hawk-Eye hiccup at Villa Park…
Quite unbelievable stuff in the first game back in the English top-flight yesterday evening, with the goal-line technology letting Sheffield United down in a big way.
An unprecedented Hawk-Eye hiccup meant that referee Michael Oliver’s purpose-built wrist-watch didn’t buzz for a goal, even though the ball had *clearly* gone over the line.
I saw it go over the line, with the naked eye, in real time, no replays needed – so I have no idea what the 20-odd officials and VAR staff were doing…
Anyway, no sour grapes here. But… if that goal had stood, Sheff Utd may very well have been on for the Win to Nil, which was our 3/1 shot in the match result markets yesterday. Final score: Aston Villa 0 Sheff Utd 0.
Bad night for David Luiz…
In the second game of the evening, at a very rainy Etihad stadium, our 7/1 first card selection Granit Xhaka skidded into a collision after just 5 minutes. The Arsenal midfielder went off on a stretcher…
Xhaka’s teammate David Luiz ended up taking all the unwanted limelight on the disciplinary front, giving away a penalty for a straight Red Card. Luiz was 10/1 in the First Player Carded market. The Arsenal defender was also at fault for the opening goal.
The result in that one was Man City 3 Arsenal 0. City have now beaten the Gunners 7 times in a row in all competitions, and covered a -1 Match Handicap in all 7 of those wins (winning by more than one goal each time).
We mentioned Man City’s 92% home corner-winning record yesterday. City kept up that trend, with the corners score 5-2 last night. However, as alluded to in your Wednesday email analysis, the -5 Corner Handicap looked a bit big, and so it proved. City’s 5-2 tally would only have been enough to beat a -2 Corner Handicap on the night.
Lewandowski lands the short odds…
In Tuesday’s preview we noted the very short odds for the big names in Germany. Bayern Munich wrapped up an eight successive Bundesliga title, with a 1-0 win at Werder Bremen. Bayern were just 2/11 (1.18) to win that game.
Top scorer Robert Lewandowski got the only goal there, with his 31st league goal of the season, equalling the Bundesliga season record for a non-German player. As we mentioned on Tuesday, the Polish striker was just 1/3 (1.33) to score Anytime at Bremen, and the 9/5 (2.80) favourite to be First Goalscorer.
Over in Spain, Barcelona franked the short odds in midweek, too, with a 2-0 home win against Leganes. Barca were just 2/9 (1.22) to win. Lionel Messi was 8/15 (1.53) to score. He got the second goal, from the penalty spot.
Teenager Ansu Fati opened the scoring for the La Liga leaders, with the 17-year-old Spanish starlet getting his 5th league goal of the season. Fati is one to watch for the future.
On the topic of scorers, here are three leading men sure to feature at the front of the weekly betting lists in the next few weeks, as play returns in the English Championship and Italian Serie A…
A trio of Top Scorers…
The first game back in the Championship is Fulham v Brentford on Saturday lunchtime (12.30pm, Sky Sports). That just so happens to feature the two leading goalscorers in the division…
- Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic is top of the pile with 23 goals in the Championship this season, and 19 Anytime Scorer payouts
- Brentford’s Ollie Watkins is just one goal behind, with 22 for the season – and 16 Anytime Scorer payouts
In the early markets for the weekend, Bet365 can’t separate those two, with Mitrovic and Watkins priced at 7/5 (2.40) each in the Anytime Scorer betting.
Serie A returns on Saturday, too. The top scorer in 2019/20 is Lazio forward Ciro Immobile…
- Ciro Immobile has got 27 goals this season, and given 18 Anytime Scorer payouts
The Italian is having a fantastic season up front for Lazio. His side have played a game more than some others in Serie A, so they have to wait until Wednesday for their first match back. The markets aren’t up for that trip to Atalanta yet, but goals may well be on the cards…
Atalanta are the top-scoring team in Serie A this season, and also top of the Serie A chart on our website for Over 2.5 Goals, including a whopping 92% home strike-rate for that bet.
The reverse fixture at Lazio in October ended 3-3, with Immobile scoring twice from the penalty spot.
Before the break, Atalanta and Lazio were the top two in our Serie A last-5-games Form table. That’s a game to look out for in Italy next week.
League Two Playoffs start today…
In the English Football League, League One and League Two have been finished early, settled on points-per-game. The Playoffs are still going ahead though, and the finals will be held at an empty Wembley stadium this summer…
The action begins this evening with the Playoff semi final, 1st Legs in League Two. You can view the Head-2-Heads for today’s games by logging-in to our website and going to the League Two dropdown menu from the Football League tab:
That’s all for today’s stats update. I’ll be back on Friday with your weekend preview, picks & analysis. Including the first full round of fixtures in the Premier League. See you tomorrow…
Best wishes,
Shaun Humphris
Across the Leagues |
