Monday Night Football sees Frank Lampard take his Everton side to London to take on Tottenham Hotspur. Jake Pearson has previewed the fixture, picking out his best bet.
2pts 10+ total match corners at 4/5 (Sky Bet)
The multi-layered enigma that is Tottenham Hotspur Football Club host an Everton side who, coming into the weekend, sit just one point above the relegation zone. Predicting what is going to happen in this match is difficult.
That Tottenham went to the Etihad and beat Manchester City, then lost 1-0 to Burnley at Turf Moor, then hammered Leeds 4-0, and then exited the FA Cup to Middlesbrough, just about sums up Antonio Conte’s tenure at the north London club so far; erratic.
They have produced the sublime and the ridiculous under the Italian, but at their best they are a serious force to be reckoned with.
Under Frank Lampard Everton have certainly produced the ridiculous – the sublime is yet to arrive.
Speaking from a sentimentalist perspective, the Toffees were arguably unlucky to lose to Manchester City last weekend, actually producing a pretty well-rounded performance, but in reality City did create plenty of opportunities and ultimately deserved to win the match (xG: EVE 0.61-1.88 MNC).
Against only Leeds have Everton won the ‘xG battle’ in the Premier League since Lampard took charge, and a 2-0 victory over Boreham Wood in the FA Cup fifth round on Thursday evening is hardly enough to conclude that the Merseyside outfit have turned the corner.
A meeting of two of the most inconsistent teams in the league makes for a difficult betting heat, so looking into a more quantifiable market makes appeal, namely the corner betting.
10+ TOTAL MATCH CORNERS is available at a price of 4/5, and considering the record of these two sides, and in particular the home team, that makes plenty of appeal.
Spurs rank sixth in terms of average match corners at 5.46 per game, and at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium that figure jumps up to 6.08.
Games involving Conte’s side are averaging 10.52 corners, with home matches up at 11.67 per game – only Chelsea and Norwich’s home matches have average higher.
76% of Spurs matches have seen ten or more corners land this season, with 11 of the 12 matches (92%) played in north London seeing more than nine.
Everton’s statistics do not make for quite as encouraging reading, but Tottenham do concede plenty of corners as well as winning them, averaging 5.67 corners against at home this season – the fifth most in the league.
In a game that could swing one way and then the other, siding with a selection that is much more founded in statistics is certainly one of the better ways to approach this fixture.
Score prediction: Tottenham 2-2 Everton (Sky Bet odds: 14/1)
Odds correct at 1600 GMT (04/03/22)
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