Mark your card for Wednesday's Premier League games with Paul Higham and George Pitts providing their best bets and score predictions for each clash.
Recommended bets
2pts Last goal to be scored in Liverpool v Everton between 76 minutes and full-time at 10/11
1pt Chelsea to beat Aston Villa and both teams to score at 8/5
1pt Tottenham to beat Manchester United at 17/10
For details of advised bookmakers and each-way terms, visit our transparent tipping record
Chelsea v Aston Villa (Paul Higham)
Another big test for Aston Villa on the back of a trip to Old Trafford to then go to Stamford Bridge, but they more than held their own against Manchester United and will fancy doing so again after West Ham got three points at Chelsea.
Dean Smith's men show a commendable attacking attitude wherever and whoever they play - they do leave a few gaps at the back but they'll go for it again against a Chelsea side who are worse at home than they are away.
Frank Lampard hopes Tammy Abraham will be fit to face his former club and there's no doubt Chelsea missed his cutting edge against the Hammers, so if he's fit they'll be even more fancied to take all three points, but either way they should have in what promises to be an entertaining fixture.
Villa have bagged in all bar two away games so far while Chelsea's blank against West Ham was their first at home in the league this season. We should expect a response and Villa's willingness to come out and play will give Lampard's side the perfect opportunity to get back to winning ways.
Prediction: Chelsea 3-1 Aston Villa (Sky Bet odds: 9/1)
Best bet: Chelsea to beat Aston Villa and both teams to score at 8/5
Key stats
- Chelsea have won their last four Premier League home games against Aston Villa, by an aggregate score of 15-1. They’ve never won five consecutive league games against them at Stamford Bridge.
- Chelsea have lost just one of their last 55 Premier League home games against promoted sides (W44 D10), against Bournemouth in December 2015. However, the Blues have drawn their last two such games, last going three without a win against promoted clubs at home in the top-flight in August 1991.
- Aston Villa have picked up just one point from their last 39 available in away games against sides starting the day in the top four (W0 D1 L12), with their last such victory coming at Chelsea in December 2011 (3-1).
- Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has lost all three of his meetings as a manager against Aston Villa, all in the Championship with Derby last season, including the play-off final at Wembley.
Leicester v Watford (Paul Higham)
There could hardly be a bigger gap in terms of the league table but also confidence and mood of two clubs than there is between high-flying Leicester, who now must surely be officially involved in the title race, and managerless Watford fresh off a second sacking of the season already.
Getting rid of their new old manager Quique Sanchez Flores seemed inevitable after he returned but had almost no impact, and it's hard to see how this stumbling Hornets side could possibly keep up with Brendan Rodgers' second-placed Foxes.
Jamie Vardy can't stop scoring, they've only dropped two points at home all season and conceded four times - and even when they're struggling they pulled off a late comeback win over Everton. If Liverpool had done that we'd be talking about it being a sign of champions.
Watford's solitary win did come away from home of course, but Norwich are no Leicester, and the Foxes have been excellent in dispatching inferior teams ever since Rodgers took charge.
The only possible negative is if the manager is interested or distracted by all the Arsenal talk, but the momentum's just too strong at the moment to consider anything other than a home win.
Prediction: Leicester 2-0 Watford (Sky Bet odds: 11/2)
Best bet: Leicester to beat Watford to nil at 5/4
Key stats
- Leicester have won all five of their Premier League home games against Watford, scoring 10 goals and conceding just one. It’s their best 100% home record against an opponent in the competition.
- Watford have never won a Premier League game on a Wednesday, drawing four and losing 11 of their 15 games. Only West Brom (27 games on Tuesdays) have played more on a specific weekday without a win in the competition.
- Leicester have won their last six Premier League matches – the Foxes have only had a longer winning run once in the top-flight, winning seven in a row between December 1962 and March 1963.
- Since Brendan Rodgers’ first Premier League game in charge on March 3rd, Leicester striker Jamie Vardy has scored 22 goals, six more than any other player.
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Manchester United v Tottenham (Paul Higham)
Jose's back, back again! There are so many fantastic things about Mourinho being back in the Premier League, but going up against old friends, and old enemies is a particular highlight - and he has both of those at Old Trafford.
It goes without saying that he'll be desperate to put one over his old employers, and Spurs are more than capable if they can just tighten up at the back, especially late on when they've almost thrown away wins over West Ham and Bournemouth.
United may be struggling but they have enough pace going forward to prevent Mourinho from becoming the first Spurs boss ever to win his first three top flight games, as long as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can get his gameplan right to play to his side's counter-attacking strengths.
- 'Mourinho deserves United reception' - Charlie Nicholas
- Tactical analysis: Mourinho can seize the moment
There's already been more excitement in Mourinho's three Spurs games than his entire tenure at United, and with both sides seemingly unable to keep clean sheets then there's sure to be more here on Wednesday.
Dele Alli is reborn and will be a huge threat now he's back to his best, but don't rule out Marcus Rashford finding the net yet again. Ultimately, though, Spurs are slight favourites because they're a better side in better form and, although they might concede, they should have enough to give Mourinho a happy return.
Prediction: Manchester United 1-2 Tottenham (Sky Bet odds: 9/1)
Best bet: Tottenham to beat Manchester United at 17/10
Key stats
- The away side won both Premier League meetings between Manchester United and Tottenham last season, after the home side had won seven in a row in such games.
- Manchester United have picked up just 18 points from their opening 14 Premier League matches this season (W4 D6 L4), their worst start to a league season since the 1988-89 campaign, when they also had 18 points and went on to finish 11th.
- Since keeping three consecutive Premier League clean sheets in February, Manchester United have only kept two in their last 25 games in the competition (36 goals conceded)
- Tottenham boss José Mourinho could become just the third manager to win a Premier League away game at Old Trafford with two different clubs (after Martin O’Neill and Rafael Benítez), having won there 3-1 with Chelsea in May 2005.
- Both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have dropped 12 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season – only Aston Villa have dropped more (13).
Southampton v Norwich (Paul Higham)
A December six-pointer to get stuck into here and who'd have thought a couple of weeks ago that both of these would have pocketed four points, and a couple of 2-2 draws with Arsenal, from two games going into this contest.
To add to the mystery, Saints actually won a home game for the first time and Norwich, the league's worst away side, even went and won at Everton. After scoring twice in 724 minutes the Canaries have now bagged four in two games.
Both have showed glimpses that they could possibly play their way out of trouble, but they're still two of the poorest three or four sides and this game has more than a hint of the draw about it given it comes hot on the heels of two emotionally draining games for both squads.
We've called it a six-pointer, but they'll probably take one each to keep their runs going.
Prediction: Southampton 1-1 Norwich (Sky Bet odds: 13/2)
Best bet: Southampton to draw with Norwich at 29/10
Key stats
- Southampton have lost just one of their last 13 home games against Norwich in all competitions (W8 D4), winning the last three in a row against them at St Mary’s.
- Norwich won their last Premier League meeting with Southampton, 1-0 in January 2016. They last won consecutive top-flight matches against Saints in September 1992.
- Southampton have won just one of their last 12 home evening kick-offs (7pm or later) in the Premier League (D4 L7), beating Fulham 2-0 in February. They’ve lost each of their last three such games by an aggregate score of 2-15.
- Away from home, Norwich are winless in their last 14 evening Premier League matches (D5 L9) since beating local rivals Ipswich 2-1 in September 1994.
- Danny Ings has scored in his last three Premier League games for Southampton – the last player to score in four consecutive appearances for the Saints was Jay Rodriguez in March 2014.
Wolves v West Ham (Paul Higham)
The Hammers are happy after David Martin's emotional heroics in their win at Chelsea, but can they repeat the dose against a Wolves side who are unbeaten in nine in the league? Nuno Espirito Santo's men are tough nuts to crack and favourites to claim three points here.
As usual, Wolves took their time to get into their stride against Sheffield United on Sunday after playing in the Europa League, but they should be fresh to face the seemingly rejuvenated visitors. West Ham can blow hot and cold in the extreme, and you wouldn't really want to trust them to earn two big away wins back-to-back.
West Ham have failed to score in four of their last six away games, and while Wolves are the draw specialists, and that result came good for us at the weekend, they can go one better here and control the game against Manuel Pellegrini's side.
Don't expect any runaway winners though, all of Wolves' eight wins this season have been 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 scorelines.
Prediction: Wolves 1-0 West Ham (Sky Bet odds: 6/1)
Best bet: Wolves to win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 at 15/8
Key stats
- Wolves won both Premier League meetings with West Ham last season – they’ve never beaten the Hammers in three consecutive league games before.
- West Ham have won just one of their last seven away league games against Wolves (D2 L4), winning 2-0 in the Premier League in August 2009.
- Wolves have drawn more Premier League matches than any other team since the start of last season (17) and are the first top-flight team since Sunderland in 2014-15 to draw eight of their opening 14 matches of a season.
- West Ham have won 15 points from their last 27 available away from home in the Premier League (W4 D3 L2) – 11 of those points have come against sides who started the day in the top half of the table.
- Wolves striker Raúl Jiménez has been involved in 12 goals in his last 10 appearances in all competitions (7 goals, 5 assists), either scoring or assisting in nine of those 10 matches.
Liverpool v Everton (George Pitts)
Everton's poor 17-game winless run against Liverpool, pressure on Marco Silva, Liverpool's 31-game unbeaten run in the Premier League, Jurgen Klopp on the brink of his 100th league win - imagine if the Toffees shocked us all on Wednesday.
It would certainly upset the odds - they are at a best price of 17/2 to win at Anfield, plenty short enough you'd think, but still evidence that this would be a real shock.
With the odds stacked so heavily in the hosts' favour, it can be difficult to find a nicely priced bet but there is definite value in backing the time of the last goal with late drama very much expected.
The game's final strike to come after the 76th minute at a fraction below evens is a great option. The Reds have been involved in an incredible 30 goals in this period this term, scoring 25 and conceding five. Six of their last seven Premier League games have seen goals in the final quarter of an hour while Everton have seen 17 goals in this stage of games this season.
In a derby which has had late goals in three of the last five games (the other two were 0-0) and with tensions running high, we could be in store for an exciting finale. Everton stepped up well against Man City when the chips were down earlier in the season and for their big game they can step up and make it tough for the league leaders, who should nonetheless avoid a slip-up and maintain their advantage at the top.
Prediction: Liverpool 2-1 Everton (Sky Bet odds: 15/2)
Best bet: Last goal to be scored between 76 minutes and full-time at 10/11
Key stats
- Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 17 Premier League games against Everton (W7 D10). It’s their longest ever unbeaten run against a specific opponent in the competition.
- Everton have failed to score in seven of their last 11 Premier League meetings with Liverpool, netting just once in each of the other four.
- Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 31 Premier League games (W26 D5) – if they avoid defeat here it will be their longest ever run without defeat in top-flight history.
- Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has won 99 of his 158 Premier League games. Victory here will see him become the second fastest manager to reach 100 wins in the competition, after José Mourinho (142 games). He would also be the fastest Liverpool manager to 100 wins in top-flight history.
- Everton have lost eight of their opening 14 league matches of a season for the first time since 2011-12 under David Moyes. In only one season in their entire history have they lost more after 14 games – 10 in the 1948-49 season.
Odds correct as of 1400 GMT on 03/12/19
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