By Antony Jordan
The 25th round of Premier League football comes to a conclusion with three matches being played across Sunday and Monday. While Chelsea, the league leaders, and the enigma that is Man City this season are in action the biggest match happens at the other end of the table in a massive relegation six pointer between Swansea and Leicester. The sides start the weekend just a point above the drop zone so they both know that they must win to avoid having to climb their way out to stay in the top flight, so it’s make or break time for the champions if they’re not to become the first side in 80 years to be relegated after lifting the title!
Can they triumph this weekend over a resurgent Swansea side? We preview all three matches with online sportsbook Bet365.com to bring our top EPL picks from the final trio of games from the 25th round of the 2016/17 season.
Swansea v Leicester: 2.45 – 3.30 – 3.20
The later of the two matches playing this Sunday is the first game from the final trio of EPL action we’re looking as the resurgent Swansea welcome The Foxes to the Liberty Stadium. They both begin the weekend just a single point outside of the bottom three and, as the odds suggest, recent form shows that we are likely to see a home win in this clash. The reason for this is that Paul Clement has come in and steadied the Welsh side as he has guided Swansea to wins over Liverpool and Southampton as well as a narrow 2-1 defeat at Man City last weekend when the home side netted the winner in injury time.
Leicester will hope that their extra time win against Derby in the FA Cup during the week will kick start their league campaign as it has not gone well so far for them. They have made the last 16 of the Champions League and are in the fifth round of the FA Cup, but have won just five of their 24 league matches this season. Their EPL record has seen them fail to score in five matches and collect just a single point in this run, losing all of the last four. They have lost nine and drawn three of their 12 away matches this season and with Swansea scoring goals and winning matches since the arrival of their new manager we feel that it will not be Leicester’s weekend once again this time around.
We are backing Swansea to beat Leicester at odds of 2.45 at Bet365.
Burnley v Chelsea: 9.00 – 5.00 – 1.40
Table topping Chelsea travel to Turf Moor this Sunday looking to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table, but with them being welcomed by a side that sits third in the form table for points collected on home soil will this match be more difficult than the match odds suggest? The Clarets have won all of their last seven home matches and have dropped points on just three occasions since losing at home to Swansea on the opening weekend – and only two of those were losses as Arsenal and Man City scraped one goal wins to secure all three points.
This match will surely be more difficult than any other that Burnley have had at Turf Moor this season as Chelsea arrive having won 15 of their last 17 games in all competitions. They will believe and expect to win this match but their two failures to win since October have come in their last three away games as they drew with Liverpool and were beaten by Tottenham. Burnley have better home form than the former of these two sides are just behind the latter, so do they stand a chance at upsetting the odds?
History says no as they have not beaten Chelsea since 1973 and we feel Chelsea have the edge over them in this match too. However, with the home team’s excellent form this season in front of their fans and Chelsea’s short price we do not feel that there is much value on the outright markets. We do see the home team making Antonio Conte’s men work for all three points and we can see goals coming in this game from both side as Burnley have scored in all of their last ten at Turf Moor and Chelsea have conceded in half of their last six on the road.
Our money is on Both Teams to Score – Yes @ 2.10 on this Burnley v Chelsea game in the Bet365 Sportsbook!
Bournemouth v Man City: 7.50 – 5.00 – 1.44
Monday Night Football this week sees the fourth clash between Bournemouth and Manchester City in the top flight and as the odds suggest it is City who are the heavy favourites to take all three points following their four goal victories in each of the last three meetings between the teams. They come into this match with results on their side too as they have won each of their last three clashes in all competitions, including scoring seven goals and conceding none in their last two away games at Crystal Palace and West Ham.
The Cherries have fallen out of form lately as they have failed to win any of their last six clashes and have lost four of their last five. They have conceded 18 goals in these six winless games too, including shipping six at Everton last weekend, but they have been scoring too with nine goals netted in this barren set of results and as Man City have swung between clean sheets and conceding goals on the road in recent times with five goals conceded in their last five away games despite three clean sheets we can certainly see a good chance of a high number of goals in this Monday night clash.
We feel that Man City certainly deserve to be the favourites to win this match and with them winning the last three meetings 13-1 on aggregate as well as both sides scoring well and conceding too many we feel that combining the two bets of the away win and goals offers the best value in the final game of the 25th set of EPL matches this season at The Vitality Stadium.