By Antony Jordan
After six EPL matches on Saturday, this Sunday and Monday see the final four clashes from game week 34 of the 2015/2016 campaign, and after yesterday’s action focussed on the sides near the bottom of the table the final games take a closer look at the top of the league action. All of the top three sides in the Premier League are in action and if results go their way, Leicester could close to within a single victory of lifting the EPL title for the first time in their history.
The Foxes have a tough game against an in-form West Ham side, but can they take their 22nd league victory this weekend to continue their remarkable march towards the title? We preview this match, and the other final three matches of the weekend, with online sportsbook WilliamHill.com to provide our top EPL picks.
Leicester v West Ham: 1.91 – 3.40 – 4.00
With their title rivals in Tottenham not playing until Monday night, victory for Claudio Ranieri’s men at the King Power Stadium this Sunday afternoon will see them open up a ten point gap to the chasing pack and with them bringing a seven match unbeaten run since losing late on to Arsenal in February to this match they will be confident about extending their advantage. These seven games have seen six wins and one draw, and although Leicester have not been performing at their top level recently these six victories have all seen them win without conceding a goal, and with them bringing a fully fit squad to this match against The Hammers they will believe that they can extend their unbeaten home record to 13 matches.
However, West Ham are one of the toughest sides to defeat in the league this season and they bring their own seven EPL match unbeaten run to the King Power Stadium this weekend. They may have been eliminated from the FA Cup by Manchester United during the week, but they are close enough to the European qualification places to know that they still stand a chance of securing a place in European competition next season despite drawing each of their last three Premier League games.
Even though they have dropped points in these matches West Ham are scoring goals, with ten goals netted in their last four fixtures, and even though Leicester are performing excellently defensively at this late stage of the season the sublime Dmitri Payet and last weekend’s hat-trick hero Andy Carroll will surely cause the home side more problems than many teams have in recent times. As a result of this, our money is on goals at the King Power Stadium this Sunday.
Our top Leicester v West Ham tip is back Both Teams to Score – Yes @ 1.73 with William Hill.
Stoke v Tottenham: 4.50 – 3.50 – 1.80
The second match we’re looking at will be played as the Monday Night Football match and it is not a surprise to see the visitors to the Britannia Stadium being the odds on favourites to win this game. Last weekend saw Tottenham discard Leicester’s victory to put in an outstanding performance against Manchester United as they ran out 3-0 winners at White Hart Lane to end a 15 year wait for a win against the 20 time champions. If The Foxes can defeat West Ham on Sunday then they will hold a ten point gap over the North Londoners with just 12 points left to play for and this will surely have an effect on a side chasing their first top flight title in more than half a century.
However, with just one defeat in their last 14 away games in the Premier League this season and an almost fully fit squad for this match Tottenham are the deserved favourites to win this clash. This is certainly boosted by the fact that Stoke are without number one goalkeeper Jack Butland while Marc Muniesa, Glenn Whelan and Marko Arnautovic are all doubts for this match too leaving them at the mercy of one of the most consistent teams in the Premier League this season. Add to this the fact that no other away side has won more at the Britannia Stadium than Tottenham and that the visitors will not give up in the title race no matter how the Leicester result goes, so we are backing another away win this Monday night.
We are backing Tottenham to bring all three points back to North London at odds of 1.80 at WilliamHill.com.
Arsenal v Crystal Palace: 1.36 – 4.80 – 8.00
The Gunners come into this match with The Eagles having slipped to fourth in the Premier League following Manchester City’s 3-0 win at Chelsea on Saturday evening, but they will be confident of taking all three points this Sunday afternoon as they have won all of their last six meetings with their opponents in this North versus South London derby. The away side at The Emirates Stadium this weekend have not triumphed against Arsenal since 1994 but with them ending their winless run in 2016 last weekend with a 1-0 win over Norwich before drawing 0-0 with Everton during the week they will be playing with some confidence right now. Can they use this to upset the odds?
With Palace having lost three and drawn four of their last seven away EPL matches since they last triumphed on the road in the league almost four months ago, Arsenal clearly deserve to be the big favourites to win this match. However, their home league form has been a little inconsistent of late with losses to Chelsea and Swansea, a draw with Southampton as well as wins against league leaders Leicester and Watford. They will be boosted by the return of goalkeeper Petr Cech in goal, but with Palace having netted seven times in their last four road trips we can see them putting the Czech international under pressure between the sticks.
Our best Arsenal v Crystal Palace bet is back Arsenal to win and Both Teams to Score – Yes @ 3.00 in the William Hill Sportsbook!
Bournemouth v Liverpool: 3.30 – 3.40 – 2.15
The away side at The Vitality Stadium will arrive on the south coast after playing a thrilling Europa League match last Thursday that saw manager Jurgen Klopp send his former club crashing out of the competition with three unanswered goals in the last 25 minutes to triumph 5-4 on aggregate. This saw the team that has won the European Cup/Champions League on five occasions into the semi finals of the Europa League this season and all of this will have them full of confidence. The big question is will those full 90 minutes of all out football or the confidence win out when they return to EPL action this Sunday?
Bournemouth will, of course, hope that it is the former of these two and their guests are tired out from their Thursday night exertions, especially considering the fact that they are still missing key players through injury and the more recent additions of Benik Afobe, Adam Smith and Harry Arter will all miss this match. However, Junior Stanislas may be fit to return. Klopp is expected to rotate his squad this Sunday and will certainly miss Emre Can who is suspended while Christian Benteke is an injury doubt.
Both sides have either been winning or losing their respective home and away EPL games recently with neither side drawing a home or away match in the league since 2015. However, all of their games have seen goals in recent times with 24 in seven home games for Bournemouth and 28 in seven on the road for Liverpool. We feel that the value between these sides is on the goals market and we are backing this outcome in this one.
Our money is on Over 2.5 goals in this Bournemouth v Liverpool game at odds of 1.91.