Premier League Predictions and best bets: Manchester United to show signs of life for Ruben Amorim
Watch Manchester United vs Newcastle live on Monday evening live on Sky Sports
Monday 30 December 2024 19:34, UK
Our football betting expert Jones Knows is back to provide his Premier League insight and thinks Man Utd are being overlooked in betting against Newcastle.
Aston Villa vs Brighton, Monday 7.45pm
Backing Brighton as outsiders makes sense in these sorts of games. The type of forward they like to recruit tends to flourish when playing in transition but struggle when tasked with breaking down a low block. To score just one goal from 67 shots this season in home games against Brentford, Southampton and Ipswich tells you all you need to know about how flaky the Brighton forwards are when it comes to finishing.
However, despite now going six games without a win, Fabian Hurzeler's team have beaten Bournemouth, Man City, Newcastle, Tottenham, Man Utd and drawn with Arsenal this season where opposition teams offer them more space to play. At 5/6 with Sky Bet, they are one of the best bets of the card on the double chance at Villa Park.
SCORE PREDICTION: 1-2 | JONES KNOWS' BEST BET: Brighton double chance (5/6 with Sky Bet)
Ipswich vs Chelsea, Monday 7.45pm
Ipswich have now lost five of their last six games - only Southampton (2) have fewer points over that period. It's becoming rather bleak for them.
Confidence looks shot in the final third with the free-flowing, flexible attacking patterns that we saw rip up the Sky Bet Championship last season a distant memory. They've scored just two or more goals in four of their 18 games this season, blanking in four of their last six. Omari Hutchinson's form has completely dipped while Liam Delap is now feeding off scraps.
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A Chelsea win to nil at 7/4 with Sky Bet looks a nice way to boost the outright away win price.
SCORE PREDICTION: 0-2
Manchester United vs Newcastle, Monday 8pm, live on Sky Sports
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I'm swimming against the tide here and remain quite positive on Manchester United's prospects under this manager, especially from a defensive point of view. The structure and organisation is so much more secure than under Erik ten Hag and may just lead to positive results when confidence returns and Bruno Fernandes stops getting sent off.
The expected goals data does suggest Ruben Amorim's influence is already stabilising them slightly, albeit the results make that hard to believe.
The market has moved too much towards the untrustworthy Toon here who have only won three on the road in their last 10 games in all competitions and were beaten 3-2 by Ten Hag's side last season at Old Trafford. I'll put my crash helmet on and advise Man Utd on the draw no bet at 10/11 with Sky Bet with no confidence whatsoever purely based on the price.
SCORE PREDICTION: 1-1
Brentford vs Arsenal, Wednesday 5.30pm
Thomas Frank lost two more key members of his Brentford back line to take their total number of injured players to 11 in the dogged draw at Brighton. Such depletion is going to bite sooner or later and this could be where that tide turns.
Arsenal, without grabbing many plaudits, do seem to have their game-heads on again in terms of winning games. Declan Rice's return to form may have something to do with that - he's looked more himself in the last few weeks and is carrying a big goalscoring threat from midfield.
He netted in the win at Palace and went close with two strikes in the comfortable 1-0 win over Ipswich. The 18/1 on him to score first with Sky Bet is too big. Back it.
