As the Premier League campaign passes the halfway mark, Gameweek 20 sees a pivotal few days in both the title race and a keenly-fought battle for the top-four, in a huge derby weekend.
With the Manchester and north London derbies taking centre stage, here at BestofBets we’ve been looking at some of the value punts across both games.
Starting at Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime, the in-form Red Devils welcome their league-chasing noisy neighbours across town, now with just four points separating each other. United have won the last six on the spin in all comps – conceding just one goal – whilst Pep Guardiola’s men have come off the rails, suffering a shock home defeat to Brentford before the World Cup, as struggling Everton then took a point from the Etihad Stadium on New Years’ Eve.
United have beaten City in the league at the Theatre of Dreams just twice since 2015 but come into this buoyed by the continued form of Marcus Rashford and an attack which is beginning to tick in the same vein as Erik ten Hag’s Ajax side did under his prior reign. Rashford is in the form of his life in a United shirt having scored in every game of United’s latest winning run and has three Premier League goals in the derby. To make it four, Rashford is 29/10 with SpreadEx, or to combine with Erling Haaland in a double after his blank against versus Chelsea at a tasty 13/2 with Betfair.
We have documented on many occasions that this particular derby rarely favours the home team, even if City have won the last three meetings, scoring a cumulative 12 goals. Indeed, though the form book is tossed out the window on derby day, United are arguably in better shape. Therefore, a 7/2 punt on United with Bet365 and SpreadExmay represent value.
City will be tough to beat, of course, so another option to catch our eye is BoyleSports’ 6/4 offer for BTTS and no draw, meaning if either side win but both teams score, punters will be on to a winner. Meanwhile, in William Hill’s latest Epic Odds offer, for a goal to be scored in the game an evens price can be had from a monster 1/33. This could be a tight game so do we smell a classic punters trap? You be the judge.
If the Manchester derby has quite a bit riding on it, the latest instalment of the north London derby has perhaps even bigger stakes at play. With Arsenal five points clear in the standings, cynics will say a goalless draw with Newcastle might be a portent of things to come for Mikel Arteta’s men.
Though this current crop is a far stronger and flowing side, the fact remains the men from N5 have not won away at Spurs since 2014, when Tomas Rosicky’s second-minute goal was enough to scoop the three points and see Arsenal finish ahead of Spurs in the race for the top four that year. The visitors are 5/4 with SpreadEx to remedy that statistic, however, Arsenal would perhaps settle for the draw at a 14/5 punt with BetUK.
The NLD means Harry Kane of course and the England skipper and goals against Arsenal go hand-in-hand. Having netted a brace in this fixture last season, Kane has three in the last two against the Gunners and in a home game either at White Hart Lane, Wembley or The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has failed to score just once in eight meetings. After grabbing a brace against Crystal Palace, Kane will be hungry for goals and perhaps surprisingly is 9/5 with UniBet to score again.
Finally, Derby weekend double duty should also see busy afternoons for the referees in charge and with Stuart Attwell and Craig Pawson in the middle, the recipe is there for all four teams to see 20+ booking points at a combined acca of 2/1 across the two games with SkyBet.
