Premier League giants look ripe for an upset

Bournemouth v Manchester Utd

BT Sport 1, 12.30pm Saturday

Bournemouth have been one of the biggest surprise packages of the season and can land another shock by stopping Manchester United from winning at Dean Court in the opening Premier League match of the weekend.

Bournemouth sit sixth in the league and deservedly so after a thrilling start to the campaign where only once have the Cherries failed to perform, in a bizarre 4-0 loss at Burnley.

The only other defeat came at Chelsea where Nathan Ake missed a sitter in a match in which the expected goal ratings were almost level.

Eddie Howe's side are through to the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup too and are full of goals with Callum Wilson leading the way, scoring five in the Premier League and assisting another four.

Ryan Fraser and David Brooks are providing thrust from wide and there is a nice balance to midfield with new signing Jefferson Lerma settling well alongside Lewis Cook.

Defence has been the problem for the Cherries during their Premier League campaigns, although Ake's level of performance has certainly helped in that department.

Bournemouth have kept three straight league clean sheets and everyone appears to know their jobs under Howe, whereas the same cannot be said for United, who have won two of their last eight.

One domestic clean sheet in 11 outings says it all for Jose Mourinho's men and they will remain vulnerable until defensive reinforcements arrive.

Anthony Martial is in fine nick but after already losing to Brighton and West Ham on their travels it is difficult to suggest United are worth backing at as short as odds-on in places.

Recommendation
Bournemouth or draw double chance
1pt 17-20 bet365

Reading v Bristol City

3pm Saturday

The pressure is building on Paul Clement and the Reading manager cannot afford too many more Sky Bet Championship defeats. Unfortunately for him one could be coming against Bristol City, who will be roared on by a sell-out away following in Berkshire.

It was a gloomy October for Clement, whose Reading outfit lost four of their five matches, going down 1-0 to QPR, 4-1 at West Brom, 2-1 at Birmingham and 2-0 at Swansea. Even the win against Millwall was fortunate as the Royals were outshot 27-10 and lost the shots-on-target battle 12-4 but still somehow squeezed a 3-1 success.

City have won only two of their last eight games but two of those were in the last three, beating Brentford and Hull 1-0, and if they defend well again Reading seem certain to give up opportunities.

Recommendation
Bristol City
1pt 13-10 bet365

Colchester v Swindon

Saturday 3pm

Fifth-placed Colchester don't seem to be getting enough respect for an excellent start in League Two and they can continue to impress with a victory over Swindon.

Colchester have won six of their eight league home matches, scoring 20 goals in the process, and they fully deserve to be seven points superior to Swindon in the standings.

The Essex outfit are strong defensively and possess real threats in behind former Town forward Luke Norris with Frank Nouble and Courtney Senior either side of Sammie Szmodics.

Recommendation
Colchester
2pts 20-21 BoyleSports

Real Sociedad v Sevilla

Eleven Sports 1, 5.30pm Sunday

Home is not where the heart is for Real Sociedad, who are still waiting for their first win of the season at Anoeta, and Sevilla could be the latest team to leave the Basque Country with a positive result.

Silky-skilled Sevilla made a slow start themselves under Pablo Machin although they have found their groove since September's defeats either side of the international break to Real Betis and Getafe.

Sevilla have won five of their last six La Liga matches, including a 3-0 triumph over Real Madrid, and the sole defeat in that sequence came at Barcelona, whose keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen produced several stunning saves.

Wissam Ben Yedder and Andre Silva give Sevilla a two-pronged goal threat with Ever Banega pulling the strings in midfield.

Recommendation
Sevilla draw no bet
1pt 4-5 Sky Bet

Plays of the day

Banker
Barnsley 22-25
Injuries are hitting Southend hard and the Shrimpers, beaten 3-0 at Sunderland last week, could be in for another hiding against a fellow League One big gun in Barnsley.

Blowout
Carlisle 11-8
Carlisle have not scored – never mind won – at home since August with five straight league defeats to nil. Newport have lost only three league matches all season.

Accumulator
Barnsley 22-25, Portsmouth 3-4, Lyon 42-100, Barcelona 3-10 Hills

Both teams to score
Games at Cardiff 9-10, Walsall 13-17, Fiorentina 11-18 188bet

Thought for the week

The bizarre spectacle of watching Tottenham versus Manchester City on a dodgy Wembley pitch with NFL markings all over the surface was completely avoidable with the Premier League to blame.

Spurs have to take some responsibility in the first place for over-promising and under-delivering on their new stadium but once the league knew there was this issue they could quite easily have eased off on their demands for the fixture to be played on the original round of matches.

As we saw with the tragic events at Leicester and the subsequent postponement of the EFL Cup clash with Southampton there is always wiggle room in the fixture list.

City were well within their rights not to want to switch the game as it would have left them with an uneven number of road matches towards the end of the campaign but this match could have been played at another time.

Instead, we witnessed an odd 90 minutes where neither team were able to show their best and the Premier League got the match their impatience deserved.

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