WhoScored Tipster: This Weekend's Best Bets

Lecce vs Palermo - Match Preview

The fact that Palermo are still in touch with the Europa League places is an absolute miracle given their shocking away form this season. Still without a win after 13 games on the road, their problem has been a lack of goals (just eight) away from the Renzo Barbera. On the one occasion this season that they wouldn’t have to even leave Sicily, they still couldn’t manage to beat Catania, compounding their travelling woes.

Their overall form (home and away) is not that great at current either - having lost their last three in a row – but it is worth noting that two of those were against Roma and Milan. Lecce will be a different proposition though, down in the relegation zone and having won the fewest amount of home games in the division.

In the battle of the worst away record against one of the worst at home, it seems best to look towards individuals that could win or lose this game, and in Fabrizio Miccoli, Palermo have by far the most obvious game-winner.

Backing the Rosanero outright to overcome their travelling hoodoo may be a touch brave, but the double chance (1.72) and the draw no bet (2.62) options in their favour certainly appeal.

With the WhoScored match forecast describing it as ‘extremely likely’ that Palermo will score a direct free-kick, look no further than the aforementioned Miccoli, who has 5 goals and 6 assists in his last five. He is 6.00 to open the scoring.

Espanyol vs Racing Santander - Match Preview

Mauricio Pochettino has had a good season in Catalunya despite the loss of key figures in the summer, and he will expect to beat a poor Racing side on Monday night.

The Cantabrians travel to Barcelona fresh from a 2-0 defeat at home to Espanyol’s famous city rivals and despite their opponents having a raft of suspensions and injuries, their line-up still has more than enough to see off the side from the North.

The average age of the two sides gives us an insight into one of Racing’s key issues this season. With Espanyol’s likely XI having an average age of 24 as opposed to the visitors’ 27, the older personnel on show for the Santander club have lacked fitness and have been consistently poor at closing out games.

In fact, if every game had finished at half time then the Verdiblancos would find themselves up in 13th as opposed to languishing in relegation as they actually are. Espanyol are the opposite; if every game had finished after 45 minutes then they’d be just one point ahead of this weekend’s opponents, as it is, there is a 12 point gap between the two.

This points very clearly to the half-time/full-time market, where Draw/Espanyol at 4.00 seems more than tempting enough. If you think Racing could take the lead, then Racing/Espanyol is way out at 23.00.

Fulham vs Swansea - Match Preview

This game will be a tight clash between two of the most in-form sides in the league, and while only Manchester City and United have got more points from their last six home games than the Cottagers, Swansea’s swift counter-attacking style has made them one of the most in-form away teams.

So moving away from a difficult to predict result, we shall focus on the goals markets for our slice of value.

The overs/unders stats are slightly contradictory but seem to come out in favour of the overs.

Swansea’s seven away games this year have seen 20 goals, with one of the sides scoring at least two goals on each occasion, while there have been over 2.5 goals in five of the last six Premier League games at Craven Cottage. The overs is priced at evens and just about represents a value shout, although there is more edge to be gained from looking at the team goals market.

Fulham are undefeated in their last five home games, winning four, and have clearly struck a marvellous vein of form. They have scored at least two goals in five of their last seven home games in the league, coinciding with the arrival of Pavel Pogrebnyak and the improvement in form of Moussa Dembelé, Andrew Johnson and Bryan Ruiz. To back Fulham to score over 1.5 goals on Saturday is priced at evens and seems a very fair pricing for the punter.

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