Premier League: Best Bets for the TV Games

Match Day 1 of the Premier League marked a welcome return for the biggest and best domestic league. The opening weekend went largely according to script, with the top four from last season all picking up maximum points and the three promoted sides managing only one point between them. Will that set the pattern for the season ahead? Possibly, but there will no doubt be plenty of thrills and spills along the way.

Match Day 2 serves up another intriguing list of fixtures, including the biggest David vs Goliath clash of the season, as new boys Ipswich Town travel to the Etihad to take on a Manchester City outfit seeking an unprecedented fifth Premier League title on the spin. That game may be an exercise in damage limitation for the Tractor Bots, but not all games are so easy to call on paper. Here, using data presented by NewBettingSites.uk, we pick out our best bets in the four televised fixtures.

Brighton & Hove Albion vs Manchester United – Saturday, 12:30pm

We kick off on the South Coast as new-look Brighton & Hove Albion takes on a (still) in-transition Manchester United. Both clubs picked up a win on the opening weekend, but the manner of those successes could scarcely have been more contrasting.

Manchester United took to the field without a recognised striker against Fulham at Old Trafford and produced a performance broadly in line with the subpar fare served up last season. Hopes are high that this season may see an improvement, but there were few signs of a resurgence in the opener.

Brighton, meanwhile, were excellent at an (admittedly underwhelming) Everton – strolling to a 3-0 win and bossing possession. It’s early days in the Fabian Hürzeler era, but fans will have drawn plenty of encouragement from this display.

Brighton may have finished three spots below United last season, but the xG table suggests they were better of the two sides by some margin. At home, and with a host of exciting new arrivals looking to have found their feet quickly, they can put the Red Devils to the sword.

Aston Villa vs Arsenal – Saturday, 5:30pm

The Saturday teatime clash at Villa Park looks the pick of the weekend fixtures, as the hosts take on an Arsenal side, which came so close to ending City’s dominance last season.

Both sides impressed on the opening day - Arsenal picking up a routine 2-0 home success over Wolves, and Villa coming out on top 2-1 in an entertaining clash at the London Stadium, with Amadou Onana catching the eye in his Premier League debut for the club.

Arsenal will head into this game with a score to settle, having lost both clashes with Villa last season – the latter defeat at the Emirates dealing a devastating blow to their title challenge. They have, however, failed to score in 180 minutes of football against Villa, suggesting Unai Emery knows better than most what it takes to stop his former club.

Our initial instinct is to back Villa at odds against, but an xG-against figure of 2.80 in that West Ham game suggests their defence may not be in its groove just yet. That said, there aren’t many sides we would rush to back at odds on to beat Villa on their own patch. As such, we are swayed towards a score draw, which looks like decent value in what should be an entertaining encounter.

Bournemouth vs Newcastle United – Sunday, 2:00pm

Eddie Howe returns to his old stamping ground in the first of the Sunday televised games as his Newcastle United side looks to improve on last season’s seventh-placed finish. The Magpies' away form was their Achilles heel last season, with the North East side winning only six times on the road. That record included a 2-0 defeat in this fixture, with the Cherries also picking up a point in a 2-2 draw in the reverse game.

Newcastle beat Southampton at St. James’s Park on Match Day 1, but with the Magpies playing for over an hour with ten men, it’s difficult to read much into the game in terms of performance. Bournemouth, meanwhile, needed a last-gasp Antoine Semeyo strike to salvage a point from their trip to Nottingham Forest.

The hosts will be buoyed by last season’s record against Newcastle, but the fact they allowed Nottingham Forest eight shots on target is concerning, as they come against a full-strength Newcastle United attack and midfield. However, Newcastle will likely go into this with a centre-back pairing of Dan Burn and Emil Krafth, flanked by Lewis Hall, who looked a little shaky against Southampton, and Tino Livramento, whose propensity to attack can leave gaps. Tough to call a winner in this one, but there should be a few goals around.

Liverpool vs Brentford – Sunday, 4:30pm

We round off the action on Merseyside as Arne Slot takes to the Anfield dugout for the first time in a Premier League fixture. The post-Klopp era started positively last weekend, with Liverpool comfortably seeing off new boys Ipswich in the end. Ipswich did start encouragingly that day, but to win the xG count 3.93-0.34 was as impressive an effort as you could hope for in a potential banana skin fixture.

Brentford also picked up maximum points when beating Crystal Palace 2-1 at home, but they barely scraped the xG count that day and were behind Palace on total shots, shots on target, possession, and corners. Likely to be even further adrift on all of those measures in Liverpool’s first home game of the season, they may find that the Liverpool forwards are in a less generous mood than the Palace front line.

Liverpool bossed this fixture when winning 3-0 at home and 4-1 last season, and there seems little reason to believe things will be any different this time around.