The Premier League passes the midway point of the season at the weekend, as matchday 20 takes place. This also marks the end of one of the busiest parts of the season, with the next matchday taking place in two weeks’ time and the following games largely taking place every weekend from there on.
This weekend sees all of the top teams in the league face up against sides in the bottom half of the table leaving plenty of opportunity for upsets to take place. Elsewhere, Everton travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace take on Brentford in games that could see the pack of teams at the bottom end of the table shuffle around.
Read on as we pick out our top tips and booking code for this weekend’s Premier League action – you can bet on over 200 markets here at Bet9ja.
Crystal Palace and Brentford to draw, 3.30
Crystal Palace vs Brentford
Crystal Palace and Brentford are both coming into this game in much the same situations. The two sides are separated by just a point in the league with the same goals conceded, although Brentford do have a game in hand and have scored six more so far this season. Both sides are also coming into this game in rather abysmal form, with Palace winning just one of their last 10 league games and Brentford losing all of their last four since beating Luton Town at the beginning of December.
Much like their performances this season, there is nothing to split the two sides in their head-to-head results since Brentford’s promotion in 2021. Just six goals have been scored across these five games, while every one of these matches has ended in a draw.
With so little to split these two sides, we’re expecting this game to end in a stalemate yet again.
Everton to win, 2.74
Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Everton
Similarly to Crystal Palace and Brentford, Wolves and Everton have had very similar seasons so far. While Everton do currently sit down in 17th place, they had 10 points deducted from them earlier in the season and otherwise they would be a point better off than 11th-placed Wolves.
Wolves have struggled to put any run of results together this season with their best run being their two wins in a row coming into this game. In comparison, Everton had been going through their best run of the season as they picked up four wins in a row with clean sheets in all four, but they have gone on to lose their last two league games against Tottenham and Manchester City. Despite this, Everton have performed well in both of these games, even creating more xG in their loss to Tottenham.
With all of this we are sure this game will be a tight affair, but we fancy Everton to take the three points at the end of the 90 minutes.
Manchester United to win, 2.20
Nottingham Forest vs Manchester United
Manchester United travel to Nottingham Forest this weekend after a thrilling Boxing Day encounter that saw them come from two goals behind at half-time to win 3-2 against Aston Villa. This was United’s first win in five games and remarkably the first time they had scored since their 2-1 victory over Chelsea on the 6th December. Nottingham Forest also come into this game in poor form with just two wins in their last 10 games, including a well-deserved 3-1 victory over Newcastle United thanks to a Chris Wood hattrick.
Manchester United have historically enjoyed this fixture, losing just once in the 13 meetings between these two sides in the Premier League era. However, the meeting between these two sides earlier on in the season ended up being much more hard-fought than Man United would have wanted as they had to come from two goals behind within four minutes of the kick-off to eventually win 3-2.
While we do expect this will be another tight encounter, we believe that Manchester United will be the side to build on their Boxing Day victory and take the three points in this one.
Booking code – 5Y5FL3P
