Football fans are in for a rare midweek treat with every Premier league team in action over two days.
At first glance, the teams challenging for the title and Champions League qualification face an easy round of games, with Liverpool and Manchester City taking on Leicester and Newcastle respectively, Manchester United and Arsenal facing relatively easy tests against Burnley and Cardiff.
Chelsea and Tottenham face trickier tests against Bournemouth and Watford on Wednesday, but nobody will be surprised if the top six come through those tests unscathed.
However, there could still be some value to be had in tonight’s matches with some fascinating clashes towards the foot of the league.
So let’s have a look at the games that could provide some value from a betting perspective.
Fulham v Brighton
I thought I was done with Fulham for this season when they conceded two own-goals in the 2-1 defeat to Burnley a fortnight ago but Claudio Ranieri’s side have tempted me back in.
Fulham were unlucky to lose a Tottenham side that were admittedly without Harry Kane at Craven Cottage in their last home start and their home form since Ranieri was apoointed is not too bad, with Fulham beating Southampton and Huddersfield and drawing with Leicester and Wolves in the six home matches since the Italian made a managerial return to England, and that has given me hope that they can beat Brighton tonight at odds of 11/8.
Chris Hughton’s side were in FA Cup action on Saturday and are poor on their travels, winning just two of their 12 league matches away from the Amex Stadium.
Only the bottom five teams have scored fewer away goals than Brighton, who have beaten only Newcastle and Huddersfield on the road this season.
Fulham have the potential to cause Brighton huge problems with Aleksandr Mitrovic up front, while loan signing Ryan Babel made a decent impression on his Fulham debut against Tottenham.
Wolves v West Ham
West Ham put in their worst performance of the season when losing 4-2 to League One’s bottom side AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup at the weekend, but I’m prepared to give them another chance at 11/4 to beat Wolves tonight.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side were atrocious in the first half against Wimbledon, with Andy Carroll off the pace up front. Carroll is out of contract in the summer and will surely not feature too heavily for the remainder of the season.
Young midfielder Declan Rice was also a huge miss in their midfield as he has quickly established himself as one of the Premier League’s most exciting young talents.
In the expectation that Rice, Lukas Fabianski, Felipe Anderson, Pablo Zabaleta, Aaron Cresswell and possibly Marko Arnautovic will return to the starting line-up against Wolves, a better performance can be expected.
West Ham are also good at bouncing back from losses, with their four previous league defeats followed by three wins and a draw, with two of those wins coming away from home.
Wolves fought back from 2-0 down to force an FA Cup replay with Shrewsbury at the weekend and are just one point above West Ham in the league.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are far from unbeatable at home and have won less than half of their league matches at Molineux.
Wolves have been beaten by Watford, Tottenham, Huddersfield, Liverpool and Crystal Palace at home this season, and look too short at 11/10.
Back West Ham for the win but, for those wanting less risk, West Ham draw no bet is available at 6/4.