Raise A Drink To The Clarets

Burnley could lay claim to being England’s football hotbed – the town has a population of around 70,000 people and yet the Clarets attract average crowds of 15,000 to Turf Moor, even when things are going bad – and Sean Dyche is giving the local fans plenty about which to sing at the moment.

Second on the English Championship ladder after eight rounds and unbeaten in its last six games, including five wins, Burnley is the best value option on Saturday’s football coupon at odds of 1.90 with BetVictor to beat a Charlton side that looks increasingly likely to spend the season fighting off relegation into England’s third tier.

Burnley has had excuses for each of its three failures to win this term. First, a 1-1 home draw against Bolton may not read well right now but it looked okay first up. Second, Burnley was in the thick of its 0-2 away loss to Brighton until Tom Heaton received his marching orders in the 57th minute. And third, a 1-1 home draw versus Blackburn was a perfectly acceptable result in Burnley’s grudge match.

Having defeated Birmingham (3-0 at home), Leeds (2-1 away) and Nottingham Forest (2-1 at home) in its last three games across all competitions, Burnley should be shorter odds than 1.90 to consign Charlton to its third consecutive loss and extend the away run of the Addicks without a win to eight matches stretching across this season and last term.

Charlton has been scoring sufficiently freely to have more than five English Championship points from seven games but the Addicks have kept only one clean sheet in any match this season and that at home to English League Two promotion contender Oxford in the English Capital One Cup. So not only does a Burnley win appeal at a shade of odds on but also over two and a half goals at odds of 1.96 with 188bet.

In the English Premier League, Manchester United may bounce back with a bang when West Bromwich rocks up at Old Trafford with one of the top flight’s most anaemic attacks. Yet again a David Moyes-managed team flopped on the big stage when Manchester United lost 1-4 to Manchester City in the first Cottonopolis derby of the season. Manchester United has the strike power to be a flat-track bully when sides visit Old Trafford carrying little threat of their own. It took four English Premier League games for West Bromwich to snag its first goal and one would not be surprised if the Baggies ended up being one of the division’s three lowest scorers. Odds of 3.25 are available with BetVictor about Manchester United beating West Bromwich by three or more goals.

Also in England’s elite, the match between Hull and West Ham could be a fairly dull encounter with little in the way of action. Both Hull and West Ham featured in five-goal games on their last English Premier League appearances but the Tigers are 4-1 on under two and a half goals and so are the Hammers. One can back the under at odds of 1.73 with Stan James. Remember that Hull did not have a single double-figure goal scorer in the English Championship last term even though the Tigers finished second behind Cardiff.

Backing away teams is something that one should limit to special occasions but there is a case for taking odds of 2.30 with BetVictor that Arsenal wins at Swansea. Arsenal has won its four English Premier League matches since it slumped to a shock 1-3 home loss to Aston Villa on the opening weekend of the season and the Gunners beat Swansea at home and away last term. Swansea is its own worst enemy when it runs into another of the English top flight’s pure footballing sides because the Swans allow other teams to play. Arsenal is stronger for its recent acquisition of Mesut Ozil and the Gunners will play better sides than Swansea off the park so odds-against quotes are tasty.

Finally, English League Two promotion hopeful Fleetwood is over the odds at 1.92 with BetVictor to defeat Exeter and stay in touch with Chesterfield at the top of the ladder. Big-spending Fleetwood’s early results were up and down but the Cod Army have got their act together now, winning their last four games. Exeter’s form is not a patch on that of Fleetwood, with the home team deserving to be 1.70.