You know we’ve entered the festive period when the Premier League starts to roll out mid-week fixtures!
Game Week 14 gets underway on Wednesday morning (AEST) when the Tractor Boys take on the Eagles.
Elsewhere, Man City hope to avoid a unprecedented fifth straight league defeat when they host Notts Forest and Ruben Amorim faces his toughest challenge at the wheel of Man U so far when his side travels to take on the Gunners.
Our Offside Oracle has previewed all 10 GW14 fixtures and provided his best bets below!
Game week 14 gets underway at Portman Road, where two relegation candidates in Ipswich and Crystal Palace take to the field.
Both sides enter this clash with identical league records, with one win, six draws and six losses across the opening 13 weeks, with Palace (-7) just edging Ipswich (-11) on goal difference.
The Tractor Boys are the only side yet to register a home victory this season, drawing four of their six games at Portman Rd.
Meanwhile, the Eagles are winless on their travels this season, claiming just three competition points from a possible 18 (3D,3L).
With neither side showing enough form to win this fixture, I’m happy to back against both of them to do so.
We move from one pair of struggling sides to another, as Leicester City welcome West Ham to the King Power Stadium.
The Foxes are currently just one point clear of the drop zone in 16th place, and are staring down the barrel of four straight league defeats.
Meanwhile, the Hammers are two spots above in 14th, and enter this fixture licking their wounds following a 5-2 pantsing against London rivals, the Gunners.
Defence has been at the crux of both these sides’ performance issues, Leicester has conceded the second most goals in the league (27GA), while West Ham are third worst, conceding three goals fewer.
Three of the last five games between this pair have seen over 3.5 total goals scored, and I’m backing another high-scoring fixture to materialise here.
Everton vs Wolverhampton completes the trifecta of horrible fixtures to commence GW14.
The Toffees are winless across their last six league fixtures (4D,2L), and have failed to score a goal in their last four games.
Alternatively, the Wolves are sitting in 18th place, with just two league wins on the season, though they can take stock from the fact that both wins came across their last three games.
The Wolves hold a terrific league record against the Toffees, winning five of the pairs last six meetings (1D), three straight at Goodison Park.
The Wolves are the slightly better of two poor options here, and provide decent value in the H2H market.
Notts Forest travel to take on a side who over the last four league games have collected the least competition points (0), have conceded the 2nd most goals across the trip (10GA), and scored the 2nd least amount of goals (2GF)!
Yet, the Trees enter this game as $7.75 outsiders!
That’s right, Man City has lost an unprecedented four straight EPL fixtures, and are winless across seven games in all competitions (1D,6L).
The four-time reigning champs have dropped down to fifth on the league table, 11 points behind new title favourites Liverpool, and one point above their opponents Nottingham.
Forest bounced back from a two-game losing streak, seeing off Ipswich 1-0 over the weekend.
City look a shadow of their former selves at the moment, totally devoid of all confidence and ability to defend on transition.
Notts Forest have the big bodies in the centre of the park to bully the Sky Blues, with the speed outside to do damage on the counter.
Every non-Man City supporter is basking in their current form crisis, and long may it continue.
Forest for the upset.
The Reds look to extend their advantage at the top of the league table with a fourth straight victory at St. James Park.
Liverpool have now won seven games straight across all competitions, including recent victories over Man City, Real Madrid, Aston Villa and Brighton, they now face a Newcastle side who have failed to better them in across the last 15 attempts (10W,5D).
I’m backing the Reds to win for the seventh straight time against the Magpies, combined with Over 1.5 Total Goals.
Following a dysfunctional 2023/24 campaign, the Blues continue to prove the naysayers wrong this year, climbing to third on the table, equal with Arsenal on points and goal difference.
What’s less surprising, is the fact that Southampton are struggling at the foot of the league table, with five competition points from 13 games (1W,2D,10L).
The Saints have trailed at the half-time break before going on to lose six games this season, a league-high.
I’m backing the Blues to lead at the end of both halves at even money.
Match of the round takes us to the Emirates Stadium, where the Gunners play host to the Red Devils.
Arsenal has bounced back from a rough spell of form to win their last three games in all competitions, scoring an impressive 13 goals across the trip.
Meanwhile, the Amorim effect is in full swing at Old Trafford, with Man U scoring seven goals across their last two games in all comps, most recently dismantling Everton 4-0.
Although it’s nice to see some life breathed back into Man United, they are still along way off competing on the road to Arsenal.
I have the Gunners winning this one, combined with Over 2.5 Total Goals.
Villa hope to break a horrid run of form when they host Brentford on Thursday morning (AEST).
The Villans are winless across eight games in all competitions (3D,5L), and have dropped into the bottom half of the league table (12th).
Alternatively, the Bees are abuzz at the moment, winning three of their last five league games (1D,1L), leaving them 8th in the standings.
Despite the sale of Ivan Toney, Brentford have found goals easy to come by this season, scoring 26 times in 13 games, a tally on par with Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, with only Tottenham scoring more times (28GF).
Though the Bees’ away form is still a huge reason for concern, they have only managed to secure one league point from six games on the road, equal worst with Southampton.
Brentford’s away form is enough to scare me off backing them outright, instead I’m tipping a goal-heavy fixture.
We could be set for even more goals when Fulham and Brighton clash at Craven Cottage.
The ‘Both Teams to Score’ market has hit in 10 of Brightons’ last 11 games in all competitions, with over 2.5 goals scored in nine of those fixtures.
While the same market has hit in 10 of the last 12 games featuring Fulham, with clean sheets coming at a premium.
I’m backing the ‘Over 2.5 Goals & Both Teams to Score’ double to salute again here.
Game Week 14 wraps up on Friday morning (AEST), when the Spurs travel to Bournemouth.
Tottenham followed up their 4-0 victory over Man City with a disappointing 1-1 draw with Fulham last time out.
While, the Cherries put on a show against the Wolves, winning 4-2, with Justin Kluivert becoming the first player to score a hat-trick of goals from the penalty spot in a Premier League fixture.
Tottenham usually follow up poor result with a decent showing, and I’m backing them to just that in a game which should produce multiple goals.