Ignoring the potential of opposing teams for this example, the bull789 to score the first goal at home this year should be around the 5/2 mark, with 12/1 freely available in matches away from Goodison Park. Those odds will not be reflected by bookmakers however, and punters need to hammer home the advantage, whether laying or playing the markets this season.
The scenario is repeated in the ‘correct score’ sector, with supporters of the popular teams steaming in for their side to slaughter the opposition on a weekly basis.
Although cynics suggest that ‘anoraks’ like myself can interpret numbers to an advantage, the facts suggest that figures never lie, and adopting this positive attitude can reap rewards.
Okay, so Arsenal hammered Middlesbrough 7-0 last year, but how many people would have suggested that Boro would have been the team that would have taken the hiding? Arsenal only managed to score a single home goal against Birmingham, before scraping past Cardiff (2-1) in a Highbury tie against Cardiff in the F.A. Cup, which emphasises the point I am trying to make.
If you consider that the home team is the favourite in the majority of matches, the sobering thought to consider when playing the correct score market, is that a stat of 310 against 70 emerged via home teams that scored a maximum of two goals in the Premiership last season. To ram home the point, also consider that two hundred and nineteen of those home teams scored less than two goals!
Splitting the two halves of a game offers more insight into the way that managers ‘wind up’ their players. Chelsea only ‘won’ sixteen first half ‘matches’, but claimed twenty-seven ‘victories’ in the second half of their games.
Hopefully this type of information will lead you to bet with your head this season and secure a profit instead of annual losses.
And finally to the bet of the year! This season’s major spread bet will be the market pertaining to the number of cards that Mrs (Graham) Poll will receive on her birthday. My spread would be around the 11/12 mark, with three given by her husband! Be lucky.