Weekend Football Betting Tips – 18th & 19th March

Brentford have not beaten Leicester City since a 3-2 win in League Division Two back in 1953. In the 11 games since then, Leicester have won 9 games and two have been drawn. Since the Bees and Foxes have been in the top flight together, Leicester have won two and the other game between them has been drawn earlier this season.

Form suggests that the Bees could be good value to end that run of games without a win here. They are at home, where they have been strong this season, and they are facing a Foxes team that have lost all of their last four games and who still remain very much entrenched in the battle against relegation.

What worries me with Leicester is that they are conceding so many poor goals. Defensively they look so open at times and in attack, they are wasting the chances that their most creative players such as Maddison and Barnes create.

This fixture has produced plenty of goals in the last few years with 14 goals scored in the last four games between the two. I can see both teams scoring here, but I can only see there being one winner and that is the home side.

What can you make of Southampton’s season? They have struggled to get any kind of form going at home and their away record is markedly better than what they have done at home. They now face a Tottenham side that is back in with a real shout of a top four finish but who have their own issues, seemingly with manager Antonio Conte on his way out of the club.

With a club at odds with its manager, I’d usually say that the home side would have a decent opportunity here, but the stats just don’t bear that out. Southampton are losing way too many games at home and conceding too many soft goals at St Mary’s too.

Tottenham’s form isn’t hugely reassuring but they do have the quality at the sharp end of the team and even with Richarlison sulking about his lack of game time in the team, Spurs can still call upon a number of top attacking talents such as Kulusevski, Son and of course, Kane.

I am not normally hugely confident when I have tipped Spurs this season, but I think that this is an away game that they have as good a chance to win as any that they have played and so I am going to back them to land the win here and also for both teams to score as they tend to in these games.

This fixture has tended to go the way of the home team in most recent times with Everton winning all their last four home games against Chelsea, while Chelsea have lost just once to Everton in the Premier League at home, a 1-0 loss back in November 1994.

So, home win seems to be the obvious pick here and in truth, most recent form does suggest this, although it is fair to say that both these teams form has been much improved over the last three or so games than anything before that.

The big difference for me is that Chelsea do have a squad that is packed with high quality talent all over the pitch and that is something that Everton do lack at the moment and which Sean Dyche has not had much chance to address as he took over at the end of the transfer window.

As such, I think this is a game that a Chelsea team with a bit of confidence should be expected to win and I think that they will certainly do that.

It’s a strange anomaly that the home team has won just one of the last ten fixtures between these two teams, and that was a win for Palace back in April 2022. The Gunners gained revenge for that defeat this season with a 2-0 win at Selhurst Park back in August and it would be a brave punter to back against them landing the win here too.

Palace’s form of late has been very poor and Patrick Vieira won’t be able to rely on some help from his former team here, given that Arsenal have a chance to move eight points clear at the top of the table ahead of Manchester City, who are playing in the FA Cup Quarter Finals against Burnley this weekend.

With games to go against Liverpool and Manchester City away, Arsenal will know that that eight point gap could easily be cut in the coming weeks, so every point is absolutely huge for them to pick up, especially with City looking imperious in midweek in the Champions League.

Palace do have a good record against Arsenal but I can’t see them picking up anything here.