Lee Phelps’ Premier League Picks: Palmer to find his shooting boots

As the ‘winter break’ kicks in, we have a reduced Premier League fixture list but four good games, with plenty at stake in terms of points and form, with AFCON and the Asian Cup impact starting to tell. Let’s pick out a bet in all four.

The early kick-off pits two League Cup semi-final first leg losers against each other as Fulham go to Chelsea, who dominated at Middlesbrough but couldn’t put the ball in the net. Cole Palmer had four shots and two on target at the Riverside and is nearly 2/1 to add to his eight league goals, but he’s virtually the same price for over one shot on target too, so take your pick.

At tea-time Newcastle are trying to build on their win at Sunderland against a rejuvenated Manchester City. They’ve already beaten them at home in the League Cup, so know how to do it, but the teams and confidence levels are different now. I expect the champions to continue their run of five straight wins and because of the price difference I’ve started to look at the players to assist rather than score. Kevin de Bruyne returned to action by setting one up against Huddersfield (he’s under 2/1) while Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez are third in the league’s assist table with six each. They’re 3/1 and 7/2 to set a goal up respectively.

I’ll leave you with a quick double for Sunday based on goals. All four sides average over 2.5 per game in the league and Villa and Spurs are right at the top of the goals per game table. So, an over 3.5 goals double pays just under 5/1.

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