LeeDixon

Match Odds

When selecting my weekly Banker from the Premier League's fixture list, a Spurs win
is what I went with.

Not that I think this will be a walk in the park for Harry Redknapp's side, where they win by three or four goals. But I do think Spurs are on a pretty good run at the moment and their win at Fulham showed they can be resilient as well as cavalier and grind out results, even when they're on the back foot as they were for most of the second-half in that match. And according to Opta, this is their best ever start to a Premier League campaign with 22 points from their opening 10 matches. And that after losing their first two matches. It's also worth remembering that Tottenham beat Villa home and away last campaign, 2-1 on both occasions.

So plenty of evidence that Spurs should win this match. You can back them at 1.59 but for a bigger return it may be worth looking at the correct score market where 1-0 (11.0) and 2-0 (10.0) are my ideas of a scoreline.

Over/Under 2.5 Goals

You'll already know from my correct score prediction that I fancy this to be a pretty low-scoring match.

In part that has to do with the possibility that two of the most likely scorers (ahead of the match) may miss out. The news is that Rafael van der Vaart actually has a pretty good chance of playing but if he does, he probably won't be 100% fit. And he was the man who scored all four of those Spurs goals against Villa last season.

Aston Villa's joint-top scorer Gabriel Agbonlahor is also struggling with an injury. He may not play, he may only start on the bench but either way, just like the Dutchman, he's unlikely to be at the peak of his powers.

Brad Friedel is in incredible form despite being the wrong side of 40 and that's a further reason why I expect this to be low-scoring. Back 'unders' at a very big 2.44.

To Score

Van der Vaart would normally be the man I'd be looking at but we've already discussed the question marks over his fitness. Emmanuel Adebayor is always a threat but it's now six league matches without a goal so I'm going to take the view that he's out of form rather than that "he's due"!

I prefer the chances of Gareth Bale, who has three in his last two Premier League games and was amongst the goals for Wales at the weekend. Bale is 3.3 to score at anytime and he's my pick in this market.

4 pts Back Spurs to win @ 1.59
1 pt each Back 1-0 @ 11.0 and 2-0 @ 10.0
2 pts Back Under 2.5 goals @ 2.44
2 pts Back Gareth Bale to score @ 3.3

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