With Premier League football over for 2014, we don’t have long to wait for the start of 2015’s action. There’s ten Premier League games to enjoy on New Year’s Day, including a triple bill of live games on TV. It should make for the perfect way to start off your New Year, and it looks like a great day for betting, too.
There are a ton of great value bets on Thursday, with a whole host of big games to enjoy. We have the usual situation of eight Premier League games kicking off at 3pm, with those sandwiched between Manchester United’s trip to Stoke and a London derby between Tottenham and Chelsea. With all that to come, we’ve previewed four of the big NYD games, with betting tips on each and a combined fourfold bet for you ahead of the start of 2015.
Thursday 1st January 2015
Stoke v Manchester United (12:45) – Both teams to score (5/6 with BetVictor)
The first Premier League game of the year comes from the Britannia Stadium, with Manchester United looking to extend their nine game unbeaten record against the Potters. Mark Hughes’ men ended 2014 here with a 2-0 win over West Brom, with former United man Mame Biram Diouf scoring twice. They’ll be looking for a repeat of last season’s 3-2 win over United, as they look to get themselves into the top ten of the table.
As for Manchester United, they come here in great form, with seven wins and two draws in their last nine, which has sparked talk of a title tilt. You do have to wonder just how much Louis van Gaal knows about Stoke, especially on their own patch. The United boss surely can’t get away with fielding three strikers here, they’ll need more defensive steel. The United defence has tightened up in recent weeks, but they’re in for a tough test here. With both sides playing well, both teams to score looks like a good bet, especially at odds just a shade under evens.
Man City v Sunderland (15:00) – City to win and both teams to score (23/10 with Coral)
Manchester City blew the chance to go within a point of Chelsea when they threw away a two goal lead to draw 2-2 with Burnley in their last game. That was a huge missed opportunity for City, and now they host Sunderland at the Etihad looking to put that behind them and put pressure on the Pensioners. They’ve still got the chance to go top with a big win here, but they are missing a few key players.
After Sunderland gave their fans an early Christmas present with a win at Newcastle, normality quickly resumed for them with a defeat at home to Hull and a draw at Aston Villa. That wasn’t a great end to the year for them, but they’re on 20 points at the halfway stage, which sets them up very well for survival. This isn’t the kind of game they’d target points from, but with their recent performances here, and the Burnley result on Sunday, they might be able to give City a scare. With the champions once again looking dodgy at the back, a home win and both teams to score looks good here. They could hardly drop points at home again, but Sunderland will fancy themselves to at least trouble the City defence.
West Ham v West Brom (15:00) – West Ham to win (5/6 with BetVictor)
Back to back defeats have seen West Ham fall from fourth to six, but they’ll be confident of bouncing back against a struggling West Brom side. The Hammers were unlucky to lose to Arsenal, after having a goal controversially disallowed and a soft penalty given against them. They should come in to this game looking to put that result behind them, and West Brom are probably the perfect team for them to face right now.
West Brom boss Alan Irvine is hanging onto his job by a thread at the Baggies, with his own fans calling for his head after their defeat at Stoke last Sunday. A defeat here could spell the end for him, or he might even go before then. With such uncertainty hanging over the club it’s hard to see them being able to produce a result here. After seven defeats in their last nine, West Brom look there for the taking in this one. With West Ham now close to evens to win this, they’re very good value indeed for the win.
Tottenham v Chelsea (17:30) – Chelsea to win (5/6 with Coral)
The final game of the day comes from White Hart Lane, with Tottenham looking to end a winless run of nine games against Chelsea in the Premier League. The Blues could only draw against Southampton on Sunday, but they were let off by City’s slip up. They know they can’t afford to drop points again here, so they need to keep up their good form against their north London rivals.
For Spurs, they drew 0-0 with Manchester United at Old Trafford, and that’s left them sitting two points off the top four. They’ve started to pick their form up, but it was just a month ago that Chelsea beat them 3-0 at Stamford Bridge. There’s 15 points between Spurs and the league leaders, and that class difference should tell on Thursday. The Blues have looked impressive over the Christmas period, bar the draw in the last game, and with the four day break they should be back to their strongest team and back to winning ways. At odds of 5/6 to get a win, Chelsea are great value to continue their good run against Spurs.
Those are our singles tips for the News Year’s Day football, but those four bets in an accumulator comes to a very tasty 17/1 with Coral, which is a good option for a longer odds bet spread across the day’s action.