Last week saw a rough Saturday going 0-2 to start the weekend but we bounced back on Sunday with a Manchester City win to make things far less painful finishing down 2 units. It's a big week as we head into week 4 with the transfer window closing soon and the Champions League draw being announced.
The week kicks off at 4:45 AM PST with Arsenal going on the road to St. James Park to face Newcastle United. For Arsenal this is supposed to be the season that they stop being a solid top 4 team and begin to challenge for a league title. A hot start for Manchester City and a so-so one for the Gunners has many feeling this is the same team we've seen the past few seasons. News flip-flopped throughout the week as striker Karim Benzema was said to be headed to Arsenal, yet then a day later that was proven to not be the case. Arsenal is still active in the market and Edinson Cavani of Paris Saint-Germain is rumored to be the next eye of their pursuit. Newcastle played Manchester United to a goalless draw last week which for me is a good result being against much better competition. Arsenal also played a goalless draw with Liverpool on Monday in a steady rain. I'll take the side with far more talent here and don't mind laying a large vig because I'm confident in getting the result we need.
2-1 Arsenal -150 2u
Defending champion Chelsea struggled the first two weeks and got back on track in week 3 with a 3-2 win over West Bromwich Albion. A missed penalty kick for West Brom early on ended up being the difference maker. New acquisition Pedro tallied in his first Chelsea appearance as did Diego Costa and Cesar Azpilicueta. John Terry was shown a red card in the 54th minute when he was clearly beaten again inside in the box. His rough start continues and I'm still not impressed with this Chelsea side early on. In their quest to purchase center back John Stones from Everton they continue to come up short. Chelsea has offered £20M, then £26M, then even £30M for the rights to sign Stones and Everton continues to stand firm that they are not going to sell him. Rumors swirl that Chelsea now may offer £40M which at that point Everton would be insane not to accept. We're talking about $60.6M in USD just for the right to sign him, not even counting the costs of the contract the club would pay Stones himself.
Crystal Palace continues to look to be a top half table team with a 2nd win of the season over Aston Villa 2-1 last week. With the line being what it is, it's take Palace or pass and we're going to jump in on this one. With such a big dog line I like to take the goal line here and also throw something small on the ML.
1-1 Draw - Crystal Palace +1.5 -120 1u - maybe 5 to 10% more on the +976
Our final play of the week comes in the form of Leicester City heading to Bournemouth. The Cherries beat us last week in a wild 4-3 win over West Ham United. I had talked about how this Bournemouth team hadn't found the back of the net and boy did they make me eat those words. Leicester after two wins over Sunderland and West Ham played Tottenham to a 1-1 draw last week and I feel like they're getting a good number here as they travel to Bournemouth. Riyhad Mahrez has scored 4 times in the first 3 games of this season and I think his, along with the Foxes hot start continues. We'll take the pick line here so a draw isn't a loser just in case.
2-1 Leicester City - pick +153 2u
You can read the week 3 preview here
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