Premier League Betting Tips: Manchester City and Liverpool in mid-week action

While the bright lights of Champions League football will be taking most of the attention this midweek, there are two games in the Premier League that could have a big impact on the destiny of the title.

Despite Arsenal’s series of scintillating performances since the winter break, it is still Manchester City and Liverpool who lead the title race betting market and both sides are in action on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

Manchester City vs Brentford

Tuesday, 19.30

When previewing this match, we are in the fortunate position of having watched the teams play each other very recently, 15 days ago to be precise. 

On that occasion, City ran out 3-1 winners thanks to a breathtaking Phil Foden hat-trick. City have won two of their three games since, but the performance in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Saturday left a lot to be desired. 

Meanwhile, Brentford were impressive in their victory over Wolves at Molineux but were outgunned by Liverpool on Saturday lunchtime. 

Brentford have struggled against good teams this season, losing all seven of their eight matches against clubs currently in the top six.

They only failed to score  in two of those matches and since Ivan Toney returned they are averaging 1.8 goals per game, so both teams to score looks a good bet. BTTS has also clicked in 67% of games at the Etihad this season.

Bees manager Thomas Frank was full of praise for Foden in his pre-match press conference. “For me, he’s the closest England player to get a Ballon D’Or in the future. I think he has the potential,” he said

Foden has found the net against Frank’s side five times in five matches since they were promoted. On the other hand, Erling Haaland is still yet to score. Therefore, Foden over Haaland for the goalscorer bet seems like a wise move.

Despite not getting on the scoresheet until the second half, Toney was a constant threat against Liverpool and had multiple shots on target throughout the game. Toney also has a good record at the Etihad, scoring twice there last season. 

Bet Builder Tip: Manchester City to win, BTTS, Phil Foden to score and Ivan Toney to have over 0.5 shots on target @ 7.0

Liverpool vs Luton Town

Wednesday, 19.30

Liverpool will probably have half an eye on Sunday’s EFL Cup final meeting with Chelsea, but they should still have enough to beat Luton.

The hosts boast the best home record in the Premier League, taking 32 points from a possible 36, while the visitors have won only twice away all season. Luton can take heart from the fact that one of those wins came on the other side of Stanley Park against Everton.

They can recall that they gave Liverpool a tough game at Kenilworth Road back in November, with the visitors needing a 95th-minute goal from Luis Diaz to salvage a point. 

The Reds do have an injury crisis at the moment with Curtis Jones, Diogo Jota and Allison all recently being added to the list of long-term absentees that already includes Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai and Joel Matip.

Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah are also slight doubts for this match with Jurgen Klopp likely to focus on Sunday’s final.

Due to not being certain over the composition of Liverpool’s frontline, I am going to avoid any goalscorer bets, but the over/under goals market is appealing. 

Premier League matches at Anfield are averaging the fifth most goals of any ground in the league at 3.58. While Luton’s away matches are averaging the fourth most of any team in the league at 3.64. Therefore, over 3.5 goals looks like a good call..

At Anfield, Liverpool have been rampant in the second half of matches. No team has scored more after half-time at home than their 19 and nobody has a better goal difference, +15. I also think there is a decent chance Luton will be able to frustrate Liverpool in the second half, forcing Klopp to go to his bench and bring on the likes of Salah and Nunez.

Bet Builder Tip: Liverpool to win, over 3.5 goals, Liverpool to win the second half @ 3.55