Andrew Wilsher
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The EPL is back with soccer fans getting ready for the first full Saturday of the new season. New European champions Chelsea are in action – they welcome Crystal Palace – while Manchester United takes on bitter rivals Leeds.
But we’ve looked elsewhere for 3 really solid picks for the opening Saturday of the English top-flight campaign, which will hopefully round off with Liverpool securing victory over Norwich following a feast of goals.
Check out the rest of our soccer predictions and remember to gamble responsibly. A parlay of these 3 EPL predictions can land a big winning ticket, paying odds of +635 with DraftKings Sportsbook.
Leicester (-145)
Brighton (+150)
Liverpool and over 2.5 goals (-135)
Parlay odds: +635
Leicester to beat Wolves (-145), 10am ET
Leicester has played one competitive game and won it, beating Manchester City in the Community Shield, the annual English curtain-raiser between last season’s Premier League and FA Cup winners. That win over mighty Man City showed there’s nothing wrong with Leicester, who finished fifth in the standings last season and should be matching that at the very least this time around. Wolves, in contrast, went backward last season, and given no great investment in players and the departure of respected head coach Nuno Espirito Santo – he has gone to manage Tottenham – this could be a long season for them.
LEICESTER CITY ARE YOUR 2021 FA COMMUNITY SHIELD CHAMPIONS!!! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/sOj6itMX3g
— MadAboutFoxes (@madaboutfoxes) August 7, 2021
Brighton to beat Burnley (+150), 10am ET
Your default position going into the 2021-22 Premier League campaign is that Burnley and Brighton are going to be fighting a relegation battle rather than looking towards the top half of the standings. But looking at this tussle at Turf Moor in a bit more detail leads to the view that Brighton, also known as the Seagulls, is going to be flying back south with the three points.
Bettors are paying a lot of attention to xG stats – expected goals – which show that Brighton was fifth-best in that list in last season’s standings. Yet they finished 16th which says they should be scoring more goals than they actually do. Under their astute head coach Graham Potter they should improve and can certainly win at Burnley, who failed to win any of their last seven home league games last season.
Check out our same game parlay for Manchester United vs Leeds, which pays at huge +7601 odds!
Liverpool to beat Norwich and over 2.5 goals (-135), 12.30pm ET
It all went wrong for Liverpool last season with injuries and goal droughts from their attacking players, but it’s a new season and the Reds should have far too much for newly promoted Norwich. Norwich is a nice team that played a lot of nice stuff last season, but they’ve sold their star player Emi Buendia, the man who pulled the strings in this side, and they look like they can concede goals.
And if we know anything about that Salah-Mane-Firmino front three at Liverpool, it’s that they can bang in the goals. They were quiet as a trio last season yet still combined for 42 league goals. Once they get firing again, it’s anyone’s guess what numbers they can post. Liverpool has an incredible goalscoring record against Norwich–they’ve found the net 29 times in their last 8 Premier League games against the Canaries.
Make sure you check out the rest of our EPL picks and predictions for the weekend
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