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It’s around that time of the season when football chairmen can begin to get itchy trigger fingers, something the men in the dugouts for Monday night’s teatime clash will only be too aware of.
On the face of it, Scott Parker and Slaven Bilic should have enough goodwill in the bank to not fret too much about poor starts, having each achieved promotion from the Sky Bet Championship in the summer.
Nonetheless, the fact remains that Fulham and West Brom are among the four teams yet to register a Premier League win this season.
Parker’s Cottagers are rock bottom with just a point to their name after six games but it’s Bilic who might be in bigger danger, despite being two points better off, if rumours of a row with his board over the sale of Ahmed Hegazi are to be believed.
It’s not just in getting wins on the board where both have struggled, it’s been finding the net – before this weekend, only Burnley and Sheffield United, the other two winless sides, had scored fewer than Albion’s six and Fulham’s five goals.
This all points to a tight and nervy encounter at the Cottage as, while each will be keen to record that first win, they will likely be even more desperate to avoid defeat.
As this week’s Premier League: Punting Pointers identifies, ‘unders’ and draws are very much back en vogue as managers throw the shackles back on after the madcap early weeks of the season – and we can combine those two markets here.
West Brom have drawn three of their past four, including the second-half nightmare against Chelsea when they shipped three goals to draw 3-3, a horror show which has made Bilic keen to tighten things up since.
They have drawn their last two, 0-0 with Burnley and 1-1 at Brighton, and I fancy a repeat of one of those scorelines here which is why I’m recommending the draw/under 2.5 goals bet at a tidy 100/30.
That bet would also have landed both times these evenly-matched teams met in the Championship last term – an early-season 1-1 at Craven Cottage followed by a 0-0 stalemate at The Hawthorns just three months ago.
Best bets:
Odds correct at 1230 30/10/20
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