Total Goals Guys / Total Goals Guys / 29 February 2008 / Leave a comment " class="free-bet-btn" rel="external" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/G4/inline-freebet');" target="_blank">Free Bet

The "Total Goals Guys" crunch the stats and assess certain team's league position to predict which matches will produce plenty of goals

Two great weeks on the trot, can it continue?

We open up this weekend's action with a lay of 4 goals or more at Eater Road in Saturday's lunch time clash between Hibernian and Celtic. All the season long stats point to a high scoring encounter but recent performances hint otherwise. The hibees boast the best home record outside the Old Firm and recently held league leaders Rangers to a 0-0 draw, albeit in the Scottish Cup. But defensively they have been a lot tighter in the league of late. The Parkhead side are happy to win ugly if need be and first team coach Tommy Burns has insisted after the narrow 1-0 win at Love St last week that at this stage of the season simply winning is the most important thing. Expect Celtic to do so but don't expect many goals. We are laying 4 or more at [3.18] with an exposure of 20% of our balance.

Some might be surprised by how much attention we pay to match odds related information but it's important to know both sides' motives when assessing the amount of goals that will be scored in game. Arsenal need a win so it won't be the best news they've had all season when they look at the fixture list and see its Aston Villa who are due at Ashburton Grove. Villa are the league's highest scorers on the road, averaging 2 a game, and will surely be fancied by the value seekers to spring a surprise on the fixed odds this Saturday. It will be a fascinating encounter in terms of the visitors' Champions League credentials and of course dare we say it the hosts' "bouncebackability". 5 of Villa's last 6 EPL games have finished "overs" with 4 of The Gunners' last 6 ending with 3 or more so we fancy a nibble at the [2.0] on offer for that sort of form to continue. 3 goals or more please.

As if the English Premier League's second worst club Fulham didn't have enough to worry about, they only have a home fixture with league leaders Manchester United to contend with. Craven Cottage averages almost 3 goals per game and 6 weeks ago Arsenal won here easily, scoring 3 goals without reply. It's a little earlier than that stage of the season where teams in the relegation zone start beating the top 6 so we expect business as usual from United here. 4 goals or more looks tasty at [3.18] but this would more than likely depend on a goal from the home side and this is less than guaranteed so we'll go for 3 or more at [1.82].

Sunday's clash at the Reebok between Bolton and Liverpool will hopefully wrap up another profitable weekend. There's a meaty [2.33] available to back 3 goals or more and the layers have us diving into this one for one or two not so obvious reasons. Form-wise it looks risky - The Reebok yields just over 2 goals per game this term and Liverpool's away games considerably less with the reds scoring just 4 times in their last 6 away games so what's to change this Sunday afternoon? Since the 2001/02 season Bolton have always managed to score against Liverpool at home. In fact they have once failed to score at least twice and the visitors haven't won at this ground since September 2002. We're going with recent history on this one - Bolton should manage to score, their current predicament requires so and the pressure is on Liverpool to keep on winning. Both sides will be hungry and this will hopefully result in goals.

20% of our balance (£5.50) is being staked on each of our 4 selections.

Tags: Craven Cottage, football stats, Premiership goals, Reebok Stadium