Our Handicap Tips to Watch Around Europe This Weekend - 20/11/21

Despite a woeful start to the season which saw Mikel Arteta’s job under threat, Arsenal now sit just two points behind title-chasing Liverpool, knowing a win at Anfield will take them up into the top four ahead of the Reds.
Liverpool saw their incredible unbeaten run, which stretched back to April, ended before the international break when they fell to defeat at the London Stadium against West Ham United.

They are going brilliantly in a tough Champions League group, but have now fallen to fourth. However, luckily for Jurgen Klopp, they now face an opponent they love playing, Arsenal, a team they completed a comfortable double over last season.

Arsenal’s great form since September has gone slightly under the radar, but they have gathered substantial momentum to lift themselves from the foot of the table to fifth in the matter of eight matches. However, their only relatively tough tests on paper were against underperforming Leicester and Tottenham sides. Their last fixture against a side on a similar level to Liverpool saw them lose 5-0 at Manchester City.

Liverpool have won five in a row and are unbeaten in eight at home to the Gunners, scoring 28 goals in the process. This season, seven of their 12 wins have been by three or more goals, so Liverpool (-2) is our tip at 10/3.

With the South American World Cup qualifiers not causing as much disruption as they did in October, a full La Liga weekend will take place, and Real Madrid’s trip to Granada will be a key fixture at both ends of the table.

Since their horror week in September, which saw them draw with Villarreal and lose to Sheriff Tiraspol and Espanyol, Real Madrid have won five from six, while drawing the other. This run has calmed tensions on Carlo Ancelotti while everything was going up in flames at their rivals Barcelona, especially after Real beat them in the El Clasico.

Real are far and away the highest scorers in the division with 28 so far while their next opponents, Granada, are having a tough time of it near the bottom, sitting just one place above the drop zone. Real Madrid are not ideal opponents to face next, considering they have won on their previous six trips to the Estadio Los Carmenes.

Three of those six wins here for Real were by three or more goals, so a repeat is certainly possible. Real Madrid (-2) is 10/3.

Borussia Monchengladbach will look to continue their unbeaten start at home this season, when Greuther Furth travel to Borussia-Park, with the visitors sitting on just one point after 11 games.

After a really slow start for the Foals, a 5-0 win over Bayern Munich in the cup for Gladbach has seemingly brought some stability, as they won four points from the two league games which followed. A win here over a hapless Furth side could see them rise into the European places, a result which will be expected considering Gladbach are unbeaten in their six home games this season, two of which were against Bayern.

Furth run the risk of being the worst side in Bundesliga history if their current points tally is anything to judge them by. Nine defeats in a row and just one point means they have made the worst start of any side in the league’s history, and they are already eight points from safety with barely a third of the season played. Schalke’s relegation last season showed how difficult it is to recover from such a shocking start.

Gladbach have won nine of their last ten games at home to newly-promoted sides, and Furth do not look equipped to challenge that record in the slightest. Gladbach (-2) is 2/1.

High-flying Lens hope to consolidate their Champions League spot this weekend when they travel to struggling Brest, as Franck Haise’s side incredibly find themselves sitting in second, with only Paris Saint-Germain ahead of them.

Whether Lens’ surge for the Champions League is sustainable is still questionable, considering their top scorer is currently left-wing-back Przemyslaw Frankowski, but striker Arnaud Kalimuendo could be the man they look to for the rest of the season as he impressed again for the French U21’s last week, scoring two against Armenia, after scoring in consecutive matches for Lens.

Recent wins over Troyes (4-0), Metz (4-1) and Reims (2-0) have shown they can put struggling sides to the sword, and Brest have not made a good start to the Ligue 1 campaign either. A win before the international break lifted them out of the bottom three, but they remain level on points with Bordeaux who sit 18th.

Four wins from their last 28 matches means it was a near-miracle Brest survived last season, but a continuation of that kind of form and they will be heading to Ligue 2 this time around. Lens (-1) is 7/2.

It is cup weekend in Portugal, and the biggest mismatch of the weekend on paper looks to be Primeira Liga leaders Porto facing second-tier Feirense at the Estadio do Dragao.

With a trip to Anfield on the horizon for Sergio Conceicao’s men, their lineup may look a bit different for this encounter, but the ‘Big Three’ in Portugal are head and shoulders above all of the sides in the top division even with a second-string team present, so facing a team from the division below should be no problem for Porto this Saturday.

A slightly-rotated side won 5-0 away at Sintrense in the last round for Porto, and big wins in the league against Tondela and Boavista have since followed too, as well as success in the Champions League. Feirense made a very strong start to their own season too, but form has tailed off a bit, winning just one of their last four league games, and it will be a big shock if they can get anything from this tie.

Porto’s 28 goals from 11 games is a league-high, and the 5-0 win in the cup was the biggest of the round, so goals are expected here. Porto (-1) is 1/1.