Our Premier League Tips for the Weekend - 21/01/22

After a shaky start to the season, Leeds United have begun to find some form putting significant distance between themselves and a potentially relegation battle. Marcelo Bielsa’s side have won two on the bounce against Burnley and West Ham United, with Jack Harrison netting his first Premier League hat-trick in a 3-2 win at the London Stadium last time out.

Despite two marquee signings in Kieran Trippier and Chris Wood, Newcastle United are without a win in five and will travel to Elland Road as the underdogs this weekend. Neither side has lacked goals in their recent fixtures, with a total of 16 goals in Newcastle’s last five games and 26 in Leeds last five.

All this points to a shoot out at Elland Road with our tip over 3.5 match goals.

In a tight game against Chelsea last weekend, Manchester City came away with all three points to close in on their record of 18 consecutive league wins whilst simultaneously extending their lead at the top of the table. Despite losing to Wolves last week, hosts Southampton have been in fine form, with just one defeat in their past 5 whilst finding the net on each occasion.

The Citizen's boast an impressive record of conceding just 13 times this season, however, the Saints have only failed to score twice when playing at St. Mary’s Stadium this season and given their recent goalscoring prowess, we expect them to continue this run.

Although we do back Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men to score, we think City will still take all three points with our tip being for both teams to score and City to win priced.

Interim manager Duncan Ferguson will take charge of Everton when they welcome Aston Villa to Goodison Park in this Saturday's early kick-off. The hosts are in abysmal form, losing three of the past five games including a shock loss to then bottom-placed Norwich, leaving the Toffees 16th with just 19 points on the board.

Aston Villa’s new signing Philippe Coutinho helped the visitors salvage a point against Manchester United last time out, with the Brazilian scoring a late equaliser as Villa battled back from a two-goal deficit.

In Coutinho’s first stint in the Premier League with Liverpool, he was known for his trademark longshots often giving keepers a torrid afternoon and after showing what he can offer in his 20-minute cameo against the Red Devils last week, Gerrard may well give his new man some creative freedom.

We expect Coutinho to pick up where he left off and give Jordan Pickford a tough afternoon, with him having two shots on target.

After a strong start to the season, Crystal Palace have experienced a downturn in form recently and this week welcome a Liverpool side still without Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah. Both sides have struggled of late, with Palace winning just once in the past five and Liverpool twice, although the Reds have had significantly tougher fixtures in this time with games against Tottenham, Chelsea, and Leicester City.

With Mane and Salah still at the AFCON, Jurgen Klopp will be reliant on Diogo Jota to step up with the forward’s 10 goals leaving him as the league's second top scorer. Jota has failed to find the net since a 3-1 win over Newcastle in mid-December, however, we back the forward to return to the goals in the absence of Liverpool’s chief threats priced at 13/10 to score anytime.

Following a disappointing home draw to Brighton, Chelsea will be looking to return to winning ways when they face London rivals Tottenham at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Thomas Tuchel’s side have only lost one of their past five games, against league leaders City, whilst under Antonio Conte Spurs have yet to taste league defeat after a miraculous late comeback against Leicester midweek, however, they were comfortably beaten by Chelsea in both legs of the League Cup semi-final recently.

History favours the home side, with Spurs winning just once at Stamford Bridge in the last 30 years and we expect Chelsea to uphold this fine record and win 1-0, 2-0, or 2-1.