#BestBets with Patrick Kinghorn: FA Cup QF + EPL Combo!
With all the fantastic midweek football served up on Astro SuperSport this week I’ve had less sleep than Maria Sharapova and now it is pedal to the metal from here until the end of the season with the EPL and the FA Cup sharing top weekend billing for the first time this season. So here we go dear reader with my ‘Three for the Weekend!’
Leicester 3 Newcastle 1
Only one team has surrendered a 5 point or more lead at the top of the table with nine games to go in EPL history. That team was Arsenal in 2003 (the season before they became invincible) and it is becoming increasingly difficult to see a path where the Foxes won’t be crowned champions in May. Their hardest fixtures are at the back end of their nine game schedule and they should really by swatting away Newcastle with the disdain the Toon deserve. At time of writing Rafa Benitez appears poised to put Steve McClaren out of his misery but the Fat Spanish Waiter’s c.v. does not scream that he is man to produce the kind of short term burst that Newcastle are going to need to get out of jail this season.
thenorthernecho.co.uk
Benitez is desperate to go back to Liverpool at some stage and the timing of his Real Madrid exit did him no favors on that score with Jurgen Klopp filling that hot seat three months before Rafa got the Bernabeu boot. I foolishly went with the Toon by virtue of their opponents and home advantage last week when they were battered by Bournemouth. I will not be making the same mistake again for the foreseeable future. The atmosphere at the King Power will be electric and the sole focus of one competition is clearly giving Claudio Ranieri’s charges an edge over their title rivals.
Reading 1 Crystal Palace 2
Crystal Palace are the only one of the 92 football league clubs not to win a league game in 2016 and their wretched run was summed up perfectly by their loss to 10 man Liverpool last Sunday. However there has been precious little wrong with their FA Cup displays in 2016 and a combination of their sparking early season form and the fact there are some truly dreadful teams below them means they are not under the kind of pressure that sort of run usually brings with it towards the end of the season.
Photo Credit: fourfourtwo.com
They went to Spurs and won and should repeat the dose against a Reading side who had to play a league game on Tuesday in Huddersfield and were battered. The odds makers have taken into account Alan Pardew’s side’s recent troubles and they are now a value price to get the job done.
Arsenal 0 Watford 1
Regular readers will know I have tipped Watford to reach the FA Cup Final and regular readers will also know my middle name is not ‘Lucky’. Having been ruthless and efficient throughout the whole competition, Chico Flores’ reward was arguably the hardest tie they could have drawn. The Hornets can be encouraged by the fact that no Arsenal fan cares if they win the FA Cup this season.
Photo Credit: fourfourtwo.com
They may be going for the first FA Cup ‘Three-Peat’ since Blackburn Rovers pulled it off exactly 130 years ago but the sad truth is for the ‘big’ clubs the Cup only counts for something in the modern era if it is won alongside a league title or a European Cup. The injuries the Gunner’s picked up in their replay against Hull aligned with an eye on a ‘must win’ league game at Everton next weekend and a ‘must not get completely humiliated’ game at the Nou Camp before that on Wednesday suggests Watford have a chance of the upset and making the semi -finals. Every Cup tie Watford have played this season has only featured one goal and I’ll take them as an outside shot of making it four 1-0 Cup scores on the spin.
