Saturday Premier League 3pm Kick-Offs: Back United to score four again

Manchester United 1.21 v Brighton 22.00; The Draw 7.60

(Significant Opta Stat: Manchester United have won 18 consecutive home Premier League games against sides in their debut Premier League season.)

I've felt for a few weeks now that United are starting to stutter, and that might just be the case given they've now lost three of their last seven in all competitions following a very disappointing defeat to Basel in the Champions League in midweek.

However, all those three defeats were away from home and their two other games that they failed to win this season were also on their travels.

This obviously means then that Jose Mourinho's men have a 100% winning record at Old Trafford this season; nine games played, nine wins, 28 goals scored and just two conceded. And given the above Opta stat - that they always beat Premier League debut teams at home - then it's impossible to back against them when they host Brighton on Saturday afternoon.

But then at odds of just 1.21 to win you don't need me to tell you who are the likely victors. And of course, United are now starting to get some key players back to full fitness; Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Marcos Rojo to name three.

What United have done well this season, especially at Old Trafford, is put teams to the sword by scoring plenty of late goals.

They have high class players on the bench who are desperate to make an impact when they come on, and that has usually always meant late goals against the lesser lights - West Ham, Everton, Palace, and Newcastle all conceded four to United with 10 of those 16 combined goals coming in the second half and six of them from the 80th minute onwards.

So I think the best bet here is to back Mourinho's men to win comfortably again, and by that I mean by scoring at least four goals. Apologies for not giving Brighton a big mention but I believe this game is all about United, the home team taking their chances, and seeing how many goals they can score.

Recommended Bets
Back Any Other Home Win @ 3.60 (best bet)

Crystal Palace 2.12 v Stoke 4.10; The Draw 3.45

(Significant Opta Stat: Crystal Palace have lost 20 Premier League games in 2017 so far, the most by any side. They also lost the most (22) in 2016.)

Perhaps I do get too much into odds comparison but I do find it fascinating at times. At the start of the season, Palace, after finishing last season in tremendous style, were around even money at home to newly promoted Huddersfield.

We all know what happened. The Eagles were well beaten and that sort of set the tone for what's happened since. Palace have won just one league game all season and currently sit rock bottom of the Premier League.

Yet here they are trading at not far off even money again. Only this time we know that they are in poor form - in fact the Opta stat above tells us they've lost more games in each of the last two calendar years than any other top flight side - and they are facing a team who arguably are much better than Huddersfield.

What I'm trying to say is that I couldn't have Palace at this price with stolen money. They may win of course, but given the current form of both the Eagles and Stoke I'm extremely confident that if this game were to be played four times under the exact same circumstances and form that each team are in right now, then Mark Hughes' men would win at least one of those matches.

And therefore, at 4.10 to back, Stoke are the value call.

I'm fully aware that Palace are unbeaten in three now on home soil, and that they have some key players back from injury - Wilfried Zaha being the obvious one - so they are perhaps improving. But they also conceded two goals to lowly West Ham and Everton in each of their last two home games and I envisage Stoke getting on the scoresheet once or twice also.

Hughes' men are in decent form themselves and won at then in-form Watford recently, so against statistically the worst team in the division currently, I'm more than happy to take a chance on them at the current odds.

Recommended Bet
Back Stoke to Win @ 4.10

Tottenham 1.28 v West Brom 16.00; The Draw 6.20

(Significant Opta Stat: Harry Kane has scored six goals in his five Premier League meetings with West Brom, including a hat-trick in this fixture last season.)

Betting on a match where one of the teams has just changed manager can sometimes be a tricky affair, and when you consider Tottenham's struggles at Wembley earlier in the season I'm sure there'll be quite a few people willing to take the home side on here.

But I'm not one of them. And the reason for that is because I simply can't get out of my head how dreadful West Brom were last Saturday. Okay, Chelsea were brilliant in winning 4-0 at the Hawthorns but it's been a long time since I saw a team perform so poorly in front of their own fans.

And it's not as if last week's performance was out of the blue, the Baggies have been in awful form for some time now, failing to win any of their last 11 matches.

Of course, Tony Pulis being sacked and Gary Megson taking temporary charge adds another angle, but I just don't envisage anything else than West Brom going to Wembley to try and shut up shop.

I'm confident Spurs will make the breakthrough eventually, and if it comes early enough then they could easily repeat what Chelsea did to the Baggies seven days ago. Mauricio Pochettino's men recorded an excellent away win at Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League in midweek, immediately putting behind them last week's north London derby loss.

I fancy Tottenham will cover the -1 goal handicap here - if they can score three past Real Madrid then they should have few problems against lacklustre West Brom - and I'm also willing to take a chance on Harry Kane netting yet another hat-trick, just like he did in this fixture last season in a 4-0 win.

Recommended Bet
Back Tottenham -1 to Win @ 1.88
Back Harry Kane to score a hat-trick @ 12/1