Premier League - Football: Mark Langdon's antepost tips part two

bet365 News Team Published: Jul 28 2022 21:33

The Racing Post's head of sport content Mark Langdon has been tasked with finding the best value in the Premier League player markets this season and believes a familiar face can pip Erling Haaland to the Golden Boot.

What:	Premier League 2022/23
Where:	England
When:	6th August 2022 - 28th May 2023
How to watch:	Selected matches on Sky Sports and BT Sport
Odds:	Man City 8/13, Liverpool 5/2, Tottenham 12/1, Chelsea 16/1, Man Utd 28/1

Premier League top goalscorer

Few arrivals are more eagerly-anticipated than Haaland's at Manchester City and the Norwegian striker is all the rage at 3/1 to finish as the Premier League's top goalscorer.

Haaland scored 86 goals in 89 games for Borussia Dortmund, but no foreign player has even won the Golden Boot in their debut Premier League season, so the trends are against the 22-year-old.

Mohamed Salah looks the safer bet and at 9/2 the Egyptian should once again be in the frame. In his five campaigns at Liverpool Salah has finished with league goal returns of 32, 22, 19, 22 and 23.

Once he finished clear on his own at the top of the charts, twice he dead-heated for first spot and on another occasion Salah was one behind Harry Kane. The sole time he failed to land at least the each-way money was 2019-20, when he still bagged 19 times.

Tottenham ace Kane may be distracted by upcoming World Cup duties captaining England, and could also have to share the goals along with team-mate Heung-Min Son.

Cristiano Ronaldo, available at 14/1, does not appear to be loving life at Old Trafford and may struggle to play every week these days, even if he remains at Manchester United.

At a much bigger price Kai Havertz is of interest at 40/1. Havertz once scored 18 goals in a season for Bayer Leverkusen and should get plenty of minutes as Chelsea's preferred frontman.

Player total goals

Haaland is 8/1 to score 35 or more goals this season and 5/4 to reach at least 25, but one concern would be his hamstring injuries, after he missed 16 matches last term with muscle problems.

Gabriel Jesus should have more chance of notching at least 15 goals at 1/1, although a safer bet looks to be to take the Brazilian to be Arsenal's top scorer at 4/6.

Bukayo Saka took that honour last term with 11 Premier League goals and it would be a major disappointment if Jesus failed to lead the Gunners' charge.

Goalscorer match bets

Only once in Philippe Coutinho's career has he managed to reach double figures for goals in a league season and he could be left trailing Wilfried Zaha in a match bet.

Coutinho's four full Premier League campaigns with Liverpool returned figures of five, five, eight and 13 and at Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Inter and Espanyol he never managed to beat eight.

Five goals in 19 games was not a bad return on loan at Aston Villa last season, however, Zaha is a solid 4/6 shot to outscore the Brazilian playmaker.

Zaha has hit double figures in three of his last four seasons and is on penalty duty for Crystal Palace as well.

Complete the treble with two outsiders - Newcastle United's Callum Wilson at 1/1 to beat West Ham Michail Antonio and Riyad Mahrez at 13/8 to beat former Citizens colleague Raheem Sterling.

Mahrez used to be team-mates with Sterling and is settled within City's structure. He notched 11 goals last season and has returned 31 Premier League goals across the last three campaigns, which might be a consistency that sees off Sterling, now of Chelsea.

Sterling is not certain to settle at Chelsea and he is unlikely to be presented with the same number of chances which were regularly created at the Etihad.

Wilson needs to stay fit and if he does it should be a decent campaign. He scored eight times in 18 outings last season and has 20 in 44 for United in the Premier League.

It's an excellent ratio and Antonio could find his minutes squeezed at West Ham due to the Europa Conference League and the arrival of other forwards, with Gianluca Scamacca already added to the Irons' ranks.

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Most assists

One of the best markets available this season is the most assists and a three-pronged approach looks the way to go in such a wide-open betting heat.

Firstly, Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold is difficult to knock out of the frame at 9/1. He had 12 last season and 13 in 2019/20, so seems likely to go well once more with Jurgen Klopp allowing his right-back to play almost like a winger.

Alexander-Arnold is on set-pieces too and has somebody to hit with his crosses now targetman striker Darwin Nunez has been brought in from Benfica to replace Sadio Mane.

Dejan Kulusevski at 33/1 is another for the notebook. He had the same amount of assists (eight) as 9/2 favourite Kevin De Bruyne last term despite only arriving at Spurs in January.

The silky Swede had an assist per 90 minutes figure of 0.57 - second in the league behind injury-hit Paul Pogba - and if he can translate that over a full season must go close. It also helps that the prolific Kane and Son will be finishing off Kulusevski's work.

Only Salah and Alexander-Arnold finished with more assists than Harvey Barnes' 10 and his 0.43 assists per 90 was bettered just by Pogba and Kulusevski. Leicester City forward Barnes is brilliant when fit and can outrun odds of 40/1.

Golden Glove

The award for most clean sheets should be a straight battle between 1/1 Ederson and 7/4 Alisson. Man City keeper Ederson has won it twice in the last four years, Liverpool ace Alisson once and the Brazilian pair shared the award with 20 shutouts each last term.

At the prices it might make sense to take Alisson, who is arguably the best shot-stopper in world football and unrivalled in one-on-one situations.

PFA Player of the Year

Things are getting obvious in the PFA Player of the Year voting with the last five winners coming from just two teams - Man City and Liverpool.

De Bruyne and Salah have won two each, with Virgil van Dijk the other, and it may not pay to look too far beyond the fancied runners this time.

Few could argue De Bruyne is the most complete player in the league and a third PFA award in four years looks the way to go at 8/1.

Those looking for more juice may be interested in Christian Eriksen at 66/1. The great Dane is hugely respected and if he repeats his Spurs and Brentford form for Manchester United then he could make a mockery of such big odds.

By Mark Langdon