Best bets for the weekend football

Cardiff v Fulham3pm Saturday
The Premier League has been a steep learning curve for Cardiff and Fulham since their promotion from the Sky Bet Championship but the Cottagers should enjoy dropping down in class on their trip to Wales.

Fulham's problem has been their defence, with 21 goals conceded, and boss Slavisa Jokanovic has hardly helped matters. He has regularly changed his personnel all season and repeatedly tinkered with his formation in the thumping defeat by Arsenal last time out.

However, Cardiff don't possess an Alexandre Lacazette or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to take advantage and Fulham's forward play looks far more progressive than the hosts'.

Fulham forward Aleksandar Mitrovic has scored more Premier League goals on his own this season (five) than Cardiff have managed in total (four) and the Serb continued his excellent personal campaign with a brace in Serbia's Nations League triumph over Montenegro.

With Mitrovic, Andre Schurrle, Luciano Vietto and Ryan Sessegnon in their ranks Fulham can trade attacking blows with better teams than Cardiff, who they beat 4-2 in the Welsh capital last season.

Cardiff have had an horrendous run of fixtures which may help to explain their six-match losing run, but it is difficult to see them as favourites against any Premier League opponents.

Neil Warnock's side have collected only two points, from 0-0 draws against Newcastle and Huddersfield and the opposition were reduced to ten men in both games.

Warnock was given only a modest budget to improve a squad who surprisingly gained promotion in the first place and the Bluebirds are likely to return to the second tier.

Recommendation
Fulham draw no bet
2pts 21-20 Betfair

Derby v Sheffield United5.30pm Saturday
There is no doubt Sheffield United deserve respect - not only are they top of the Championship but they are also performing well on expected goals - so the Blades could well be genuine promotion candidates this season.

However, because of the shot data United are getting enormous respect, to the point where they could even go off favourites against Derby at Pride Park. That might be going too far.

It could be that the Sheffield side have taken advantage of a nice early set of fixtures, playing only one match against the top eight, and that ended in a 3-0 defeat at Middlesbrough.

Derby were destroyed 4-1 by Leeds early in Frank Lampard's reign, but their other defeats have come in physical away losses at Bolton, Rotherham and Millwall when arguably the younger members of their Rams side were roughed up.

County showed their footballing ability with the League Cup win at Manchester United and they oozed class when beating a strong Brentford side 3-1 in their penultimate home encounter.

Mason Mount is pulling the strings in midfield and they should improve as the season goes on and the squad become accustomed to Lampard's footballing philosophy.

Recommendation
Derby draw no bet
1pt 10-11 Betfred

Everton v Crystal Palace4pm Sunday
Everton have let down their backers at home this season against West Ham and Huddersfield but with the injury list clearing it looks a solid opportunity for the Toffees to land a hat-trick of Premier League victories when Crystal Palace visit Goodison Park.

Everton's played some slick football as they beat Leicester 2-1 with Gylfi Sigurdsson, Bernard, Theo Walcott and Richarlison forming a mobile front four.

Marco Silva is also boosted by the return from injury of Yerry Mina and Andre Gomes, two of his summer signings from Barcelona, and the Toffees should justify being odds-on against Palace.

The visitors have picked up seven points this season, although all of those came against sides no higher than 17th with defeats to Liverpool, Bournemouth, Wolves, Watford and Southampton.

There is little attacking imagination outside of Wilfried Zaha and if Everton contain the Eagles' talisman it is likely to be game over for the visitors, who are missing the strength of injured target-man striker Christian Benteke.

Recommendation
Everton
1pt 22-25 Hills

Plays of the day

Banker
Real Betis 8-13
Valladolid's three-match winning streak appears unsustainable and Betis, who have kept seven clean sheets in their last nine matches, have the quality to land a fourth home win in five outings.

Blowout
Tottenham 10-11
Spurs have won only two of their last six and four of their last 12 matches against West Ham, who have beaten their London rivals in three of the last five meetings in front of their own supporters.

Treble
Fiorentina 4-7, Gladbach 5-8, Betis 13-20 Hills, 188Bet

Thought for the week

The blackout period in the United Kingdom, preventing live football being broadcast live on a Saturday afternoon, has long divided opinion but it will be interesting to see whether new streaming service Eleven Sports go through with a legal challenge to the rule.

It is understandable, albeit frustrating for many, that the Premier League is not available to watch at 3pm on a Saturday, with the consequences dire for clubs lower down the footballing pyramid, but should the blackout apply to foreign leagues?

Anyone who wants to tune in to Valencia versus Leganes on Eleven Sports on a Saturday afternoon for instance is unlikely to be going to watch Peterborough versus Accrington otherwise, so the impact on attendances would almost certainly be non-existent.

It's far more likely, as pointed out by Eleven Sports, that these people will find an illegal streaming site instead, or at the very least, watch it on a bookmakers' smaller-screen streaming site, which leads us to another point.

Hopefully one day soon Eleven Sports, Sky or BT Sport will be able to join bookmakers in showing Valencia v Leganes, Juventus v Genoa and the whole Bundesliga programme.

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