Mark Langdon's best bets and free football tips | weekend accas

Free football tips, bets and analysis.

Best bets

Leeds
2pts 7-10 general
Villarreal
1pt 4-1 bet365

Blackburn v Leeds

3pm Saturday

There have been many wild theories flying around regarding football outcomes on the basis of not much evidence.

People were jumping to quick conclusions on the loss of home advantage, the lack of goals and the issues faced by weaker teams against those at the top until only a few days ago.

Then struggling West Ham upset the odds to win a thriller 3-2 against high-flying Chelsea at home to make a huge difference in the Premier League relegation market.

Norwich are virtually done at 1-100, with Aston Villa at 1-4 and Bournemouth, who were battered 4-1 at home by Newcastle, available at 1-5.

The Cherries are surely cooked given their remaining fixtures are against Manchester United, Tottenham, Leicester, Manchester City, Southampton and Everton which points towards the potential for more dead rubbers at both ends of the Premier League table.

Liverpool have the title wrapped up, presumably City will soon start thinking of the Champions League and those at the bottom look doomed according to the odds, which means it is just as well there is a decent race for Champions League qualification.

Will dead games with nothing riding on them be any different behind closed doors? Evidence is thin on the ground and there has to be an element of guesswork involved in much of what is going on.

In these uncertain times it is at least good to know that you can rely on Leeds to put their backers and supporters through the wringer but United can bounce back from Tuesday's slip against Luton to maintain top spot in the Sky Bet Championship by beating Blackburn.

Rovers can be a slick side themselves. However, Tony Mowbray has a number of personnel issues to deal with as his midfield pair of Lewis Travis and Corry Evans have joined long-term injury victim Bradley Dack on the sidelines.

Forward Ben Brereton is banned, and while Darragh Lenihan's return is a plus, Mowbray will have to do some defensive juggling at left-back with Amari'i Bell and Derrick Williams crocked.

That's not ideal at the best of times and even worse when facing the best side in the Championship.

Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray bemoaned poor finishing in 2-0 defeats to Wigan and Barnsley and if anyone can sympathise it will be his opposite number Marcelo Bielsa, who has to put up with that area of weakness most match days.

It's just as well for main striker Patrick Bamford that Leeds create so many opportunities because he needs enough to convert.

Pablo Hernandez's arrival off the bench sparked Leeds into life during Tuesday's surprise 1-1 draw against Luton and presumably the Spanish playmaker will return to the starting 11 as he builds his way back to 100 per cent fitness.

There will be nerves in the Leeds camp after dropped points against Luton and Cardiff since the restart but in both matches their expected goals figure suggests they will eventually come good.

Villarreal v Barcelona

La Liga TV, 9pm Sunday

Thursday evening fixtures and a plethora of shorties means it is difficult to attack the coupon with too much gusto at this stage, although Villarreal are worthy of an interest to upset Barcelona.

Things are not right at Barcelona even beyond a relatively poor away record of just six wins in 16 La Liga matches.

It's difficult to be crowned champions when you lose at Athletic Bilbao, Valencia, Granada and Levante and drop points at Osasuna, Celta Vigo and Espanyol.

Barca's only win in the last four was most uninspiring - 1-0 at home to Athletic - and the issues run deep. Antoine Griezmann, a £100m signing last summer, has been dropped and Lionel Messi was seen to be refusing to take orders from Quique Setien's coaching staff in the 2-2 draw at Celta.

Hosts Villarreal are flying and back in the mix for Champions League qualification following a run of five wins to nil in their six matches since the restart.

Villarreal used the break to get key players back to full fitness and any front three of Paco Alcacer, Carlos Bacca, Gerard Moreno and Samuel Chukwueze can cause problems if Barca don't sharpen up.

Weekend accumulators

Banker
Leeds 7-10
Blackburn's injury problems in midfield could allow Leeds to dominate in that area even more than usual. It just needs Bamford to take the chances when they come.

Blowout
Barcelona 8-11
Barca have won two of their last eight La Liga away matches and neither Madrid club were able to win at El Madrigal this season with Real and Atletico held to draws.

Accumulator
Leicester 8-11, Leeds 7-10, Bayern Munich 1-3, Chelsea 2-5. £1 accumulator returns £5.48 with Sky Bet.

Both teams to score
Games at Celta Vigo 4-5, Lazio 3-4, Brescia 4-5. £1 treble returns £5.67 with bet365, Betfair

Thought for the week

Earlier this year I asked a football commentator what he felt the role of his co-commentator was. "Tell me something I don't know," was the reply.

Gary Neville is seen by most as the number one analyst and there is love for Ally McCoist but most others don't tell us anything new and the worst of the worst are those who describe the action we have just seen.

Player A scores a header to which we are given the amazing insight of how Player A jumped highest to head home.

The best at actually pointing out tactical tinkerings is Stewart Robson. Not many will have heard him describe where the space was for Lazio and what they needed to do to overturn a 1-0 deficit against Fiorentina last Saturday, but maybe boss Simone Inzaghi was tuned in.

Inzaghi made a half-time substitution that Robson had described in detail, which needed to happen in Lazio's left-side of their back three as the Rome side successfully chased the game to win 2-1.

When googling Robson to check how to spell his first name the most prominent story is a blog from woolwicharsenal bemoaning the negativity of a former player after he continually pointed out the Gunners' tactical failings.

Robson is paid to tell it how it is, not worry about keeping his former club sweet in the hope of staying on the gravy train.

For me Clive, nobody does the co-comms better.

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