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

Free football tips, bets and analysis.

Best bets

Man Utd -1 Asian handicap
1pt 93-100 bet365
Swansea
1pt 8-11 Betway
Man Utd & Atletico Madrid
1pt double general

Norwich v Manchester United

BBC1, 5.30pm Saturday

Manchester United are heading in the right direction with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the wheel and the next stop should be Wembley as Norwich are not expected to put up much resistance in their FA Cup quarter-final at Carrow Road.

United have gone 13 games unbeaten in all competitions and have comfortably been the better side in their matches since the Premier League restart, drawing 1-1 at Tottenham before easing to a 3-0 success over an admittedly weakened Sheffield United at Old Trafford.

In isolation those results are nothing to be over-excited about, but it all started before the last 180 minutes of action. In those 13 games United have conceded just three goals, beaten Manchester City twice and won away to Chelsea.

Is it any coincidence that Bruno Fernandes' arrival from Sporting at the end of January marked the start of the strong run? Probably not and his midfield partnership with Paul Pogba offers United the kind of technical ability that was sadly missing earlier in the campaign.

Solskjaer has a massive squad which will help in this hectic period - Eric Bailly, Juan Mata, Fred, Dan James, Sergio Romero, Odion Ighalo and Scott McTominay were on the bench on Wednesday - and there is obvious firepower with Anthony Martial grabbing a hat-trick in the blunting of the Blades.

They are a different, stronger side from the one who beat Norwich 4-0 and 3-1 this season, and another comfortable margin of victory looks the most likely outcome in Norfolk.

It's possible the FA Cup will perk Norwich up as they appear to have thrown in the towel in terms of the relegation fight. Daniel Farke's side have lost five of their last six top-flight contests.

All of those were lost to nil, including Wednesday's 1-0 reverse at the hands of Everton at Carrow Road.

Farke surprisingly rotated Todd Cantwell and Teemu Pukki out of his starting 11 in midweek, although both played in the abysmal 3-0 reverse at the hands of Southampton. Saints had double the number of shots and forced eight attempts on target to City's one.

Norwich have battled well to reach the last eight but the win over Tottenham in the last round owed much to the absence of many Spurs stars, including Moussa Sissoko, Harry Kane, Hugo Lloris and Heung-Min Son.

United have no such problems and can become the first side through to the last four.

Swansea v Luton

3pm Saturday

The race for the Sky Bet Championship playoff spots is incredibly tight with just three points separating sixth-placed Preston from Derby down in 12th.

Swansea, in ninth, are very much in the mix and their loan stars can help them to maximum points against rock-bottom Luton.

The Welsh side had the points wrapped up inside the first half last week as they raced into a 3-0 advantage at Middlesbrough and there is a feelgood factor epitomised by a number of first-teamers signing short-term deals to extend beyond the end of June.

Loan aces Rhian Brewster and Conor Gallagher are expected to do likewise and both are different class at this level, looking set to become big hits for parent clubs Liverpool and Chelsea respectively.

Gallagher impressed on loan at Charlton in the first half of the season and Brewster has bagged six goals in 12 appearances.

Luton offered little in last week's draw with Preston in Nathan Jones's first game back at the club and Swansea were showing decent signs before the lockdown, drawing with Blackburn and West Brom.

Atletico Madrid v Alaves

La Liga TV, 9pm Saturday

Competing in empty stadiums does not seem to be bothering Atletico Madrid - they never play to entertain anyway - and the relentless fixture schedule plays to the strengths of their chunky squad.

A 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao was followed by three wins to nil against Osasuna, Valladolid and Levante.

Diego Simeone is able to rotate his side without weakening key areas - Jose Gimenez, Joao Felix and Alvaro Morata were among those on the bench for Tuesday's trip to Benidorm when they eased past Levante more convincingly than the 1-0 suggests.

They won the shots-on-target count 7-0 and Alaves may not offer much in the way of a challenge which suggests Atletico can be a nice double alongside United to liven up Saturday night.

The visitors were stuffed 6-0 at Celta Vigo on their last away trip and followed that with a 1-0 defeat to Osasuna on Wednesday.

Weekend accumulators

Banker
Man Utd 8-15
United were around the 4-5 mark when they triumphed at Carrow Road in October but much has changed since then to fully justify the odds shift with the Red Devils fancied to win this FA Cup tie.

Blowout
QPR 6-5
There's not much riding on this trip to gritty Charlton for mid-table QPR and Rangers lost to another relegation battler Barnsley last week. The need for points doesn't appear to be factored in just yet.

Accumulator
Barcelona 4-6, Man Utd 8-15, Napoli 2-7, Atletico Madrid
1-3. £1 accumulator returns £4.38 with BoyleSports & Sky Bet.

Both teams to score
Games at Lazio 7-10, Milan 4-6, Sassuolo 4-6. £1 treble returns £4.72 with BoyleSports

Thought for the week

Given the devastating death toll due to the coronavirus in Bergamo there were understandably times when those connected with Atalanta didn't feel like they would want to continue playing this season.

It is to the delight of those who love their football that Gian Piero Gasperini's side have come back from the lockdown in exactly the same fashion as before with thrilling wins over Sassuolo (4-1) and Lazio (3-2).

Those victories took their goalscoring tally to 77 goals in just 27 matches for Gasperini's wonderfully attack-minded side in which Argentinian playmaker Papu Gomez dictates the rhythm beautifully.

The Champions League quarter-finalists have the potential to be a tricky draw for anyone in the finals tournament in August and if neutrals need a team to cheer on this summer you won't find a more deserving side than Atalanta.

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