Mark Langdon's weekend EFL predictions, tips and football accumulators

3pm Saturday

Wigan v Leeds

Wigan derailed Leeds's promotion dreams last season with an incredible ten-man success at Elland Road and, while victory won't be just compensation for Marcelo Bielsa's side, they can at least put right the wrongs of that absurd April contest.

Leeds missed a penalty but were still 1-0 up and playing against ten men for 75 minutes before Gavin Massey's double. United had 36 shots, ten on target, 77 per cent possession and still lost the points as well as their hopes of automatic promotion.

On most key performance indicators Leeds were the best team in the Sky Bet Championship last season and on those stats United would be considered better than a whole stack of Premier League clubs.

Misfortune means they are still in the Championship but they were excellent in beating Bristol City 3-1 and should have collected maximum points in their 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest last week.

Kalvin Phillips is a class act in midfield, Pablo Hernandez is the heartbeat of the side and on-loan Arsenal forward Eddie Nketiah, who opened his account in Tuesday's 3-0 League Cup success at Salford, could add a new dimension to the attack.

Wigan have conceded five goals in two league games this season and if they go toe to toe with Leeds it is likely to end badly.

Recommendation
Leeds
1pt 10-11 Betway, Coral
Bet on Leeds with bet365 here

Doncaster v Fleetwood

The contrasting seasons of Doncaster and Fleetwood could continue at the Keepmoat Stadium, where Rovers may struggle to land a first win of the campaign under Darren Moore.

Donny's decision to go for Moore always looked dicey as many suggested his time at West Brom was helped by possessing Jay Rodriguez, Harvey Barnes and Dwight Gayle - and all three are currently with Premier League clubs.

Moore has also taken over a hospital pass from Grant McCann, who departed for Hull. Eight of the starters of their playoff semi-final defeat on penalties to Charlton have left, including League One's top goalscorer John Marquis.

There are new players finding their way all over the pitch, but they lost the shots-on-target count in both league draws against Gillingham and Rochdale.

They were also knocked out of the League Cup by Grimsby in a game where Donny had just three attempts on target.

Fleetwood have already beaten Peterborough and AFC Wimbledon and a similar level of performance should return a profit for Asian handicap backers in receipt of a 0.25-goal start. A draw counts as half a winner with the other half of the stake returned.

Joey Barton has been able to flex Fleetwood's financial muscle over the summer, bringing back Ched Evans for a second season with the Cod Army and also signing high-quality players at this level, including Josh Morris and Paul Coutts.

Recommendation
Fleetwood +0.25 Asian handicap
1pt 37-40 bet365

Salford v Port Vale

Is Salford's price being influenced by their high-profile owners?

Manchester United’s class of ‘92 have helped bring Salford up from non-league and they were among the favourites to win the League Two ante-post title on the back of, well, not very much.

Salford finished third in the National League and came up via the playoffs. They maybe haven't spent as much as anticipated in the summer and on paper the squad does not quite match the hype.

An opening 2-0 win over Stevenage was a nice start but they were battered at Crawley last week when the hosts managed 30 shots. Crawley would not have managed 30 shots in a month at times last season.

Streetwise Port Vale have the potential to make life awkward, particularly with talisman Tom Pope returning to the starting 11 after being rested for Tuesday's 2-1 cup exit to Burton.

Robust Vale have drawn with Colchester and Northampton this term and backing them on the Asian handicap would see a profit so long as the visitors at least share the spoils again.

It is worth remembering Vale had the best defensive record away from home in League Two last season, conceding just 19 times, and they will be backed by 1,400 travelling supporters at Salford.

Boss John Askey was also encouraged by the performance against Northampton last week, saying: "We had a lot of chances and should have won the game."

Recommendation
Port Vale +0.25 Asian handicap
1pt 68-67 RedZone

Weekend football accumulators

Banker
St-Etienne 4-6
There is a budget difference of nearly £70m between these sides and St-Etienne, fourth in France last season, should make home advantage count against newly-promoted visitors Brest.

Blowout
Man Utd 13-10
Maybe Man Utd have turned a corner after their 4-0 win over Chelsea on Sunday but it was not totally convincing and Wolves managed to beat the Red Devils twice at Molineux last season so why not again?

Accumulator
Leeds 10-11, St-Etienne 4-6, Betis 13-20, Atletico Madrid 9-20. A £1 acca returns £7.63 with Betway.

Both teams to score
Games at Brighton 10-13, Burton 5-6, Reading 5-6. £1 treble returns £5.93 with RedZone.

Thought for the week

The temptation is always to get over-excited by the first round of results. It's all we have to go on and if it confirms a pre-season opinion the confirmation bias is a difficult one to ignore.

But ignore it you must.

Look at any round of results from last season and you will find unusual outcomes.

Manchester City losing to Newcastle, Liverpool's draw with Leicester, Chelsea's 4-0 battering at Bournemouth, Spurs losing at Burnley, Arsenal being turned over at home by Crystal Palace and Manchester United drawing at Huddersfield, to name just a few.

In fact, Huddersfield are a good example as even the poorest Premier League teams win sometimes as the Terriers did when they took maximum points from their trip to Wolves.

Now imagine Huddersfield's win at Molineux had been on the opening day. The same people jumping to any number of conclusions from last week's results might have said "Wolves have been found out" or "They lack Premier League experience".

Armed with more evidence the sensible observations will have been that Huddersfield deserved to win that game. They played well and it was an off day for Wanderers.

Whether it be United 4-0 against Chelsea or Watford losing 3-0 against Brighton it is probably wise to take that pragmatic approach until we know more.

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