Three things to watch out for in this weekend's football

1 Promotion-chasing Pompey must play up

You don’t need to do an awful lot wrong to lose ground at the top of Sky Bet League One – just ask Portsmouth.

Three defeats in nine games doesn’t sound like the stuff of nightmares, yet it’s a run which has seen their promotion odds drift from 1-6 on New Year’s Day to 7-4.

Slip-ups are magnified at the top of the third tier, where Portsmouth’s weekend opponents Barnsley are one of a trio of teams who are simply refusing to lose matches and it means the rest are struggling to hang on to their coat-tails.

The Tykes are unbeaten in 13 games and Sunderland haven’t lost in 11, while leaders Luton haven’t suffered a setback in their last 20 fixtures.

So Pompey, who have drawn their last four and threw away a three-goal lead at Southend last weekend, need to get back to winning ways against Barnsley – and they have lost only once at home to the Tykes in their last 19 meetings.

2 Juventus hoping to emerge from rocky spell

Let’s not pretend this is anything like a crisis, but it hasn’t been a particularly good few weeks for Juventus.

Since a desperately fortunate win at Lazio three weeks ago Juve have been dumped out of the Coppa Italia 3-0 by Atalanta, shipped another three in a Serie A draw with Parma and lost 2-0 at Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.

The Scudetto is virtually guaranteed as they are 13 points clear with 14 games left, but they might not be everyone's idea of a good thing at 1-2 at Bologna this weekend.

Rocked by news that Sami Khedira needs a heart operation and with Emre Can suspended, Juve will be a long way from full strength at Bologna, where new coach Sinisa Mihajlovic is breathing new life into the Serie A strugglers.

3 American powerbroker has big plans for Yeovil

New-manager syndrome is a well-worn sports betting myth, but what about new owner syndrome?

If punters are inclined to believe that a club takeover produces an immediate bounce, they will be all over Yeovil at 15-8 to beat Cambridge in Sky Bet League Two.

The Glovers this week welcomed a new powerbroker at the Huish, an American by the name of Rob Couhig, a lawyer, entrepreneur, one-time mayoral candidate in New Orleans and the man who Yeovil fans hope is going to dump cash beyond their wildest dreams into the club.

Couhig plans to turn Yeovil into “the most exciting experience that people go to in English football”, which is quite a claim.

Just keeping them in the Football League would do supporters for starters and after six straight losses that order is getting taller by the week.

Today's top sports betting stories

Follow us on Twitter @racingpostsport

Like us on Facebook RacingPostSport