Expert football predictions and tips from Mark Langdon: Three season match bets which are worth a punt

It's hard to stay on trend these days given how quickly things go in and out of fashion.

I can still remember, for instance, when they called it Twitter rather than X, or when Germany were good at football - in the men's and women's game. 

Times change, people quickly move on and new toys become in vogue. 

From that point of view you've probably realised it is impossible to escape bet builders these days. 

Forget the Saturday 3pm acca. Can you even call yourself a football punter now unless you've had a 12-leg same-game multiple on the Community Shield which includes Arsenal to win, Mikel Arteta to encroach so far out of his technical area he ends up tackling Joao Cancelo - yes, that Joao Cancelo is back at City - and Jack Grealish to be fouled over 9.5 times, which will be non-runner no bet if he is still celebrating the treble triumph in Ibiza?

Back in my day the closest you got to a bet builder was a scorecast on Sunderland to win 1-0 with Kevin Phillips scoring first. I can fully appreciate that makes me sound like a dinosaur, but I can get totally overwhelmed when you click on a fixture and your bookmaker of choice has 200-plus markets to select from. Sometimes less is more.

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One bet that has gone totally out of fashion is the season match bet. It was a staple of the glory days but perhaps its simplicity makes it dated. What do you mean you only have to bet on one team to finish above another? How am I supposed to keep track of that when I am also trying to work out if Joelinton is on course for 15-plus goal and card contributions for Newcastle in matches against teams beginning with B which are played on a Sunday? Or something.

Don't get me wrong, the bet builder boom is great to see but I just want to give a shout out for the more manageable match bet. You fancy one team to accumulate more points than another over a season and if you're right you win, and if you don't you blame referees and variance.

Obviously the disadvantage is waiting ten months for a 10-11 shot to cop, so in the interests of at least trying to move the dial upwards here is a treble across the EFL which pays 4.85-1 with bet365 - Ipswich to finish above Norwich, Bristol Rovers to finish above Exeter and Barrow to finish above Morecambe.

Ipswich ended last season with a goal difference of plus 66 in League One - the surest of sure signs that they were a proper outfit, which should translate well to the Championship - whereas Norwich finished 13th last term and don't seem to have improved.

Exeter have lost a lot of players in the summer and might struggle to maintain their three-point supremacy over Bristol Rovers and Morecambe will do well to avoid a double relegation on their return to League Two. Barrow's boys were ninth in League Two last term and even given some likely regression, they should be good enough to roll over Morecambe.

And if that fails I will always have my bet on Rashford, Kane, Salah and Haaland all to score at least 20 goals with Mitoma, Rice and Foden reaching ten-plus assists in a season when every Premier League match has at least five corners.

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