Mark Langdon's weekend tips & football accas | FA Cup, EFL & Europe

Free football tips, bets and analysis featuring FA Cup, EFL, Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga, plus Mark Langdon's weekend football accumulator.

Best bets

Arsenal
1pt 5-6 general
Newport County draw no bet
1pt 19-20 general
Juventus
1pt 21-20 bet365, Betway
Hoffenheim +0.25 on Asian handicap
1pt 11-13 RedZone
Espanyol draw no bet
1pt 8-11 general

Bournemouth v Arsenal

BT Sport 1, 8pm Monday

The key to the FA Cup from a betting point of view is trying to successfully calculate which teams are most desperate for a run in the competition and it should be much higher up on Arsenal's list of priorities than Bournemouth's.

That could be the decisive factor for Monday's final fourth-round tie with Arsenal stuck in mid-table, presumably allowing themselves to give everything to the FA Cup and Europa League, whereas the Cherries need to pick their fixtures carefully.

After Arsenal comes a relegation six-pointer at home to Aston Villa and with the fifth round being moved to a midweek slot there may not be a huge amount for Eddie Howe's squad to gain by progressing.

Bournemouth won't give up, but three wins and one draw (against Arsenal in Mikel Arteta's debut in the dugout) in 13 league fixtures is a poor return from Howe's side, who snapped a four-game losing sequence with a vital 3-1 victory over Brighton.

Tuesday's success will have helped restore confidence but keeper Aaron Ramsdale made some fine saves and Bournemouth scored with all three of their shots on target.

That was also the only time in ten league matches they had achieved an expected goal rating over one.

Arsenal will be missing suspended pair Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and David Luiz, although anything that allows more of their talented youngsters such as Gabriel Martinelli more minutes must be a positive.

They are heading in the right direction under Arteta and can build on the battling show with ten men in Tuesday's 2-2 draw at Chelsea.

Leyton Orient v Newport County

3pm Saturday

Leyton Orient have won only one of their last 14 Sky Bet League Two matches and have gone 448 minutes without a non-penalty goal, so they appear vulnerable favourites at home to Newport.

Orient are particularly jittery at home according to manager Ross Embleton, who has had the unenviable task of replacing Justin Edinburgh after the sudden death of the popular boss in the summer.

It has been a season of two halves for Newport, who are 11th but have as many as three matches in hand on those above them so should still be eyeing a run towards the playoffs.

County suffered one defeat in their opening 14 league matches before taking three points from the next 27 available. But a couple of draws - first with Orient and then Cheltenham - stopped the rot with victories over Scunthorpe and Swindon following.

Newport's midweek EFL Trophy clash was postponed which is a boost, as is the probable return from injury of striker Padraig Amond.

Napoli v Juventus

Premier 1, 7.45pm Sunday

Napoli got to within four points of Juventus in 2018 and the gap was a respectable 11 points last term. However, their time as the biggest threat to the champions is over with the gulf already 27 points after just 20 Serie A rounds.

Maurizio Sarri was the magic man who so nearly toppled Juve but he is in the opposite dugout looking to take advantage of the mess he left behind. Carlo Ancelotti was unable to bring the glory days back to Naples and, despite reaching the Italian Cup semi-finals, it has mainly been a shocking start to Rino Gattuso's tenure.

Juve have negotiated tough trips to Inter, Roma and Atalanta this term to claim maximum points and Cristiano Ronaldo has returned from his Christmas break with six goals in three league outings.

Werder Bremen v Hoffenheim

BT Sport 3, 2.30pm Sunday

Bremen must believe they are cursed with a long absentee list added to last weekend as new signing Kevin Vogt was concussed and fellow centre-back and captain Niklas Moisander sent off.

Hoffenheim may not need to be too special to create opportunities but they have plenty of firepower in Andrej Kramaric and new signing Munas Dabbur, who was prolific in Austrian football for RB Salzburg.

Espanyol v Athletic Bilbao

La Liga TV, midday Saturday

Relegation is not an option for Espanyol's billionaire Chinese owner Chen Yansheng, who is splashing the cash in a bid to stay up.

Abelardo, who transformed Alaves from relegation bankers to Champions League challengers, has drawn with Barcelona and won at Villarreal in his two league matches in charge with expensive new signing Raul de Tomas bagging the winner last week.

Key Getafe centre-back Leandro Cabrera has also joined, while opponents Athletic Bilbao tend to do their best work at home.

Weekend accumulators

Banker
Juventus 21-20
It's one win in 12 league games for Napoli, who have also lost four of their last five matches in a run which has seen them drop into the bottom half of Serie A and Juve look a fair price.

Blowout
Stoke 11-10
There are 17 points between struggling Stoke and Swansea, which isn't reflected in the prices. Stoke are better than the league table suggests but Swansea's only loss in eight games came at Brentford.

Accumulator
Monchengladbach 8-15, Chelsea 1-2, Sevilla 2-5, Leverkusen
2-5. £1 accumulator returns £4.51 with Betway and Ladbrokes.

Both teams to score
Games at Coventry 4-5, Peterborough 8-13, Roma 1-2. £1 treble returns £4.36 with Hills.

Thought for the week

Marcus Rashford was injured in an FA Cup replay last week which could keep him out of action for a few months. The game didn't need to take place.

Few other major European leagues play more than one cup competition and none use replays.

There is much more excitement around a game that will be decided straight away and a tie without replays also offers more chance of an upset and there is the added cost to a supporter for additional matches.

It's an outdated approach with only one benefit - which is an important one - to help smaller clubs pocket more money.

There is a simple solution. Lower the prize money for Premier League clubs who are rich enough and/or give all the gate receipts/TV money to the lower-league club to compensate against replays.

Another option is to repeat the FA Trophy rules, which permit teams to choose between themselves whether the replay should be enforced. So, Rochdale for instance, may want to have a second game against Newcastle but Wolves and Manchester United would be free to play a one-off tie if both agreed.

It would mean different rules for different teams, but we already have that with VAR in some ties and not others.

Follow us on Twitter

Like us on Facebook