James Milton: Premier League and EFL predictions & free betting accumulator tips

Free football tips, bets and analysis for this weekend's Premier League, EFL and European action.

Best bets

Watford
2pts 7-4 Betway
Swindon
3pts 29-20 Coral, Ladbrokes
Cardiff
2pts 2-1 Betfred, Coral, Ladbrokes

Bournemouth v Watford

Sky Sports Main Event & Sky Sports Football, 12.30pm Saturday

Early in the Championship season it looked as though the three clubs relegated from the Premier League in 2019-20 would be key players in the battle for automatic promotion.

Norwich have kept up their challenge, taking a seven-point lead into this weekend's round of fixtures, but Bournemouth slipped out of the playoff places after Wednesday's 2-1 home defeat to in-form Cardiff.

And the Cherries could find themselves even further adrift when they host Watford, the third of those teams hoping for a swift return to the top flight, on Saturday.

Bookmakers are struggling to separate the pair but the Hornets are 11 points clear of Bournemouth after an entertaining 3-2 win at Blackburn on Wednesday and are in the automatic-promotion mix alongside Brentford and Swansea.

The win at Ewood Park was another sign of Watford's improvement since Xisco Munoz took charge just before Christmas.

They had struggled for goals away from home in the first half of the season and looked heavily reliant on striker Troy Deeney but, with the skipper injured, Joao Pedro and in-form wingers Ismaila Sarr and Ken Sema scored the goals to see off Rovers.

That made it four straight league wins for the Hornets, including a 6-0 drubbing of Bristol City at Vicarage Road, and they face a faltering Bournemouth side.

The Cherries have won only three of their last 13 league matches – narrow victories over struggling Stoke, Birmingham and Rotherham –and caretaker manager Jonathan Woodgate may struggle to turn things around against their confident visitors.

Swindon Town v Northampton Town

3pm Saturday

The League One relegation scrap is a fascinating heat with just three points separating the bottom seven teams at the start of the weekend.

Two of those clubs, Swindon and Northampton, meet at the County Ground and the Robins can claim a vital victory over the Cobblers.

Swindon's survival prospects have been hampered by sloppy defending, conceding 56 goals in 30 games, but Northampton have the worst goalscoring record in the division, finding the net only 23 times in 30 outings.

In ten league matches in 2021, the Cobblers' only points have come from five goalless draws although, gallingly, they managed to score three times at MK Dons last weekend and still ended up losing 4-3.

Swindon have hauled themselves out of the bottom four thanks to a 2-1 home win over Crewe last weekend and a 2-2 draw at title contenders Lincoln on Tuesday when they led twice.

They have won four of their five home games against the rest of the bottom seven, including a 1-0 win over Wigan at the start of this month, and they can build on a promising display against Lincoln.

Middlesbrough v Cardiff City

3pm Saturday

On Tuesday Middlesbrough were beaten at home by a Bristol City side who had lost their previous six Championship matches.

And Neil Warnock's men may well struggle to bounce back from that 3-1 reverse when they host Mick McCarthy's Cardiff, a team at the other end of the form table from the Robins.

McCarthy's appointment in January has rejuvenated the Bluebirds' hopes of a second successive playoff appearance and they moved into the top six thanks to a 2-1 win at Bournemouth on Wednesday.

That made it six victories in a row for Cardiff, after draws with Barnsley and Millwall at the start of McCarthy's tenure, and Wales striker Kieffer Moore has scored seven goals in eight games under his new boss.

They are bidding for a fifth straight away win when they travel to Boro, who were 3-0 down at half-time against out-of-sorts Bristol City in midweek, and the home defence could be rattled once again.

Cardiff have scored twice in each of their five away matches under McCarthy and they walloped Preston 4-0 at home last weekend.

It is often wise to be wary of backing teams on long winning sequences but there is still juice in the Bluebirds' price to beat a Boro side who have lost five of their last six league games at the Riverside.

Weekend accumulators

Banker
Forest Green
Promotion-chasing Rovers had won four out of five in League Two before Wednesday's shock defeat to Southend and they should bounce back against struggling Colchester.

Blowout
Monaco
Despite completing a league double over PSG, Monaco look too short to beat Brest, who drew 0-0 at leaders Lille in their last away fixture and had 17 attempts on goal in a 3-2 defeat to Lyon last Friday.

Accumulator
Peterborough 19-40, Forest Green 5-6, Harrogate 5-6, Norwich 19-40. £1 accumulator returns £7.34 with Betway.

Both teams to score
Games at Leeds 8-15, Barnsley Evs, MK Dons 8-11. £1 treble returns £5.29 with Hills.

Thought for the week

In the absence of any blinding flash of inspiration this week, let's take a moment to appreciate the quality of Manchester City and Bayern Munich.

The Champions League outright market suggests this isn't the most original of observations as City are 5-2 for their first European triumph and Bayern are 100-30 to retain the trophy.

Setting aside the obvious caveats about financial dominance, there is something hugely impressive about the squad depth of these two continental behemoths.

Bayern named only six substitutes for Tuesday's last-16 tie at Lazio with Thomas Muller, Serge Gnabry and Benjamin Pavard among the absentees. Even so, the tie was effectively over after 47 minutes in Rome where the Bavarians led 4-0 with 17-year-old Jamal Musiala among the scorers.

City's 2-0 win against Borussia Monchengladbach was less flashy but a run of 19 straight victories is an extraordinary achievement.

Pep Guardiola has shuffled his pack successfully throughout this winning sequence, much to the frustration of fantasy-football managers attempting to second-guess his starting line-ups.

Usually fluency might be expected to stem from continuity of team selection but only three outfield players have started 20 or more of City's 25 league matches as Pep puts his trust in the entire squad rather than a handful of star players. Now, if they can just sign Lionel Messi this summer ...

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