CARD KING Gavin Murphy (@GamePlanGavin) has spied two slice of bookings value from Saturday’s Premier League coupon.
Bournemouth v West Brom | Saturday 15.00
Unless you have spent the weekend under a rock, you will have noticed that Mark Clattenburg has come in for a bit of stick this week regarding his handling of the ‘Battle of Stamford Bridge’ on Monday night.
This game should be a whole lot easier of assignment and one that presents an opportunity for card punters.
Bournemouth sit in 15th-place and West Brom just one higher in 14th – a stereotypical end of season game with nothing to play for.
In career games officiating the Cherries, Clattenburg has given them just 1.00 card-per-game. He typically gives the Baggies 1.44 cards-per-game.
This season Bournemouth average 1.38 cards-per-game and Albion a touch more at 1.86 cards-per-game.
After the noise following Chelsea v Spurs, I think Clattenburg will want a quiet afternoon. It reminds me of Mike Dean earlier in the season who gave 10 cards in Chelsea v Arsenal (the Diego Costa match) – the following week he gave zero cards when covering West Ham v Norwich.
Clattenburg has given zero cards twice this year whilst covering Hull v Burnley and Everton v Arsenal. At a huge 10/1 with Bet365, I'm backing ‘no card' in this match.
As a bit of insurance, I'm also putting up ‘a tie' in the Team Cards market at 11/4 with Bet365. So 0-0 or 1-1 in the cards stakes for example, would prove profitable.
Leicester v Everton | Saturday 17.30 | Sky Sports 1
The champions take on an Everton side who are surely now ‘on the beach’, as it were.
I expect a party atmosphere at the King Power and I can't see the referee wanting to spoil that.
Andre Marriner gets the whistle for this one and he averages 3.95 cards-per-game this season but that is inflated due to high numbers earlier in the year. He has only given two and three cards in his last two appearances.
Marriner averages 1.60 cards-per-game to the Toffees in his career and 1.78 to Leicester. This season Everton average 1.50 cards-per-game and the Foxes 1.56 cards-per-game so this bodes well.
The three most recent head-to-heads have produced total card figures of 3-1-2 at an average rate of 2.00 cards-per-game.
Presumably the intensity will drop in this game after a week ‘on the piss’ and with the aforementioned party atmosphere, I'm backing Under 3.5 Cards at 1.925 on Bet365's Asian line.
Best Bets
Bournemouth v West Brom – No Cards to be shown (10/1 Bet365)
Bournemouth v West Brom – ‘Draw’ Team Cards (11/4 Bet365)
Leicester v Everton – Under 3.5 Cards (1.925 Bet365)
