WHAT a Christmas cracker! Which of these struggling sides can grab a precious win the Sunday before Christmas? Chris Graham (@chrisgraham79) takes a look.
Liverpool v Arsenal | Sunday 16:00 | Sky Sports 1
The first people I considered when I looked at this tie were the family of Brendan Rodgers and Arsene Wenger. Imagine how grumpy those men will be on Christmas Day if they lose this match. Poor family!
This is a fascinating match on the pitch and on the books. Arsenal are favourites at best price 17/10 with BetVictor with Liverpool as big as 9/5 with Coral on their own turf. I wasn't expecting that to be honest.
One of the themes of the last couple of seasons for Arsenal has been their inability to beat the bigger sides. But if you're bracketing Liverpool in that, it muddies the picture. Arsenal beat them at the Emirates twice last season but naturally the headlines fall to the 5-1 shellacking they received at Anfield in February.
What of Liverpool? They're in the bottom half of the table with seven defeats over their 16 league games this season. Palms are/were getting incredibly sweaty, but to be fair they came through a big test on Wednesday night when they beat Championship leaders Bournemouth in the Capital One Cup. The comfortable 3-1 victory might just kick-start their campaign. That's a big might though.
I was all for Arsenal in this fixture to be honest. They've dominated Liverpool in recent years with four wins in their last six meetings. Dip back further and it's just two wins from 14 in the Premier League for Brendan Rodgers' men against Arsenal.
The price on Arsenal though is just too short at 17/10. They've won less than half of their Premier League matches this season and have lost three times on the road. Chelsea was forgiveable, but Stoke and Swansea?! It's just three away wins from eight for Arsenal this league campaign.
I can't be with Liverpool either due to their recent strife, poor form and lack of goals so for me the big fat value bet in this game is the draw at a monster 13/5 with Bet365. To be honest, I'm going to be enjoying this game more as a football fan than a punter, but if I have to place one bet at decent odds, the 13/5 on the draw makes a lot of sense.
Best Bet
Liverpool v Arsenal – Draw (13/5 Bet365)
