THE boss Mark O'Haire (@MarkOHaire) has trawled through his big book of stats to unearth the best value Anytime Goalscorer from Monday's football.
Real Sociedad v Celta Vigo | Monday 26th November 2018, 20:00 | Eleven Sports
Monday night's La Liga match-up from San Sebastian promises plenty. We've already highlighted the possible goals angle via our Stats Value column here, with each team returning an astonishing 19/24 (79%) winning Over 2.5 Goals selections in their respective home/away matches since the start of last season.
Inconsistent Real Sociedad fought back to come from behind and beat Levante 3-1 before the international break. The three points has given head coach Asier Garitano a stay of execution, although La Real will know they must start collecting positive results at their recently-renovated Anoeta base.
The hosts remain winless on home soil and have failed to even score in each of their last three here against Sevilla, Girona and Valencia. Only two clubs average a worse Expected Goals from open play figure (0.59), and whilst injuries and suspensions have hit the club hard this term, that’s simply not acceptable.
Sociedad will be without key central midfielder Asier Illarramendi due to a ban, which is a cause for concern against a Celta Vigo side that’s always shown an appetite to get forward and put their opposition under pressure.
Celta have only failed to net in five of their 24 away ties since the start the beginning of 2017/18 and come into this showdown following back-to-back thrillers. Beaten 4-2 by Real Madrid in their most recent encounter, the Galicians held Real Betis to a cracking 3-3 draw at the Estadio Benito Villamarin.
That reverse to Real saw Antonio Mohamed depart the Vigo-based club with highly-rated Portuguese head coach Miguel Cardoso arriving following a short and unhappy spell with Nantes. He built his successful Rio Ave side upon a solid foundation but he’d be foolish to ignore his offensive quality at Celta.
Only Barcelona and Sevilla have scored more goals than the visitors this season, with the guests notching nine times in their most recent three La Liga fixtures. Overall, dynamic duo Iago Aspas and Maxi Gomez have combined to contribute 14 (64%) of their 22-goal tally this term and it’s hard to dismiss the pair here.
Aspas has hogged the headlines over the past two campaigns and heads the club’s goalscoring charts with eight despite failing to score in five of his past six. Meanwhile, Uruguayan hitman Gomez has gotten on the scoresheet in five of his last nine matches, to take his cumulative account to six.
So how do we approach Monday night’s match? We back them both thanks to Betway offering a standout 14/5 on each player to score at anytime. Supporting each Celta striker at the current quote gives us combined odds of 9/10 should either player score, which holds plenty of appeal.
As already mentioned, the duo have scored 14 goals between them this term, fire in 4.06 shots per-game and generate an average of 0.55 Expected Goals per-game. The Vigo marksmen have registered 24 on-target efforts in 2018/19, whilst Aspas is on penalty duty for the visitors.
Best Bets
Real Sociedad v Celta Vigo – Iago Aspas to score at anytime (14/5 Betway)
Real Sociedad v Celta Vigo – Maxi Gomez to score at anytime (14/5 Betway)
