WILL DYER (@W2Dyer) has shared his best bet on the Christmas Eve clash between Western Sydney Wanderers and Newcastle Jets.
Western Sydney Wanderers v Newcastle Jets | Christmas Eve 08.00 | BT Sport 1
We’ve got a little bit of football to get us through Christmas Eve thanks to the A-League – table-toppers Western Sydney host last season’s wooden spoon winners Newcastle.
In an impressive turnaround, Western Sydney have gone from finishing just one point above their opponent’s here in ninth place to top of the A-League in the space of eight months.
Prior to their draw in Perth last weekend, they had won seven games on the bounce – they only won four all season in 2014/15.
That draw against Glory should not be too disheartening for Wanderers. They still dominated the game and the Glory are on an upward trajectory themselves being unbeaten in four and keeping clean sheets against both of last season’s Grand Finalists Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory. So in many ways, you could say the fact that WSW scored twice in Western Australia is actually a great positive.
There are a few reasons that the Wanderers have turned results on their head but the main one is that they don’t have the AFC Champions League to interrupt them this season.
Former Crystal Palace assistant Tony Popovic has already achieved great things with this team. No one expected them to win the AFC Champions League in 2014 given the vast difference in budget between the A-League and China’s leading lights.
He also won the 2012/13 A-League with them and now looks to be getting back to that domestic form. Wanderers have been shortening all week given the lack of games around the world and the gulf in class there seems to be between them and the Jets at the minute. They are now a best price 2/5 and so there’s no value in the -1 handicap either.
Whilst Jets are the worst team offensively with just nine goals scored in 11 games, they’ve been greatly improved at the back this season. At this stage last year they had conceded 22 goals but in 2015/16 that’s down to just 13 which is only bettered by three other teams in the league and all of them are in the top-four.
Backing the Jets not to get battered then looks like the best way to find value. They’ve already met WSW once this season and lost that 2-1 in Newcastle.
Scoring two goals has been a feature of Wanderers season. They have scored exactly two goals in six of their last seven outings and I think that has a great chance of landing again.
Mitch Nichols and Mark Bridge are in good form but they aren’t the kind of forwards to really tear a team to pieces and we shouldn’t get too carried away with Wanderers just yet after last year’s woes.
Best Bets
Western Sydney Wanderers v Newcastle Jets – Western Sydney to score exactly two goals (9/4 Bet365)
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