Premier League Predictions - EPL Betting Preview For September 30-October 2

EPL Betting Preview Including Predictions and Picks

WagerTalk Premier League handicapper Kevin Dolan presents his EPL predictions today heading into matches September 29-October 2. He gives betting previews for key matches including Aston Villa vs Brighton and Fulham vs Chelsea. Which teams is he looking to pick up points and which will have goals being scored? Read his betting preview now!

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Aston Villa vs Brighton | September 30 | 7:30am ET

Aston Villa +140 | Brighton +160 | Draw +290

Interesting game in the early kick-off for Saturday as Brighton takes on Aston Villa with both sides looking to solidify themselves at the top of the table after impressive starts to the season respectively.

Midweek cup action may play a factor in this game as well as Brighton travels to London on Wednesday to take on Chelsea in the League Cup, while Aston Villa hosts Everton in that same competition, with both teams expected to rotate fairly heavily in those fixtures.

Aston Villa won both meetings between the two sides last season, and that’s been a pretty consistent pattern in this fixture going back multiple years, with Brighton owning a pretty dismal W1, D4, L7 record against Aston Villa going all the way back to 2010.

That said, this is the strongest iteration of Brighton we’ve ever seen, the first Brighton team ever to play in a major European tournament for example, so Aston Villa likely won’t have it all their own way in this one.

Both games finished exactly 2-1 to Aston Villa last season (possibly worth a look at +875), and all bar one of the last eight head-to-head meetings between the two sides has finished with either two or three goals being scored as well.

That’s the way we’re going to look in this one with the Total Goals Bands 2-3 at +130 right now in a game we expect to be highly competitive this weekend.

Prediction: Total Goals Bands 2-3 (+130)

Nottingham Forest vs Brentford | October 1 | 9:00am ET

Nottingham Forest +180 | Brentford +165 | Draw +225

The highs of Brentford’s impressive last two seasons in the Premier League have dimmed considerably to open up this current season, with the Bees having won just one of their opening six games of the season so far, with two straight losses heading into this weekend’s fixture as well.

A midweek cup game against Arsenal definitely isn’t an ideal recipe for snapping out of that early season skid either, with Forest already bowing out of the League Cup in the previous round due to a late Burnley winner.

Nottingham Forest currently sit just above Brentford in the table after an undefeated start to the season for them at home, and manager Steve Cooper will be eager to keep that record intact ahead of Brentford’s arrival to the City Ground on Sunday.

Brentford edged out this series last season with a 2-1 win down in London, which followed on from an entertaining 2-2 draw earlier in the season up in Nottingham, a game in which the Tricky Trees continued to battle in throughout before getting rewarded late on through a 96th-minute own goal from a deflected shot.

That’s the way we believe this game will play out also, with Forest showing enough about them so far this season to likely grind out at least a draw here, a result that Thomas Frank’s men would no doubt be happy with after suffering back-to-back defeats in the league.

Prediction: Draw (+225)

Fulham vs Chelsea | October 2 | 3:00pm ET

Fulham +265 | Chelsea +105 | Draw +250

Chelsea really are in some dire straits right now after slipping to yet another defeat against Aston Villa last weekend, leaving them 14th in the table overall and well adrift of mounting any sort of title challenge this season as a result.

The main issue for Chelsea is a lack of cutting edge up front, with the Blues not having scored a single goal in the league in well over a month now, with August 26th’s blowout victory over a winless Luton side the last time they got on the scoresheet in the league.

That’s a fact that likely won’t be improved by the fact Nicolas Jackson will be out for this game for Chelsea after picking up his 5th yellow card of the season last weekend against Aston Villa, adding a further headache to Mauricio Pochettino’s squad selection ahead of this game.

Like Chelsea, Fulham too have been struggling to find the back of the net this season, with just one goal scored at home all season in the Premier League.

The loss of striker Aleksandar Mitrovic in the summer to Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal has proved to be an enormous cost for Fulham in attack, with Wolves’ former frontman Raul Jiminez simply unable to pick up the slack left by Mitrovic’s departure.

Joao Paulinha remains Fulham’s engine this season and things could arguably get a lot worse for the Cottagers if the Portuguese international should decide to leave the club in the approaching January transfer window.

However, even with him still in the squad directing plays right now, Fulham still looks toothless going forward, with only Nottingham Forest owning a lower offensive xG output this season at home than Fulham currently does.

While Chelsea have been awful in front of goals this season, they have at least been solid defensively, allowing the 4th fewest opponent shots on goal, and the 4th lowest defensive xGA in the league this season as well.

That should be enough to keep Fulham quiet in this one, but by the same token, we can’t trust Chelsea to get on the scoresheet in this one either with Fulham’s Marco Silva likely looking to keep this one tight.

Under is the preferred play on Monday night.

Prediction: Under 2.5 (-105)

Stoppage Time | Weekly Soccer Preview

Join Carmine Bianco, Kevin Dolan, Nick Borrman, Bryan Power and Pavlos Laguretos for Stoppage Time every Tuesday and Thursday breaking down betting angles across the European soccer schedule including possibly matches in Premier League!

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