February 2023

Leicester City v Arsenal

Leicester City v Arsenal  When you are competing for a title, the last thing you need are banana skin games away to inconsistent sides who can thrive on the day. Leicester have shown both of their faces recently, with a 4-1 defeat of Tottenham Hotspur pairing up with a meek defeat at Old Trafford to Manchester United. Arsenal came through an acid test, winning away at Aston Villa after being defeated at home by Manchester City.

Leicester News

The Foxes are missing a trio of important players in the shape of James Justin, Ryan Bertrand, and Jonny Evans. All three are Brendan Rodgers stalwarts, and their absence has played a role in just how inconsistent things have been in the Midlands.

Leicester, though, are mostly fit and firing after a challenging period of injuries recently. They come into this one knowing that they are inconsistent, but also knowing they have the firepower and skills to beat anyone on their day.

Arsenal News

The Gunners are still without Gabriel Jesus and are likely to miss both Mohamed Elneny and Thomas Partey. This leaves the title chasing North Londoners scrambling for a midfield, with it being likely that Jorginho will come back in to the side after his dramatic winner against Villa. Eddie Nketiah will continue up front, flanked by Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka.

There is, though, a natural hesitancy about Arsenal after the Manchester City result. Nottingham Forest done them a favour and undone some of the damage, but it is now up to Arsenal to prove that they can overcome adversity by beating a side who love to play against the Gunners.

Verdict

Arsenal fans will not like this, but we can see a Leicester result here. The Foxes are known for appearing against the big teams, while they tend to have motivational issues in the average week to week games. This is a stern test for an Arsenal team who won big at Villa; we cannot see a repeat performance here, though.

SCORE: 2-2

Acca Cashout

Acca Cashout  Cashing out an accumulator bet or, in other words, getting money back – albeit less than might otherwise be the case – before the bet has finished, inevitably has its pros and cons. However, one punter for whom cashing out worked just perfectly was the anonymous Betfair customer who, on Boxing Day, 2016, staked just £1 on a speculative, 21-fold accumulator on British football matches.

Two of his chosen matches were evening kick-offs but, when Olivier Giroud scored a header on his first league start of the season for Arsenal against West Bromwich Albion after 86 minutes, he was ahead in all 19 matches already underway. At that point, although he stood to collect a potential £1.2 million on his ‘all or nothing’ bet, he decided not to push his luck any further and immediately cashed out for the not insubstantial sum of £223,000.

Lo and behold, just four minutes later, Wycombe Wanderers’ winger Myles Weston scored his first goal for the club against Plymouth Argyle to level the scores at 3-3 after 90 minutes as the away team fought back from 3-1. The scoreline remained 3-3 at full-time, thereby rendering the bet worthless, so our intrepid punter had reason to feel well satisfied with his decision. For the record, of his two remaining selections, Manchester City completed a routine 3-0 away win against Hull City, but Newcastle United were beaten 1-0 at home by Sheffield Wednesday.

Keen to promote the benefits of cashing out to punters – the mechanism can, of course, benefit bookmakers, too – Betfair spokesperson Naomi Totten said, ‘Cash Out gives customers the ultimate control over their bets and this is surely the mother of all Cash Outs from the mother of all accumulators.’