Tonight sees the second leg of the Carling Cup semi-final encounter between Arsenal and Ipswich at The Emirates Stadium. Arsenal go into the match a goal down from the first leg, but the Gunners are still heavy favourites to win the tie, which is reflected in the odds for tonight’s match.
One thing’s for sure; there isn’t any value in backing the Gunners tonight, with Arsenal 1/8 to be victorious and 2/11 to qualify. On the other hand it would take a brave man to put their money on Ipswich tonight, but 7/2 for the Tractor Boys to progress to the final might just tempt you into parting with your cash!
You’d be well advised to take a look at some of the other markets available, especially the first goal scorer. Robin van Persie has been in a rich vein of form recently and is unsurprisingly the favourite to score first tonight with odds at 3/1. He’s been in such good form in front of goal that maybe you fancy him to score twice, which you can get odds of 5/2, or if you think the Dutchman will score back to back hat-tricks you can enjoy odds of 9/1.
With van Persie’s odds being so short you may well look to plump for a different first goal scorer, and odds of 5/1 on Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas are pretty good. The value is of course in Ipswich causing an upset and scoring first, with Tamas Priskin at 20/1 to repeat the feat of the first leg and find the back of the net first.
If you’re confident Arsenal are going to win and would prefer to go for a specific scoreline, the question you have to ask yourself is how many goals are Arsenal going to win by? You can get odds of 10/1 on 3-1, 14/1 on 4-1, or if you think it’s going to be a rout, then you may just plump for 5/1 at 22-1!
Football FanCast’s hot tip: Cesc Fabregas to score first at 5/1
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