James Buttler looks ahead to Monday evening's Premier League South Coast derby and finds his best bets.
Monday night and an 8pm kick-off as Southampton travel the 33 miles to Bournemouth for the South Coast Derby. Fittingly, this preview for Betting Radio will flip-flop a few times as we try and find the best bets amongst the grains of sand on Bournemouth Beach.
Southampton will be hoping to extend their host two-game run of defeats. The Cherries didn't score in either of those losses to Chelsea and Liverpool, but then they were up against two sides currently in the top four. Just one point from their two home matches doesn't suggest that Andoni Iraola's 13th-place Bournemouth side are operating on full steam just yet.
Flip to the Saints, who are winless since they returned to the top flight. Four defeats and a 1-1 home draw against fellow relegation candidates Ipswich, and we're looking at a Monday meeting between two sides that are tough to put your betting money behind.
Flop to Bournemouth's record against the Saints, where they've not won at home since March 2016. There have been two draws and four defeats in that period.
Flip back to Southampton though, and boss Russell Martin, who believes his team are getting better, although he was hurt by that late Ipswich leveller in the one-all draw.
Martin thinks it's only a matter of time before his team taste a full three-pointer.
Flop back to Bournemouth and their home record. They've lost two of their last nine matches at Vitality Stadium, but flip to the loss of Dominic Solanke to Spurs, and they haven't quite got the goal threat they had at the end of last season.
Flip back and focus on the home side in the matches between these teams, because that home side hasn't scored in the last seven matches.
As Premier League matches go, this is a tough one to call
So you can see why I'm flip-flopping all over the joint with this Monday night fixture. Certainly picking a winner is a tough task, although I can understand why Bournemouth are favourites at 8/13, but then I'd not back that, so why would I suggest that you do?
Both sides are struggling to score, so overs and goal scorers are a risky punt and nothing more.
So, I have to admit, I'm struggling to find something to hang my hat on with this one.
The only thing I maybe do fancy at small stakes is 0-0 at 22/1 with vBet, and under 1.5 match goals at 5/1 with BetMGM.
But I don't expect this to be a classic, so unless you're invested in this one as a Saint or a Cherry, my best advice is to keep your money in your betting accounts and watch something else. There are better bets about, and we'll come to those later in the week on Betting Radio.
We've done really well with tips on the Prem on Betting Radio in the last couple of weeks, so I'm going to wait for next time. 'Police Interceptors' is on Channel 5 at 8pm. I think that might be more entertaining.
If you do have a bet, please gamble responsibly and enjoy the football, or 'Police Interceptors', or stay tuned to Betting Radio - there's some great music on.
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