WGM’s Best Weekend Bets: 9 January to 11 January

The English Premier League returns this weekend after a full round of FA Cup matches last week and we’ve picked out a few games that stand out from the crowd when it comes to cold, hard cash.

By far our pick of the weekend’s betting games is Manchester City’s trip to Everton in what shapes as quite a mismatch. After enjoying a wonderful debut season with the Toffees, Everton manager Roberto Martinez has endured a nightmare in 2014/15 with their latest run of four consecutive losses leaving them anchored in 13th with just five wins from 20 starts.

That makes this weekend’s clash with defending premiers City a huge ask for the home side and we don’t hold out much hope for them on current form. At around $1.85 we’re more than happy to take City for the win.

Current league leaders Chelsea host Newcastle on Saturday in what promises to be a real goal-fest. While the form of both sides has been hot and cold in recent weeks, they’ve certainly managed to entertain with Newcastle playing out a 3-3 draw with Burnley last week and Chelsea falling 5-3 to Tottenham. We’ll take the game total being over 2.5 goals.

The NFL season has reached its crescendo with four huge divisional playoff games this weekend. Our pick of the bunch sees two red-hot sides in the Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks go head to head in Seattle with the Panthers looking to continue their remarkable run of late having eliminated the Cardinals last weekend. This one looks much tougher – particularly given Seattle’s rock-solid defence. We’ll take the game total being under 40 points. The Seahawks have won six games in a row but only once in that time has the total passed 40 – 35-6 win over Arizona a fortnight ago – while the other game totals have been 22, 22, 38, 24 and 26.

And we’re expecting a good win for Tom Brady and the Patriots when they host Baltimore on Saturday. Despite a last start loss to the Bills when they had already clinched their seeding and concerns among the Patriots faithful that the Ravens are well-equipped to cause the upset, the fact remains that Brady’s men have been among the best sides all season and if they play to their potential should come away with a comfortable win. Their 12-4 record speaks for itself – Patriots at the line.