The Premier League returns this weekend after a thoroughly enjoyable international break on this side of the Irish Sea.
Manchester United host Arsenal in Saturday's lunchtime kickoff, while a rampant Liverpool visit their reserve team at St. Mary's. We kid, of course, Southampton fans. But not really.
Meanwhile, at the foot of the table, David Moyes' resurgent Sunderland host fellow strugglers Hull in what may be the earliest six-pointer in Premier League history, and Leicester visit Watford seeking to pass the time between Champions League fixtures.
We've compiled five tasty looking bets ahead of the weekend's action, beginning with the Bet Of The Week as featured on our football podcast.
The Balls.ie Football Show Ladbrokes Bet Of The Week
Each week on The Balls.ie Football Show, Mikey, Gavin and Gavan will be selecting their bet of the weekend, with any potential winnings being given to charity. This week's charity bet of the weekend is Both teams to score; Liverpool to beat Southampton, at odds of 11/4.
Liverpool have kept just three clean sheets in all competitions this season - against Burton Albion and Derby County in the EFL Cup and, er, Manchester United on the farce that was #RedMonday.
Southampton have won all but one of their home fixtures this season - that exception being a 2-0 defeat to Chelsea at St. Mary's at the tail-end of October. Considering the form Liverpool are in, both offensively and defensively, this has a 3-1 away win written all over it.
Here are four more bets which caught our eye ahead of this weekend's Premier League return:
Harry Kane to score first in Tottenham vs West Ham: 10/3
Kane bagged brace in the corresponding fixture last season, almost exactly a year ago to the day, as Spurs won 4-1. A season before, he also registered against the Hammers at White Hart Lane in a 2-2 draw.
This season, West Ham have lost three of their four Premier League fixtures, conceding nine goals on their travels.
Kane was released by England after their World Cup qualifier with Scotland, missing their friendly with Spain, and should be relatively fresh heading into the fixture. All of this considered, along with the simple fact that West Ham are complete pants, and 10/3 for Spurs' main man to open the scoring seems generous.
Everton to be level with Swansea after 30 minutes: 8/11
Swansea's players seemed particularly disillusioned by goings-on at their club in the early stages of their last league game with Man United. They were rightly ridiculed for all-but throwing in the towel from the off.
There's every chance the Welsh side will go down at Goodison, but Everton have scored just two goals during the first half hour of their 13 games in all competitions this season, and are notorious slow starters. Should Swansea show any sort of response to their paltry display at home to United, there's a huge chance they'll be level after half an hour. It certainly makes for a cheeky addition to a favourites-leaning accumulator.
Jermain Defoe to score and Sunderland to win: 21/10
With the league's two chief relegation candidates both grabbing their respective first wins since about 2007 prior to the international break, spirits will be high at both Sunderland and Hull.
This could conceivably be an absolutely barn-burning affair at the foot of the table, but with Will Keane reportedly out for a year with a career-threatening injury, Hull's resources look scant again relative to those at David Moyes' disposal.
Jermain Defoe has six goals in 11 Premier League appearances this season despite Sunderland's woeful form, and if one of these teams is going to turn the corner on Saturday, it seems more likely that it will be Sunderland, who simply have more options at their disposal and more potential to sustain their recent improvement.
Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger not to shake hands at full time: 5/2
Speaking on The Balls.ie Football Show, Mikey maintained that Mourinho's odd trend of being overtly and overly friendly to his 'former' adversaries (as seen with Pep Guardiola following United's Manchester derby win in the EFL Cup) should continue with the man he once branded 'a specialist in failure' this Saturday lunchtime.
There remains a perception, however, that the Portuguese manager is unhinged at the minute, and should a couple of key decisions go Arsenal's way, there's every chance he'll hold Wenger responsible and storm down the tunnel. On the flipside, of course, Wenger might find it difficult to embrace the cold hand of his biggest enemy should Arsenal suffer the slings and arrows of similar fortune. At 5/2, it's a wildcard but worth a pop.
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