Get on Pavlyuchenko to score first
Tottenham are 9/20 favourites with BetUK to beat Burnley in their Carling Cup game tonight and should win. It’s hard to support the hosts at such a short price, however, as Spurs are still wildly inconsistent – the 0-2 defeat at bottom club West Brom before victory against Wigan in the FA Cup is testament to that. Coupled with their less than stellar home form (they hadn’t won in four games at home before victory over Wigan) and it is probably better to go elsewhere in search of value. The goals market is tricky as Burnley have averaged a whopping 3.15 goals per game in away Championship fixtures but just two a game in the Carling Cup, while Spurs have been over 2.5 in four of their last eight games so there is no cast-iron reason to support any investment there.
One thing we do know is that Roman Pavlyuchenko will lead the Tottenham attack and at 7/2 he looks to be good value to be the first player to find the net. With Darren Bent injured the Russian is likely to have a rare full-game outing (he hadn’t completed 90 minutes for four consecutive games until Bent picked up the injury against Wigan), and he has shown that he is more then capable of finding the target when given the chance. Under Harry Redknapp, Pavlyuchenko has scored six goals in eight home appearances and an even more impressive four goals in three Carling Cup starts. A double against Wigan last weekend shows that he remains in good touch and given the high probability that he will be given a lot of game time tonight, he is the pick.
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