EFL Betting Tips: Bournemouth head up this weekend's 13/2 treble

The Championship is back this weekend so plenty of football to enjoy across the EFL, where expert Gabriel Sutton offers his best football betting tips.

Bournemouth to beat Queens Park Rangers – 7/10

Bournemouth produced an early statement of their promotion credentials just before the international break, winning 3-1 at Coventry.

It was a thoroughly impressive display from the Cherries, who were forced into a switch from 3-4-3 in the absence of wide forward Arnaut Danjuma to a 3-5-2 setup that worked a treat.

Not only did that formation allow Jason Tindall to home in on a striking combination of Sam Surridge flicking the ball onto the skilful Dominic Solanke, it also allowed him to pick three midfielders.

Lewis Cook dictated superbly from a deeper role than usual while Jefferson Lerma and Dan Gosling, neither of whom having scored more than four goals in a league season, managed three between them.

Lerma was handed more creative freedom and justified that with a fine opener from outside the box, while Gosling triggered the press high up and bagged a brace, including a delightful second goal.

Anything close to that performance level should suffice for victory against QPR, who were fortunate to escape Sheffield Wednesday with a point.

The Rs would, in all likelihood, have lost at Hillsborough were an opposing player not forced off through injury for the closing stages, leaving their opponents having to battle on with 10 men – and it was because of that Mark Warburton’s side were able to swing the cross in for Macaulay Bonne to nod home his first goal for the club.

Bournemouth have a lot more quality than Wednesday and there is no reason to expect them to finish with a numerical disadvantage, so the promotion-chasing Cherries should justify odds-on quotes.

Plymouth Argyle to beat Northampton Town – 10/11

Plymouth Argyle have looked great going forward so far this season but, until last Saturday, there were question marks over them defensively and in terms of game management.

A solid and streetwise 2-0 win over Burton, though, has gone a long way to assuaging those doubts.

Tyrese Fornah, on loan from Nottingham Forest, looks the ideal player to take on the midfield role left by last season’s Bristol City loanee, Tyreeq Bakinson.

Fornah not only has the physical minerals to hold his own in duels and carry the ball forward, he also has the intelligence to understand what the game needs – whether to play forward and accelerate the game, or whether to keep things simple, making him potentially a key cog in Ryan Lowe’s 3-1-4-2 setup.

Lowe, who led the Devon outfit up from League Two last season, is very much a disciple of possession football so we could see a clash of styles when they host fellow promotees Northampton Town.

Keith Curle’s side have completed just 52% of their passes so far this season and while possession isn’t always everything, it feels like they are giving the ball away far too cheaply, without their direct play posing the same threat it did in the division below.

That is partly because in goal, in defence, in midfield and in attack, there are individual areas in which the Cobblers are arguably weakened – and that is very worrying for a side that are jumping up a division.

Defeat at Home Park would likely leave Northampton in the bottom four for the first time this season – and it could be an arduous campaign ahead.

Bolton Wanderers to beat Oldham Athletic – 11/10

One win in five league games is not exactly the start Bolton Wanderers wanted to their 2020-21 campaign.

The Trotters still have promotion as very much the sole aim, but they need to find form quickly.

Ian Evatt will have been working with his players this week, though, on producing quicker movement and making more of their opportunities to play the ball forward early.

Eoin Doyle scored 25 goals at Swindon last season not just because he was playing in an expansive, possession-based setup, but also because the tempo and speed of movement was very high – it meant there were lots of cutbacks from the byline for him to gobble up from close-range.

Once Evatt gets Ali Crawford and Nathan Delfouneso being bolder in their off-the-ball work, games will open up for wing-backs Jak Hickman and Jamie Mascoll to break into the final third and create those chances for Doyle.

Bolton will hope the football can flow against Oldham Athletic, who hold the rare distinction of being bottom of the league with the division’s joint-top goalscorer – Conor McAleny has five league goals.

Oldham are decent going forward but their defence look like strangers at times and they are suffering without former Trotter David Wheater, who is the kind of powerful, experienced defender they need to get more out of the likes of Sido Jombati and Carl Piergianni.

Bolton should get their promotion push on track.