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Golden Goals MD4: Who Will Rule North London?

The Premier League returns after a short international break that seemed to have its fair share of goals and highlights – not to mention injuries that could play a significant factor in a certain North London Derby this Sunday.

Arsenal are without some major players in their midfield this week and it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Their North London rivals will be champing at the bit with news of Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard, and a possible Riccardo Calafiori omission from the teamsheet. Tottenham have not beaten Mikel Arteta’s side since May 2022 – will that change this weekend?

Both Liverpool and Manchester City will also be in action against teams you would expect them to beat to continue their current undefeated streaks. Then again, anything can happen in this league and indeed the Reds meet another team yet to lose in Nottingham Forest while City play Brentford, a side they have struggled to put away in previous seasons.

As always, the games analysed below are those featured in this week’s Golden Goals. Simply predict all six correct scores to win up to £1 million – or a share of the £5,000 prizepool if no one gets all six. On Matchday 3, a whopping 12 players managed five correct scores to split the prizepool. You can learn more about Golden Goals here.

Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest

Arne Slot’s side have had a perfect start to the season picking up three wins out of three, with the 3-0 triumph at Old Trafford topping them all.

What’s impressive about these victories isn’t just the goals but the number of clean sheets. They are yet to concede, which doesn’t bode well for a Forest side that failed to score at all in both games against them last season.

Defensively Liverpool have never looked stronger. The centre-back pairing of Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk has been a borderline brick wall for the opposition, giving Ipswich Town, Brentford and United very little joy in front of goal. The Reds have allowed just 2.3 xG against them across their opening three matches, the best of any team in the division.

Another pairing it is impossible not to talk about is Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz, who have been instrumental in Liverpool’s early success, scoring three goals each with the Egypt international assisting four times on top of that.

In terms of this meeting in particular, Liverpool’s third-highest scorer of all-time has also netted two goals in three appearances against Forest and looks likely to add to his tally once again given the form he’s in – he is 4/1 to score first with BetMGM.

Nottingham Forest have had a defiant start to the season. Their battle with Bournemouth ended 1-1, they comfortably beat Southampton away and then held Wolves to a point in their most recent fixture. It’s Forest’s joint-longest Premier League streak without defeat since the 1995/96 campaign, an impressive start that will no doubt benefit them in the long run.

One undefeated streak will end here – and it will not be Liverpool’s. Forest have done well not to lose a game up until this point but, spurred on by an always-lively Anfield crowd, we expect the Reds’ current hot streak to continue.

Prediction: Liverpool 2-0 Nottingham Forest

Fulham vs West Ham

The new-look West Ham are still finding their feet under Julen Lopetegui. They have lost two of their opening three matches against Manchester City and Aston Villa but a confident away win in their sophomore game of the season against Crystal Palace will have fans cautiously optimistic.

Hammers fans should feel that sense of optimism heading into the weekend’s game at Craven Cottage, West Ham have won 16 of their 28 meetings with Fulham, their best win rate against any Premier League team they have faced more than five times.

Saturday’s away fixture could also bring the best out of Jarrod Bowen. The Englishman is the third-most prolific attacker on the road since the start of last season, netting nine times while the Hammers are on their travels including in their previous away outing at Palace.

As for Fulham, they have struggled to garner any momentum since the middle of the 2023/24 season. They have only won three of their previous 12 league matches and two of those wins were against newly-promoted sides in Luton and Leicester. Notably, however, their other away victory came against West Ham.

Amid the inconsistency there have been some bright spots for Fulham, namely USA international defender Antonee Robinson. The American has two assists so far this season and only Kieran Trippier has more since the start of the previous campaign (10 to Robinson’s eight).

Fulham are usually a solid bet post-international break – they only lost one game following a week-long hiatus last year – but we don’t foresee similar success here. West Ham’s transitioning squad has had time to gel and it will all come together at Craven Cottage

Prediction: Fulham 1-2 West Ham

Aston Villa vs Everton

Unai Emery’s men have endured a mixed start to the campaign with away wins against West Ham and Leicester sandwiched a disappointing home defeat to Arsenal.

In Everton, they face a team they have an excellent recent record against. Since they bounced back to the top flight in 2019 Villa are unbeaten in the division against the Toffees, winning seven games and drawing three while conceding just three goals in that run.

They have been rather shot-shy so far this season, however. The Villans are averaging just 19.67 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes and have managed only 36 shots across their first three games, ranking fifth-lowest and sixth-lowest in the Premier League respectively.

In Everton, though, they may have a willing dance partner.

The mood is as dark as it’s ever been on the blue half of the River Mersey. Despite leading Bournemouth 2-0 with 86 minutes on the clock, Everton managed to lose 3-2.

There was a sense of disbelief echoing around Goodison Park in the aftermath. In the 86 minutes leading up to the equaliser, the Cherries managed just one shot on target. In the final four minutes and eight minutes of injury time combined, Everton conceded six shots on target.

It speaks to a lack of composure and there’s a lot of work to be done for Everton if they are to get something from this tricky clash away to Aston Villa.

This one will be a home win.

Prediction: Aston Villa 2-0 Everton

Bournemouth vs Chelsea

It’s been an indifferent start for Enzo Maresca’s men. A disappointing opening day defeat was rectified by a 6-2 victory over Wolves – however, just when it appeared that momentum was with the Blues, they lost to Servette and then drew with Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge.

Despite all the inconsistency, Cole Palmer remains Chelsea’s most productive threat. He has the most assists in the league this season (four) and has created the second-most chances in the division with 11 in three matches.

Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke appear the most likely to convert those chances. The Senegalese forward, criticised for being wasteful after scoring nearly five goals fewer than expected last year, has been much more efficient at the start of this season. Madueke, for his part, has continued his scoring streak from pre-season with four goals in four games across all competitions.

There are still concerns about Chelsea defensively though. Maresca’s side have conceded five goals across their three matches in the league and are without a clean sheet away from home since 2nd October last year (a 2-0 victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage).

Noel and Liam Gallagher thought they had August’s biggest comeback until Bournemouth produced a minor miracle at Goodison Park last time out. With 87 minutes played, Andoni Iraola’s side were 2-0 down and staring at a winless start to the season before goals from Antoine Semenyo, Lewis Cook and Luis Sinisterra snatched victory from the claws of defeat.

Improbable comebacks have been Bournemouth’s party piece since returning to the Premier League. Their victory over Everton was the third time the Cherries had overcome a two or more-goal deficit to win – a league-high since they returned to the top flight.

We don’t foresee Iraola’s incredible powers of recovery being needed on the south coast this weekend, though we do expect goals. Neither side has kept a clean sheet so far this season and there is too much offensive output on show for a lacklustre draw. Expect a high-scoring affair with the points shared.

Prediction: Bournemouth 2-2 Chelsea

Tottenham vs Arsenal

No side has endured a tougher international break than Arsenal fans. First, Calafiori was forced off during Italy’s first Nations League encounter with France after a suspected calf injury. Then, captain Odegaard was replaced during Norway’s game with Austria on Tuesday night.

It’s worth noting that Arsenal will also be without Declan Rice after the English midfielder was controversially sent off against Brighton in the Gunners' last Premier League match.

Sunday’s game will provide the stage for Mikel Arteta’s newest recruit Raheem Sterling. The former Chelsea man was in attendance at the Emirates before the week-long hiatus for international football but is in line to return this week.

Sterling couldn’t have asked for a better team to begin his Arsenal career against, with the former England international scoring six times against Tottenham in the past, three more than any other Arsenal player. Will he make it seven at 12/5 to score anytime with BetMGM?

Tottenham’s consistency problem has reared its ugly head again to begin the 2024/25 season. A dominant home victory over Everton has been sandwiched by a lacklustre opening day point at the King Power and a 2-1 defeat at St James’ Park to Newcastle.

It doesn’t make much better reading for Spurs fans when we look at the recent history of this fixture. Tottenham have lost five of their last seven meetings with the Gunners and that’s more than they had lost in their previous 16 games against their North London counterparts.

However, Ange Postecoglou can rely on a performance from Son Heung-min. The Korean forward has already notched two goals in his opening three games and has eight goals against Arsenal. Only Harry Kane (14), Bobby Smith (10) and Emmanuel Adebayor (10) have amassed more.

Away from our 2-2 correct score prediction, which matches last season’s first derby of the campaign, there are certainly some match event bets to keep an eye on.

Chief among those is that the North London Derby has had the most penalties of any fixture (20) so there could be value at 5/2 for the referee to point to the spot in this one.

Prediction: Tottenham 2-2 Arsenal

Wolves vs Newcastle

Wolves have endured a stuttering start to the season after the sale of key player Pedro Neto in the summer transfer window.

Two losses and a draw left the Old Gold in 17th heading into the first international break of the season and they will be on the hunt for an immediate change in fortunes upon the restart when Newcastle visit the Midlands.

After the 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest on Matchday 3, Wolves manager Gary O’Neil said he was pleased with his team’s improvement from the previous week – when they were hammered 6-2 by Chelsea – but there is lots to work on for the Molineux men with concessions in all three games so far this season.

The omens are not so bad for O’Neil’s charges: Wolves haven’t lost at home to Newcastle since both sides were in the Championship back in 2017, though five of the six Molineux meetings since then have ended in score draws.

Eddie Howe’s Magpies, meanwhile, come into this clash after a 2-1 win over Tottenham. Despite conceding two-thirds of possession and 20 shots, the Magpies scored from two of their three shots on target in a clinical and fighting display.

Although registering seven points out of nine in their first three matches, Newcastle have an xG total of just 3.7, which is 12th in the division. Indeed, only Ipswich Town have managed fewer shots this season (19) than Howe’s men (26).

Can they find their shooting boots against Wolves?

Of teams who have faced each other in the Premier League 15 times or more, Newcastle and Wolves have shared the spoils 61% of the time – the highest percentage of any fixture to end in a draw.

Combine that with the head-to-head record at Molineux and we are in for another score draw here.

Prediction: Wolves 1-1 Newcastle

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Odds are correct at time of publication but subject to change. Please note: This week's Golden Goals deadline is Saturday 14th September 15:00. Opt-in is required and you can find out more here.

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Opt in & predict 6 correct scores weekly (see Game Lobby for weekly Tournament cut-off time) to win up to £1m jackpot or up to £5k Prizepool if Jackpot is not won. Void if 1 or more matches are postponed/abandoned or not completed. Verification procedures apply. T&Cs apply.

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