GW6 Premier League Previews and Free Bets with Samba Pools

We go again!

To me at least, round 5 of the Premier League was notable for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it felt like a few of the teams started to play with a little more freedom and cohesion and as a result we got some good games. With such a short pre-season and then the flow of the league broken up by an international break, it's no great surprise that it's taking players a bit of time to get up to speed but there are certainly signs that they are clicking through the gears.

Secondly, the brilliant new scoring system on Samba Pools instigated by @mengao made the results of round 5 really entertaining with big swings in wins and losses. If you've not read about it then check out the changes here.

Here's how round 5 has impacted the profit and loss table.

Rank	Hive Account	Total profit/loss for the season (Hive)
1	@tengolotodo	3.444
2	@thoth442	2.311
3	@talesfrmthecrypt	1.952
4	@doombot75	1.622
5	@seki	0.049
6	@blancy	-0.077
7	@amirtheawesome1	-0.320

Blanchy's disastrous return of just 5 points plunges him into a loss and 6th place. On the end of the spectrum Thoth442 and Tengolotodo enjoyed very successful game weeks to establish themselves as 1 and 2.

We have a dedicated hardcore of participants but we'd love to get a few more involved! Please feel free to join here and remember to give you a far greater chance of turning a profit, all participants get a share of the rewards from this post.

And so on to this week's games...

Brentford endured a bit of a thrashing in their match against Fulham and were perhaps lucky not to lose by more despite taking a first half lead.

Only Wolves have conceded more goals from open play than the Bees and of course it will be Brentford old boy Bryan Mbeumo looking to take advantage of that paucity in defence on his first return to West London.

Of course United benefited hugely from Robert Sanchez's brain fart in the early stages of their match against Chelsea but they did start that game at a high tempo and like a team with something to prove following their abject performance against City the week before.

The question now is can they string 2 performances together. Amorim has never won back to back league games in his near year in charge!

Brentford won this game 4-3 last year. Can we have more of the same this year please? One thing counting against that happening again is the kick-off time. Historically there have been fewer goals in these lunch-time kick-offs than the average Premier League match.

It's Chelsea vs Future Chelsea and people say that time travel isn't possible!

Neither of these sides covered themselves in glory last weekend. Chelsea (present) had a shocking opening to their game at United and for all their many many transfers made they still seem to lack a really top class defence that is capable of resisting pressure in moments like those at Old Trafford.

For their part, Brighton threw away a 2 goal lead at home to Spurs and were probably fortunate not to lose the match. They created very little in open play (once again) and looked vulnerable at the back.

The good news for neutrals is that this game does tend to produce goals with the last 6 league encounters all finishing with 3 or more of them including the match at Stamford Bridge last year which also took place at the end of September and finished 4-2 to Chelsea with all 6 goals coming in the first half including 4 for Cole Palmer!

It's a replay of the Community Shield Final and we all know how that one ended.

In fact, Palace are unbeaten in their last 17 games in all competitions a run going back to mid-April last season. They've drawn 2 matches (across 90mins) against Liverpool during that time. Can they become the first side to take a point(s) off them this season too?

Palace have enjoyed a full week off in advance of this game which will have been a much deserved rest for the busiest team in the English top flight so far this season.

Liverpool continued their habit of scoring late with their midweek win in the EFL Cup. However, they will be without top scorer Ekitike given his needless suspension meaning that they'll have to make do with British record transfer signing Alexander Isak upfront. Nice problem to have!

A priceless 3 points on the road for Leeds last time out brings them into this match at fortress Elland Road in a really good position. For their part, Bournemouth missed the chance to go clear in 2nd with a boring 0-0 draw against a severely reduced Newcastle team.

In fact, neither side has been pulling up any trees in attacking areas this season. Apart from their 3 goal, 14 minute blitz against bottom club Wolves, Leeds only other strike was a penalty here against Everton in the opening game. Bournemouth have been busy and industrious as always but have so far lacked that killer pass or clinical finish.

All and all it points towards a game that is likely to be low scoring and decided by a goal!

I think it's safe to say that Pep will be deploying slightly different tactics for this match versus the game away at Arsenal on Sunday!

Hitting sides on the break has become City's modus operandi in the early stages of the season with their 3 counter attack goals more than any other side to date. It's very unlikely however, that Burnley will leave a lot of space in behind for them to add to that tally on Saturday.

Burnley have looked solid and well organised at home but on both their away days in the Premier League this season they've conceded 3 goals which will give Scott Parker cause for concern.

He will know that they will spend large portions of this game without the ball so the real question is how and when can they hurt City on the break. They demonstrated on their last trip to Manchester, a 3-2 defeat at United, that they are able to take their chances when they come with those 2 goals coming in the only 2 phases of the game where they established any kind of dominance.

New manager Ange Postecoglou is still looking for his first win in charge of Forest and you'd imagine the Nottingham faithful will demand nothing less than a victory at home to Premier League new boys Sunderland.

However, based on their showing so far in the league that win is far from certain against a Sunderland team that has shown real grit, determination and carries a significant enough threat themselves. Those qualities were all encapsulated in their come back from being a goal and a man down against Villa last Sunday.

That performance was at home and Sunderland are still looking for a first goal on their travel in the league this season. Their other 2 away trips have seen them register xG of 0.67 against Burnley and 0.36 against Palace. I'd imagine that they will once again dig in for the clean sheet and hope to knick something on the break or from a set-play.

As Spurs fans can attest to, Big Ange's tactics have often struggled against sides playing a low block so we wait to see whether Forest's players can move Sunderland out of their 2 banks of defence or otherwise get in behind. This game could go one of 2 ways, either really exciting end to end football or a bit of snooze fest as Forest bang their heads against a wall.

Saturday again provides fans with the opportunity to watch a solid 9 hours of Premier League football if they so desire as Spurs take on Wolves in the evening kick-off.

Spurs played poorly in their first Champions League game last week but got a win at home and then played quite well at Brighton and got a draw. Fans were broadly happy at the end of both games but I think in this game, against bottom placed Wolves they'll be expecting both a good performance and the right result at the end of it. Anything less could well spell the end of the honeymoon period for Thomas Frank.

Speaking of Honeymoon periods, Vitor Pereira's seems to be well and truly over. The Wolves boss made an immediate impact on his arrival at Molineux last year but his side have looked all over the place in their opening 5 games so far this season. He has the unenviable problem of having a side that doesn't look threatening going forward, coupled with a defence that has more holes in it than Swiss cheese.

Then again, he's playing the right team to relieve some of that pressure.

"Dr. Tottenham. Paging Dr. Tottenham. Please report to A&E immediately to administer 3 points to a club in free fall"

In fact, Wolves have got an excellent record in this fixture over recent seasons having won 4 and drawn 1 of their last 5 encounters with Spurs. Could this be the kick start that their season needs?

Hold the back pages! Aston Villa have scored a Premier League goal this season! Ok it was a bit of swinger from Matty Cash and the keeper probably should have done better but hey, the all count!

The Villans will hope that they can get a few more to count this season but it's not like their poor record in front of goal can be put down to bad luck. Their xG of 3.79 is only a fraction higher than bottom placed Wolves.

To be honest, it looks like there are a few players in this Villa side who either don't have the energy to play at the tempo that Unai Emery wants or who have just stopped trying! Chief amongst them is Morgan Rogers who has gone from Premier League star to peripheral figure in the space of just 3 months.

Fulham for their part are doing what Fulham do. Solid and well organised at the back, some work horses in the middle of the park and just enough skill and talent in the backline to keep Premier League defences busy.

The Cottagers famously beat Villa in the 2018 play-off final to seal their return to the Premier League with the Midlands club having to wait until the season after to return to the top flight. Since then however, it's been all Villa with 7 wins out their 8 league meetings.

Arsenal are 5 points off league leaders and current Champions Liverpool but it would be fair to say that their fixtures in this early part of the season have been Tough with a capital T.

A trip to Newcastle is their latest mission and a game that has proved to be pretty spicy in recent seasons. Who for example can forget Arteta's mad rant at the end of this match a couple of years ago.

In fact, Arsenal haven't scored in any of their last 3 visits to Tyneside in league and cup. This match is more often that not a game won to nil with 14 of the last 16 matches between the 2 finishing in that manner.

Both teams will once again be well organised and drilled on the threats that the opposition carry so don't be surprised to see them largely cancelling each other out leading to a similar result again. This is a match that could ultimately be decided by a moment of individual brilliance or a mistake whether by a player or the ref...

We've got a Monday night game and if you're Graham Potter it means you can say you've survived into the next week - small wins!

Rumour has it that it's fairly irrelevant what the result is for the Hammers boss in this one, he is dead man walking with the East London club's hierarchy just needing a little longer to secure their new man before pulling the trigger on Potter.

Everton for their part will see this as a great opportunity for 3 more points and the chance to establish themselves firmly in the top half of the Premier League as we head into October.

The Toffees appear to be very happy in their new home with 2 wins and a draw to date. In fact, they are yet to concede a goal in their new stadium and you wouldn't back against them delivering another clean sheet against this Hammers team.

In fairness, West Ham haven't looked terrible going forward and have enough proven Premier League goal scorers to win them games, it's just that they concede so many at the back including 7 from set pieces already that it becomes fairly irrelevant how well they attack.

Scoring from set-pieces is a major part of any Premier League club's goal threat these days but Everton can point to the fact that they were doing it before it was cool. They'll undoubtedly fancy their chances of making their opportunities from dead ball situations count in this one.