The Week in Sport Betting Preview : England to struggle in Spain, Chelsea to embarrass Mourinho and Hamilton loves it in America

Last Updated : 14th October, 2018 By Peter Roberts

VENUE

various venues

TIME

15 - 21 October

BROADCAST

Live on Sky Sports

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Another busy sporting week begins and there is lots to look forward to. Our weekly preview looks ahead to the UEFA Nations League, Sri Lanka v England, weekend Premier League action and the US Grand Prix.

Spain v England – Monday, 15 October – 7.45pm

England are taking on one of the toughest tasks in world football on Monday night as they travel to take on Spain in Seville in the UEFA Nations League. Whilst England may have had a far superior World Cup to Spain over the summer, the Spaniards have looked far better since the tournament in Russia came to an end.

These two sides met a month ago and Spain came out on top at Wembley. They were the better side, although it was a relatively close game and Luis Enrique’s outfit only picked up a narrow 2-1 win. However, since then both teams have played Croatia and Spain battered them 6-0 and England could only pick up a goalless draw.

Whilst Spain looked well below their best at the World Cup, Enrique appears to have conjured up some rhythm, and certainly returned some attacking verve, scoring 12 goals in the three games he has taken charge of.

With Harry Kane struggling for form and no one else in the team looking like they are ready to fill the goal-scoring void, England are really going to struggle to make much of an impact against a side that will dominate possession. This is going to be a really difficult night for Gareth Southgate’s men and they are going to come up short again, leaving a very interesting final Nations League match with Croatia next month.

Spain are understandbly the clear favourites for this one and they actually still look very decent value to win this game against an England side that has won just one of their last five matches (over 90 mins play two in eight).

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Republic of Ireland v Wales – Tuesday, 16 October – 7.45pm

Republic of Ireland have the chance to avenge an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Wales they suffered last month, but it will not be easy to turn things around from the pasting they took in Cardiff in September.

The Welsh looked excellent as they hammered Ireland 4-1 and the lack of quality in the Irish squad was really exposed by Ryan Giggs’ side. It is a long way back from that in a very short space of time, but the Irish do have a couple of things in their favour compared to that first meeting.

For one, they are on home soil for this clash, but more importantly than that, Wales are missing their star performer, Gareth Bale who has been ruled out by the FAW. Whilst one man cannot make a team, the Welsh are a significantly less threatening prospect without the Real Madrid man in their team. Another who impressed in the previous meeting, Ethan Ampadu, is also out through injury.

The two teams’ fortunes have been quite contrasting since the last clash, as well. Whilst Ireland have picked up a couple of decent draws against Poland and Denmark, Wales have been beaten by the Danes and Spain. Things have swung in the favour of Ireland.

However, Wales were so far superior in their last match, Ireland will struggle to win this one and a draw looks the most appealing prospect at a very decent 2/1 with William Hill.

Sri Lanka v England – Wednesday, 17 October – 10am

It has been a stunted start to England’s tour of Sri Lanka thanks to the weather, but Eoin Morgan’s side are 1-0 ahead in the ODI series after two games and are looking pretty good. Saturday’s clash in Dambulla saw them score 278 in their 50 overs, which is nothing special these days, but it proved to be more than enough in the end and it was encouraging to see star men Joe Root and Morgan impress.

Sri Lanka stumbled their way to 140-5 in reply before rain got in the way and gave the English a win via the Duckworth-Lewis method. It wasn’t a full contest, but it was enough to confirm that England are the much better side, and Sri Lanka are continuing their hideous run of form which saw them lose to Bangladesh and Afghanistan in the Asia Cup last month.

England are just 1/3 to win when the sides meet again on Wednesday and that is not going to tempt too many people to put their hands in their pockets. So we better look elsewhere for a bit of value.

One of the very few plus points for the hosts in Saturday’s game was the performance of Lasith Malinga. The veteran paceman was excellent as he took 5-44 in his 10 overs, looking at his unique best as he bamboozled the batsmen, dismissing the likes of Jason Roy, Morgan and Moeen Ali.

Malinga will spearhead the attack again on Wednesday and looks good to be Sri Lanka’s top bowler again at 11/4 with William Hill.

Chelsea v Man Utd – Saturday, 20 October – 12.30pm

The biggest match of the Premier League weekend sees Chelsea welcome Manchester United to Stamford Bridge and it could be a very tough day at the office for Jose Mourinho at his old home ground.

These two sides have had seriously contrasting seasons so far with Maurizio Sarri’s impact at Chelsea being very impressive indeed whilst Jose Mourinho stagnates and festers at United. Chelsea sit second in the table, level on points at the top with Man City and Liverpool whilst United are down in eighth with a negative goal difference.

Mourinho will know full well the size of the task at hand here and this feels like a classic Jose shut up shop performance. He will happily stink the place out in an attempt to take a point home to Manchester, or even pinch an unlikely victory. There will be no adventure, no support for Romelu Lukaku up front and it is all very predictable.

However, United are not good enough to carry out this old Mourinho tactic anymore. They have conceded 14 goals in their eight league games thus far, that’s more than Newcastle who are 19^th in the table. It is extremely unlikely they will be able to quell the attacking talents of the Blues, especially the on-song Eden Hazard.

United will try and fail to stifle Chelsea, with the home side picking up a dominant but narrow victory. Chelsea to win to nil looks excellent value at 2/1 with Bet Victor.

US Grand Prix – Sunday, 21 October – 7pm

The 2018 Formula One season has been a compelling battle at the top of the Drivers’ Championship for much of it, but Lewis Hamilton is now cantering to another world title and he will win yet another USA Grand Prix this weekend.

Hamilton loves the race in Austin, winning on his last four visits there and five times overall. He also won the US Grand Prix when it was at its old circuit in Indianapolis, so he does tend to have a good time over in America.

The Brit has won the last four Grand Prix this season and won six of the last seven, his only ‘failure’ coming second in Belgium. It really has been utter dominance from the world champion in recent months and there is almost no reason to believe he won’t win again on Sunday in Austin.

It might be a short price but there is no need betting on anything else at the US Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton to win is 4/7 with Paddy Power.