FA Cup Accumulator

There are few better opportunities to hunt around for some value than FA Cup 3rd round weekend. I’ve come up with three teams primarily because they should want it more than their opponents. Firstly back Derby and West Brom to beat opponents with a huge game against each other coming up on Tuesday. Burnley then make it a particularly lucrative treble because they are significant underdogs, wrongly, to win at Carrow Road. The accumulator is a best price 15/1 with WilliamHill.

Derby v Palace and West Brom v Cardiff can be looked at in very similar veins. The two away sides meet in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final in a few days time and with a major final at Wembley at stake that has to take priority. We can not only expect weakened sides on Saturday, but there will be a few players on the pitch who might pull out of the odd 50-50 challenge; nobody wants to miss the biggest game of the season due to a last minute injury.

To make home home wins even more likely Derby and West Brom are both on good form. The Rams will be confident after winning their last three Championship matches against promotion candidates Hull, West Ham and Leeds. Apart from a 1-0 defeat to Everton on New Year’s Day, the Baggies have also been resurgent. Hodgson’s team won their last two away outings at Blackburn and Newcastle before holding Man City at the Hawthornes. Even if the former Liverpool boss rings the changes, his reserves should have too much for Cardiff’s.

The final pick looks a lot more daring, but at odds of 3/1 Burnley would be worth a flutter as a single bet as well. It may be Championship against Premiership but only one of these sides may really have the appetite for the fight. The Canaries are pretty certain to rest almost the entirety of the team that has excelled in the top flight. If you want to know what happened when this approach was adopted for the Carling Cup, I’ll tell you; Norwich 0 MK Dons 4. And this should be a tougher match for many of the same personnel.

The indications are that Burnley boss Eddie Howe is relishing the opportunity to pit his wits against Paul Lambert. “It’s the FA Cup. Why would we not want to take it seriously? By no means would I devalue the competition or waste the supporters’ money,” he added. If he doesn’t put out a strong line-up after those words I won’t be the only one feeling disappointed!

With that in mind, this is a likely venue for an ‘upset.’ The Clarets took four points off City in the Championship last campaign and they are going along well at the moment too. Norwich are traditionally pretty disastrous in this competition as it is; they have only successfully negotiated the third round once in the last eight seasons. That run looks set to continue.

Back Derby, West Brom and Burnley to all win on Saturday afternoon at best combined odds of 15/1 with WilliamHill.