Saturday Accumulator

QPR and Fulham look surprisingly good value to win home games this weekend that they must go into as strong favourites. Newcastle are due three points at St James’s Park and face a disheartened Everton. The treble is a mouth-watering 9/1 shot with VictorChandler.

I can’t quite understand why Championship leaders QPR are priced as long as 5/4 to beat Leicester City at Loftus Road, but I want a piece of it! The Hoops are ten games unbeaten in the league and their last two outings were a 3-0 win at Boro and 2-0 triumph against an improving Ipswich side. In other words - QPR are bang on form. Admittedly, Leicester under Sven are a much improved side from the one that slumped in early season, but a recent draw at home to Coventry and a loss to Cardiff will cause the home fans little trepidation.

Fulham have drawn their last three Premier League games against Man City, Chelsea and Aston Villa, which is competitive, and now they should win. Back at Craven Cottage this weekend, they face the team that everybody wants to play right now - Blackburn. Steve Kean’s Rovers have taken a miserable one point from their previous five games and free-fall looks a real danger. Bookies are suddenly seeing a surge of bets on the Lancashire side getting relegated, a 6/1 shot with StanJames, and those odds will likely shorten again come Saturday night.

The slightly braver aspect of this tip is Newcastle to beat Everton. The Toon Army can’t stop drawing in recent weeks with three stalemates in the last four and five in the last seven. But the signs are encouraging; the last draw against Bolton was credible after playing most of the second half with ten men, and the previous away game was a 2-0 win at Birmingham.

Everton are just a horrible team to predict. One week it’s an FA Cup win at Stamford Bridge, the next it’s elimination from the same competition at home to lower league opposition. The fact that the Reading debacle was just days ago, Fellaini is out for the season and that Cahill is injured again, suggests they are there for the taking though.