Wednesday Accumulator

Manchester United and Arsenal have both improved greatly in the league over the past couple of months and we can now expect them to win tricky away fixtures against mid-table opponents again. Newcastle have had a sticky patch, but I expect them to get back on track at home to West Brom on Wednesday night. Backing the three favourites to win makes for an attractive treble at best odds of almost exactly 5/1 with PaddyPower.

It isn’t too hard to make a case for the champions Manchester United beating Fulham, as anyone who watched the comfortable 2-0 victory over QPR will surely agree. The Red Devils haven’t even conceded a goal on their travels in the league since Steven Gerrard scored in a 1-1 draw at Anfield on 15 October. At the other end Wayne Rooney has rediscovered his touch with three goals in his last two starts.

The Cottagers may have been good enough to defeat basement boys Bolton at the weekend , but they have struggled for consistency under Martin Jol. United will just be too strong for them as they start go through the gears.

Arsenal were desperately unfortunate to lose 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, where the officials did them no favours. But losing away to the league leaders shouldn’t demoralise a side who were eight games unbeaten before that. Arteta, Song and Ramsey have developed a great understanding in midfield and no more needs to be said about the prolific Robin Van Persie. Opponents Aston Villa are in a slump having only scored in one game in the last five. The one recent success came against Bolton, as I said regarding Fulham, that’s frankly nothing to get excited about when you look at the league table.

The ‘punt’ in this accumulator, if there is one, looks to be Newcastle to beat West Brom at the newly named ‘Sports Direct Arena.’ The concern would be that the Magpies haven’t won in five outings and face a WBA side who beat Blackburn at Ewood Park at the weekend. But this should be the fixture to get Alan Pardew’s boys back to winning ways. They were mighty unlucky to be denied in the 0-0 draw with Swansea on Saturday after creating a hatful of chances and hitting the woodwork twice. Demba Ba just had one of those days, but he still looks in great touch after his predatory brace at Carrow Road last week.

You would expect Newcastle to get the rub of the green again soon and Roy Hodgson’s team haven’t taken a point off teams in the top seven all season. Newcastle will stay in those spots if they take three points as I suspect they will on Wednesday night.