In terms of proper domestic football action, the Scottish Premiership got us going last weekend while we wait another week for the Premier League excitement to start.
This weekend, it’s the turn of the EFL and the National League to begin in earnest and that means the return of proper football coupons.
The scheduling has been pretty clever this year. The Championship matches kick-off early at 12.30, while League One comes later at 5.30pm. This means that they get the right attention placed on them, while not being swamped by the 3pm kick-off at Wembley as Man City take on Man United in the Community Sheild.
Whether you like singles and doubles or an acca, we’re highlighting three teams for England’s opening weekend that we think are particularly good value.
Bet 1 – Cardiff City @ 15/8
Sunderland go into this televised 12.30 kick-off as favourites away from home, but they do look vulnerable.
Both sides have been somewhat active in the transfer market over the summer, but not enough to completely change the make-up of their respective squads.
With that, what comes to mind is how they each finished last season. As recently as the turn of the year, Sunderland were still occupying a play-off spot with most fans pretty comfortable in the knowledge that they were going for promotion to the Premier League.
A damaging FA Cup defeat at home to bitter rivals Newcastle seems to have had an impact and since then, they have slipped markedly down the pecking order.
They ultimately finished the season some 6 points behind Cardiff who improved steadily and not enough has been done to make us think that pre-season has had a miraculous effect.
As the home side, Cardiff have a very solid chance of victory in this match and so prices of around the 2/1 mark are borderline insulting.
Bet 2 – MK Dons @ 11/10
MK Dons are the subject of a number of whispers of late, the club being well backed to secure the League 2 title. They play Bradford on the opening weekend, making this a 4th v 9th clash in last season’s terms.
Both games last term between these two involved the home sides scoring four goals, not that we’d be backing that in a hurry.
Results-wise, MK Dons didn’t pull up any trees in pre-season, but their workouts have been absolutely fine and they will come into this match very confident of a win.
MK Dons scored a ton of goals late last season on their way to the play-offs, with Mike Williamson expected to continue to improve this group. The manager of course was chosen for the way he handled the Gateshead squad, and he appears to have left that club in good shape too.
Bet 3 – Gateshead @ 19/20
We’ve gone all the way down to National League level here, but hopefully it will be worth it.
Gateshead were not allowed to take part in the promotion play-offs last season owing to their ground and but for that, we may well have seen them playing in League Two this weekend.
After Middlesbrough’s narrow 1-0 friendly win at the International Stadium on July 24 manager Michael Carrick was particularly complimentary about the hosts. That on its own doesn’t mean much, but when you check back on their summer progress a pattern emerges.
You can watch videos of Rob Elliott’s side passing the ball like Brazil, so cool under pressure. They scored 7 against both Hebburn and Blyth, while they also beat League 2 Carlisle 2-0 and Championship Sunderland 2-1.
Results have been excellent, so have performances and in fact the 20/1 about them winning the league and the 25/1 about Owen Oseni being top scorer are even better value than their 19/20 best odds to beat Ebbsfleet United this weekend as they get their campaign underway.