Premier League best bets: Tomas Soucek to score a header

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Friday 11 August 2023 22:11, UK

Our tipster Jones Knows is back for another season and fancies West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek to score a header against Bournemouth on Saturday.

Bournemouth conceded 21 goals from set-pieces (excluding penalties) last season - the most of any team. Plus, Andoni Iraola's Vallecano side conceded 23 goals from corners and free-kicks in his last two seasons in charge of the club - again the worst record of any side. This suggests to me he doesn't spend too much time worrying about being organised from defensive set-pieces situations and Moyes will be licking his lips at the prospect of pummelling them from wide areas.

My eyes are drawn to Tomas Soucek at the prices. His powers are seemingly on the wane in this side but he is still a major threat from set-pieces. In his final seven Premier League appearances last season he has 12 shots at goal to a backdrop of 1.17 worth of expected goals - a healthy return. Five of those attempts were headers, so the 22/1 dangled by Sky Bet on him scoring with a header does seem rather generous.

Since Jurgen Klopp tweaked Trent Alexander-Arnold's position ahead of the draw with Arsenal last season, Liverpool's performance levels spiked, with there being much more emphasis on his creative skills being utilised in a more central position. And while his prices across a variety of markets fail to mirror his new more attack-minded hybrid role, there remains betting angles to exploit.

In that period, no player made more successful passes in the opposition half (382) and no player registered more assists than the seven Alexander-Arnold conjured up in his final 10 Premier League games of last season. He also ranked second for penalty-box entries (116) - simplified as balls played into the box - behind Kieran Trippier. And he ranked fourth for chances created (23).

In a Liverpool team that surely won't hold back on Sunday, all this evidence points towards the 100/30 with Sky Bet on him registering another assist at Stamford Bridge being a strongly fancied play.