TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR V ASTON VILLA
15th September 20:00 GMT

For me, these two are two of the most exciting teams to watch in the Premiership. What I nearly always expect from the two is an essentially attacking and free flowing style of football conducive to producing goals.
Spurs have made a bad start to the new campaign you would say. To lose to Middlesbrough away on the opening day is nothing to be ashamed of but then to be beaten on home turf by Sunderland is always going to place pressure on your manager. To be fair to Spurs, they battled at Stamford Bridge to get themselves a point and not many teams can say that they have came away from the Bridge with anything.
Villa have made a fairly modest start to the season all told. Having blitzed a then confused Man City side on the opening day, they then lost at Stoke in a pulsating encounter. Just over a fortnight ago they drew at home to Liverpool in an encounter that they probably had the better of.
I've heard people saying that overs is the bet for this one, and given that so far both teams have delivered on the overs (2.5) mark twice out of their three matches so far, it must be a tempter. At a best price of 1.76, I do not quite see the value, and in fact a couple of firms have gone 1.67.
Villa's defeat at Stoke may perhaps indicate that there could be a potential weakness away from home this season and historically this idea would hold up. If we include statistics from the back end of last season, Villa have won just one in seven games and that was against the quite abysmal Derby County.
There are three excellent players in line to make their debuts tonight in this encounter. For Spurs we have the brilliant Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko who made such an impact at Euro2008 and Croatian defender Vedran Corluka, recruited from Man City.
Villa could be with defender Carlos Cuellar who was the heartbeat of the Rangers defender for much of his time there.
With a big home crowd eager for Spurs to get off the mark, I actually expect them to deliver tonight. The performance against Chelsea was very heartening for the team and with the new recruits fitting into a pretty new-look side with the absolutely terrific right-midfielder David Bentley acting as a talisman for the North London club, the 2.2 is large enough for Spurs to be an appealing bet.
I am really not convinced by Villa's defence and this really heightens my interest on Spurs tonight. Yes Stoke is not a nice play to have to play but to concede three goals against the favourites for relegation, this could well be a concerning sign for Villa on their travels this season.
Look out for David Bentley in the any time goalscorer market. He is priced at 5.5 by Skybet which is large for me because, although he only scored six in thirty seven appearances in the league last season (1 in 6.17), he is now arguably playing in a side where he is surrounded by a better quality of players and since his arrival at Spurs, he seems to be allowed to play with a little more freedom than he was at Blackburn. I expect him to score at a rate more acceptable rate for an attacking midfielder this season (1 in 4 perhaps) which would deem this bet very good value on that basis.
On a separate note, I think there will be a lot of corners tonight. Both players have a lot of wing type players that can play on flanks and add to this, the fact that both teams can operate at a very high tempo sometimes, so overs is the bet for me in the total corners market.
Either way, expect a decent encounter with plenty of action.
 
RECOMMENDATIONS - 3 Points on Tottenham Hotspur @ 2.2 (Ladbrokes, Skybet)
3.5 Points on Over 11 Corners @ 1..91 (Bluesq)
0.5 Points on David Bentley Any time Scorer @ 5.5 (Skybet)