Tom Tomsk v Arsenal Tula Betting Tips

These two newly-promoted sides have not got off to the best start in the Russian Premier League campaign with both of them hovering dangerously close to the relegation zone. This fixture is somewhat of an early season relegation battle for these two.

Tom Tomsk are lower in the table than their Saturday opposition but you have to feel sorry for the Siberian side. The fixture list has not been kind to them and they have faced Rostov, CSKA Moscow and high-flying Amkar Perm in their last three matches – needless to say they lost all three of them. Before that, however, they had not made a disastrous start, gaining a respectable draw away at Lokomotiv Moscow before securing a vital three points at home to relegation rivals Ufa.

Although it is perhaps a bit harsh to judge given the recent fixtures, Tom’s goal statistics do not make pretty reading having scored just three goals and conceded 11. However, they come up against a Tula side who they will feel they have a good chance of getting a result from.

Sergei Pavlov’s Arsenal side suffered a thrashing at the hands of Zenit St. Petersburg last time in a 5-0 home defeat. In the grand scheme of things that fixture was rather unimportant and any result from that was going to be a bonus – this match away at Tom Tomsk is far more significant.

Looking at Arsenal’s goal difference you would think they suffered heavy defeats most weeks with their 11 goals conceded and just two scored. However, when you look closely you can see that nine of those goals came in two fixtures against the league’s top sides in Spartak and the aforementioned Zenit. Other than that they have only lost matches by a single goal. Before their 5-0 thrashing last weekend, Arsenal actually looked like they might have adjusted to the Premier League with two consecutive draws and so do not let the Zenit thrashing completely blind you – Arsenal have a chance this weekend.

In terms of betting, this match is incredibly hard to call as I imagine both sides will be rather conservative and make sure they avoid defeat rather than going for the win. Of course being the home side the pressure is more on Tom Tomsk and if I had to back a winner it probably would be them at 6/5.

However, I would advise going for a safer bet which actually yields more profit. This match will be one of few chances and will either be a 0-0 draw or 1-0 win for either side. With this in mind I would look at going for Under 1.5 Goals at 8/5.

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