Thursday’s football tips

7pm: Sheffield United v Cardiff – Sheffield United to win
7.45pm: Everton v Peterborough – Under 2.5 goals
7.45pm: Fulham v Watford – Both teams to score

• An accumulator with these bets pays at approximately 8/1 with Paddy Power. CLICK HERE TO ADD IT TO YOUR BETSLIP.

7pm: Sheffield United v Cardiff – Sheff Utd to Win

I think this would be a decent price in a league game, let alone a Thursday night trip across the UK to tackle a side who’ve already proven to be much better than you.

Cardiff have played twelve games since November 3rd and won just one of them – a 2-1 away win at Watford, when Callum Robinson netted inside the opening seconds.

That aside, Omer Riza has been quite patchy. Now languishing just three points off the bottom of the Championship table, an extended run in the cup could prove more problematic than beneficial for the Bluebirds, which should mitigate any fears you had around Sheffield United treating this as an afterthought.

The key piece of form, of course, is the 2-0 win that the Blades picked up in the Welsh capital only a few weeks back – where they couldn’t contain Kieffer Moore.

It’s not as if there’s an obvious solution for that direct approach, nor is there a reliance on a man being overly tall, as they held the ball for lengthy periods unchallenged, too. This should be straightforward back on home turf.

7.45pm: Everton v Peterborough – Under 2.5 Goals

I mean, the price isn’t overly short given the entire division between the teams, but you don’t know who Sean Dyche will treat this game.

No point playing starters I presume, but equally, there could well be a vintage strongarm stance in here where he wastes minutes on their legs.

Either way, morale is rock bottom and Peterborough can enjoy the novelty of going to a Premier League ground. At least in name, anyway.

However, Everton come into this tie having failed to score in eight of their last ten league matches. They’ve had just nine shots on target in those games and won just 15% of their games in the top tier this season.

They’re not finding the net naturally and I think taking the under here keeps you safe from any of the deviations we might see in approach as goalscoring is a holistic failing.

7.45pm: Fulham v Watford – Both Teams to Score

Fulham have kept two clean sheets since September. One was against ten men, and the other was when they came up against Southampton, who are well on their way to breaking all sorts of embarrassing records in the Premier League.

By comparison, Watford have only failed to find the net once since November 5th – a home game in which they had six shots on target and 63% of the ball. An outlier.

There’s no doubt they’re paying for their front-foot-forward approach as they’ve shipped more goals than they’ve netted themselves, but you can’t stop that flow in a cup game, where the adrenaline is high.

Doesn’t half help that they’re only nipping up the road, either.

Thursday’s football tips

7pm: Sheffield United v Cardiff – Sheffield United to win
7.45pm: Everton v Peterborough – Under 2.5 goals
7.45pm: Fulham v Watford – Both teams to score

• A Bet Builder with these bets pays at approximately 8/1 with Paddy Power. CLICK HERE TO ADD IT TO YOUR BETSLIP.

*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

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