Arsenal vs QPR Betting Pick | English Premier

English Premier

2011-12-31 - Arsenal vs QPR

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Arsenal v QPR
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 31 December 2011 - Kick Off 3pm

Arsenal

Arsene Wenger must have been a little disappointed that his side could not take advantage of dropped points from Chelsea and Liverpool as they failed to beat Wolves at home last time out. However, the club could have received a boost as it looks like Thierry Henry will be returning to help out in the coming months on a loan deal from New York Red Bulls. Now the focus must be on not dropping more points at home against a lesser opponent.

The Gunners remained in 5th spot in the Premier League, 1 point behind Chelsea in the race for the final Champions League place. Arsenal have fallen 5 points behind 3rd placed Tottenham having played a game more, and they cannot afford to drop home points if they are to make the top table of Europe again. They are 6-2-1 at the Emirates this season, scoring 15 goals and conceding 6, giving them the 3rd best home defence in the League.

The 1-1 draw with Wolves means the Gunners have failed to win 2 of their last 3 games at home, while they have not scored more than 1 goal in any of those games. After a great run of form, Arsenal have hit the buffers a little bit of late, picking up 11 points from the last 18 available and not playing that well on the pitch.

Injuries to the defence remain for Arsenal, but they are boosted by the return of Theo Walcott who missed the last game with an illness. Arsenal have two games in three days so there is a chance that Robin Van Persie could be rested in this one.

QPR

QPR had really been struggling for form in recent weeks, but earned a vital 1-1 draw at Swansea last time out and now they will look to build on that although this is a much tougher test. Neil Warnock will be strengthening the squad in the January transfer window so this could be the last chance for some of these players to prove that they are good enough to be in the squad to keep the team in the Premier League in May.

Even with the positive result at Swansea, QPR remain in a bit of a tough spot as they are 16th in the Premier League and only 3 points clear of Wigan in the final relegation spot. They have earned much more positive results away from home where they are 3-1-5 this season, scoring 10 goals and conceding 17.

Rangers have failed to win any of their last 6 Premier League games, and have only earned 2 points from a possible 18. The team have not kept a clean sheet in their last 6 away games in the Premier League, but the performance at Swansea was their most positive one since beating Stoke City 2-3 at the Brittania Stadium in mid-November.

Shaun Wright-Phillips should be available for selection in this game, while Adel Taraabt will be hoping to retain his place in the starting line up.

Head to Head

This will be the first League meeting between the sides since the 1995/96 season when Arsenal beat QPR 3-0 at Highbury.

Funnily enough, Arsenal had failed to win their previous 4 games at home against Rangers before that win.

They last met in the FA Cup in the 2000/01 season with Arsenal romping away to a 0-6 win at Loftus Road.

Prediction

This could be a tough game to predict if Arsenal decide to rest Robin Van Persie, a player that clearly makes the team tick a lot better than when they are without him.

They have come off the boil a little bit in recent games, but this does represent a good chance for them to find their way again. QPR had really been struggling for form before the result against Swansea, but even in that game they were far below-par before fighting back in the second half.

QPR were completely out-played against Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United in games this season, and I think they are going to have a tough matching an Arsenal side that could be boosted by the Thierry Henry news coming out of the club in the last day or so.

I will be looking for Arsenal to bounce back to form here and start to put the pressure on the sides on the top four, and I can see them overwhelming QPR this week. Arsene Wenger will want his side to get the job done as efficiently as possible so he can rest some players with the Fulham game on Monday in mind.

I will give Arsenal a chance to cover the Asian Handicap.

The Statistics :

ARSENAL LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-12-27	D	1-1	H v Wolves
	2011-12-10	W	1-0	H v Everton
	2011-11-26	D	1-1	H v Fulham
	2011-11-05	W	3-0	H v WBA
	2011-10-23	W	3-1	H v Stoke_City
	2011-10-16	W	2-1	H v Sunderland

QPR LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-12-27	D	1-1	A v Swansea
	2011-12-10	L	1-0	A v Liverpool
	2011-11-26	L	2-1	A v Norwich
	2011-11-19	W	2-3	A v Stoke_City
	2011-10-30	L	3-1	A v Tottenham
	2011-10-02	L	6-0	A v Fulham