Stoke City vs Wolves Betting Pick | English Premier

English Premier

2012-04-07 - Stoke City vs Wolves

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Stoke City v Wolves
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 7 April 2012 - Kick Off 5:30pm
This game is live on TV

Stoke City

Tony Pulis was distinctly unimpressed with the performance of his side as they tamely fell away at Wigan Athletic last weekend and he will be demanding a much better effort in this game. They have already played a lot of football this season, but Stoke City will be expected to give a real big effort in their final 7 League games before most of the players enjoy a well earned Summer break.

The loss at the DW Stadium means Stoke dropped to 13th in the Premier League and they will still be looking for the three points that will take them beyond the 40 point mark that signifies safety. A top half finish is still within their grasp with a decent end to the season as they look to improve the 6-5-4 record at the Brittania Stadium where they have scored 19 goals and conceded 15.

Stoke have actually failed to win any of their last 5 games in all competitions since back to back League wins in front of their own supporters. However, aside from the Wigan game, they have faced teams that were in the top 8 of the Premier League in those games. Stoke are unbeaten in 3 League games at the Brittania Stadium, picking up 7 points from a possible 9.

There are no new injury worries in the squad ahead of this game.

Wolves

The rumours suggest that Wolves are going to be appointing their third manager of the season sooner rather than later as the team have fallen away at the bottom of the table. They have been poor, conceding far too many goals, and are all but relegated already, with failure to win this game likely confirming their participation as a Championship side next season.

Wolves have 22 points, leaving them bottom of the table and 6 points from safety, while their goal difference is by far the worst in the League so far. They have a 2-5-8 away record this season, scoring 14 goals but conceding 30, while the team have conceded a League high of 68 goals in their 31 League games.

Where do you begin when describing Wolves' form? They have lost 5 straight Premier League games, 6 of their last 7, have conceded 24 goals in their last 7 League games, and at least 2 in each of those games. Wolves have lost back to back League games at Fulham and Norwich City as they come into this one.

Jody Craddock and Stephen Hunt are still out, while Jamie O'Hara looks set to miss the rest of the season.

Head to Head

Stoke came from a goal behind to beat Wolves 1-2 at Molineux earlier this season.

They also beat Wolves 3-0 here last season, although they had drawn the previous 3 times they entertained them.

Prediction

I can't recommend picking Stoke City at short odds-on, but I can understand why the layers are taking no chances in opposing a Wolves team that has looked horrendous when defending and one that seems to be going through the motions with the Championship looming large in their future.

Far too often, Wolves have crumbled under the pressure of conceding and they have fallen away with very little fight back. They have conceded at least 3 goals in 4 of their last 7 games in the Premier League and that is not going to get anything going.

Stoke should put in a much better performance than they did at the DW Stadium last season and they will be able to expose any deficiencies Wolves show from set pieces, something that has haunted them a few times in recent games.

Instead of picking the home win which is priced very short, but the more likely result, I think there could be something in picking Stoke to score at least 3 goals in the game at 3.25.

Wolves could find themselves up to 9 points from safety, depending on the results from the 3pm kick offs, by the time this game starts and we have seen them fall apart as the belief disappears. With Stoke likely to put in a number of testing balls into the box, we could see another defensive nightmare from the away side.

The fact they have conceded at least 3 goals in more than half of their last 7 League games makes the 3.25 look very attractive as well as the fact that Stoke managed to reach that target in their last home game against Wolves. I'll take it for a small interest in the game.

The Statistics :

STOKE_CITY LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2012-03-24	D	1-1	H v Man_City
	2012-03-03	W	1-0	H v Norwich
	2012-02-26	W	2-0	H v Swansea
	2012-02-04	L	0-1	H v Sunderland
	2012-01-21	L	1-2	H v WBA
	2011-12-31	D	2-2	H v Wigan

WOLVES LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2012-03-24	L	2-1	A v Norwich
	2012-03-04	L	5-0	A v Fulham
	2012-02-25	D	2-2	A v Newcastle
	2012-02-04	W	1-2	A v QPR
	2012-01-14	D	1-1	A v Tottenham
	2011-12-31	D	1-1	A v Bolton