Premier League Betting Odds, Soccer Picks & Predictions for Matchday 1: 3 Expert Plays to Start Season

The 2022-23 English Premier League season is here! OddsJam’s soccer expert @NorthSideCapper breaks down his top picks for the first matchday of the season.

EPL Matchday 1 Picks & Predictions

Crystal Palace vs. Arsenal Pick: Both Teams To Score | -121 at BetRivers

Friday, August 5 | 3 p.m. ET

What a way to kick off the English Premier League season with a good old-fashioned London Derby. As this is the first game of the season for all squads, it’s wise to approach with a certain degree of caution as the friendlies played up until this point only carry so much weight.

That said, we are looking at one angle here and absolutely love it.

Crystal Palace enter their league opener having completed quite a busy preseason fixture list in which they squared off nine times. In those nine fixtures, they did manage to find the back of the net nine times having scored more than 1 goal in five of those nine.

Palace enter this Derby in good form in the final third and look to carry last season’s home form into the new season. Palace have only lost one of their last 10 matches played at Selhurst Park (a 1-0 loss to Chelsea on Feb. 19), scoring at least 1 goal in seven of their last 10 matches at Selhurst in all competitions.

Arsenal, much like their opponent, had a busy preseason list as well, and what a build-up to the season it was. Their form in the offensive third was unstoppable and some of the most entertaining we have seen from this Gunners squad since the Thierry Henry days.

Arsenal have compiled 26 goals in seven matches, scoring 3 or more in five of those seven with their most recent success coming in a 6-0 thrashing of Sevilla in the Emirates Cup.

With a Derby comes intensity. Both squads have beefed up their roster over the offseason and will use their first official game of the season to demonstrate to the world how those signings have paid off.

Historically, over the last five head-to-head clashes, Both Teams To Score has hit in three of the five for a 60% conversion rate and an 80% conversion rate in the last five played at Selhurst with Palace scoring in each of those five.

If Arsenal bring their preseason form into this fixture, we’re cashing this ticket with ease.

Newcastle vs. Nottingham Forest Pick: Newcastle Moneyline | -157 at BetRivers

Saturday, August 6 | 10 a.m. ET

We start off our Saturday morning at St.James’ Park. Newcastle enter this season looking to build off their finish from last year.

One of the hottest teams closing out the season were these Magpies who picked up six wins in the last nine games to bring the campaign to a close and surely will have them looking for a top-six finish this time around.

Newcastle enter their opener off the back of consecutive friendly wins over Athletico Bilbao and Atalanta respectively and four wins from their six pre-season matches.

Nottingham are back in the Premier League having won their playoff match in the Championship over Huddersfield. Generally, teams (with some exceptions) are simply excited to be in the first division and tend to scratch out results in an effort to remain there for at least one more season.

It gives the upper management time to rebuild and strengthen their squad that suits the talent in the Premier League. During the offseason, Nottingham completed quite the flip with over a handful of new recruitments joining Forest.

Considering their preseason results, they have not quite formed the desired chemistry with only two wins of the seven times they faced off, but they did manage to find the back of the net in five of those games.

It has been two decades since Forest was last in the Premier League and, while an effort was made to upgrade their squad to compete against the best of the best on a weekly basis, it is of the belief that Newcastle are the superior team in this fixture.

Given the high they are riding from both their finish to the last season and their most recent results leading up to the kick-off of this season, we expect St.James’ Park to be rocking after a Magpies win.

Leicester City vs. Brentford Pick: Over 2.5 | -137 at BetRivers

Sunday, August 7 | 9 a.m. ET

Leicester City entered the last campaign with high hopes and began the season with an impressive win, getting the Foxes off to the start they needed. Unfortunately, come season’s end they sat in the eighth spot; well below what was expected of their fans.

It was probably assumed there would be some reinforcements on the way for Leicester, but upper management remained calm and made no adjustments to this roster for the new season on the horizon.

From an offensive standpoint, the lack of new signings won’t harm this squad, as even with their mediocre finish they still proved capable of finding the back of the net. They carried that form into their preseason tour, scoring in each of their six warm-up matches.

The issue that was present last season and popped up in moments of the preseason was their defensive line. Leicester conceded in four of their six matches and the worrisome part of this is who their opponents were — Notts Co, Leuven, Derby and Preston, none of which puts fear in their opponent.

Brentford finished last season in 13th position with 46 points (6 behind Leicester) and have proven to be a pesky team. Not one full of talent, they do get the job done, and more importantly for us, they find the back of the net.

Brentford finished the 2021-22 campaign having scored 1 goal or more in six of their final eight matches and have carried that into the preseason with 1 goal or more in six of their seven friendly fixtures.

Having met twice last season and covering the Over 2.5 on both occasions (2-1 both times), we see no reason why the trend will not continue when considering that both squads remain fairly untouched from last season and both showed an ability to score goals in the build-up to their opening match.