Premier League Betting Odds, Soccer Picks & Predictions Matchday 8: Tottenham-Leicester City & Brentford-Arsenal

The 2022-23 English Premier League season is fully in swing! OddsJam’s soccer expert @NorthSideCapper breaks down his top picks for Matchday 8 of the season.

EPL Matchday 8 Picks & Predictions

Tottenham vs. Leicester City Pick: Tottenham Team Total Over 1.5 | -200 at BetRivers

Saturday, Sept. 17 | 12:30 p.m. ET

Tottenham welcome Leicester City to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London off the back of a shock defeat against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.

Tied at 0-0 heading into the 90th minute, Sporting Lisbon forward Paulinho made it 1-0 only to concede again in the 93rd minute thanks to an Arthur Gomes’ goal to put the Spurs down 2-0, which is how the match ended.

Manager Antonio Conte made it clear in the follow-up to the match that changes to the lineup are certainly possible and to be expected leaving the starting 11 on edge awaiting the official lineup for this match against Leicester.

It was an unfortunate result for the Spurs, but one that shouldn’t pose too much concern given how they have performed this season to date, currently occupying third place in the Premiership Standings with 14 points. The Spurs have been clinical for the most part in front of goal, scoring in seven of their eight competitive matches (2-0 loss to Sporting being the outlier) and scoring 2 or more in five of those eight.

Leicester continue to be plagued by horrid defending, conceding 5 on the road to Brighton last Matchday. That only further cements the defensive issues that needed addressing but went unattended in the transfer window. The Foxes have conceded in six of their seven — the lone clean sheet being a 1-0 victory in the EFL Cup over Stockport County that ended in a Penalty Shootout.

Conceding 16 goals in those seven matches should leave Tottenham forwards Harry Kane and Richarlison frothing at the mouth at the possibilities that lay ahead.

Taking into consideration the desire for an immediate bounce-back performance from Conte and the Spurs, combined with Leicester’s poor defensive abilities, there’s no reason to doubt that the Spurs can hit the back of the net at least twice in front of their own fans.

We’re riding with the Spurs team total and believe they will pile on more misery for this Leicester squad seeking answers in any way they can get them.

Brentford vs. Arsenal Pick: Arsenal Moneyline | Shop the Best Line Below!

Sunday, Sept. 18 | 7 a.m. ET

It’s Arsenal’s first bit of adversity this campaign and we will all be looking to see how they bounce back in the Premiership after their last Matchday resulted in a 3-1 thumping at the hands of rivals Manchester United.

The positive is they did immediately respond when taking to the pitch in the Europa League with a 2-1 victory on the road to Zurich, but the big test comes today against a Brentford squad that is flying high. Arsenal have collected five wins from their six Premiership matches to date and will look to get back to winning ways.

If they are to do so, they will be reliant on their players in the final third to build on what has been an impressive start offensively for the Gunners, who have 14 goals averaging 2.33/match. That should cause some concern for Brentford who conceded in five of their six with their only clean sheet being the shock 4-0 defeat over Manchester United.

Brentford have proven to be capable of hanging with the big boys early on in the season, collecting points off Manchester United, Leicester City and Everton (none of which are having great seasons, but their names do carry weight). And with only one loss (3-2 to Fulham) to their name, they should enter the match with a ton of belief that they can achieve another fantastic result in the friendly confines of Brentford Community Stadium where they have lost only two matches dating back to last season.

We understand Brentford has been in great form this season, but we can look past this Arsenal side that is clicking on all cylinders in the final third going up against a squad in Brentford that simply is not clicking in the defensive third.

There is a talent gap here to be exposed by Arsenal and we fully expect manager Mikel Arteta to have his squad ready to go at kick-off and get back to winning ways domestically. I locked this in for -124 at BetRivers, but be sure to shop the best line above!