TWITS Picks GW12: It’s Wide Open Again
A difficult week in the TWITS team, for 2 of us anyway. After a week full of Heavy Defeat Penalties, we’re hoping for a bit of a calmer week to get some big points on the board before the chaos of the Lower League Special returns. Read below for our review of Gameweek 11 and Gameweek 12 previews.
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Gameweek 11 Review
Kieran: 16 points
Picks
Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa (BIG BET) - Home (8pts)
Brighton 3-0 Leeds - Draw (-3pts)
Birmingham 4-0 Portsmouth - Home (3pts)
Charlton 1-1 Swansea - Draw (5pts)
Sheffield United 1-3 Derby - Home (0pts)
Manchester City 3-1 Bournemouth - Home (3pts)
Review
Another good week. My faith in Liverpool was well placed and luckily Sheffield United managed to scrape a goal back against Derby to save me from getting two Heavy Defeat Penalties in one week. Swansea getting an equaliser at Charlton was huge considering Schoey had Charlton to win, an 8 point swing there and I’m catching him slowly but surely. I need to keep this form consistent though, any slip up and I’m out of it again.
Schoey: 8 points
Picks
Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa (BIG BET) - Draw (0pts)
Brighton 3-0 Leeds - Home (3pts)
Crystal Palace 2-0 Brentford - Home (3pts)
Charlton 1-1 Swansea - Draw (0pts)
Tottenham 0-1 Chelsea - Draw (0pts)
Manchester City 3-1 Bournemouth - Home (3pts)
Review
Well that’s two weeks in a row without the big bet result and I’m feeling it! Got half my predictions right but all home wins. I’m praying for the extra big bet points this week! I need to finally break 20 points and make a statement. I’ve even got Kieran thinking he’s gonna catch me up now! We’ll see about that.
Will: 6 points
Picks
Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa (BIG BET) - Draw (0pts)
Crystal Palace 2-0 Brentford - Home (3pts)
Sheffield United 1-3 Derby - Home (0pts)
Stoke City 5-1 Bristol City - Draw (-4pts)
Salisbury 0-2 Dorking - Away (4pts)
Manchester City 3-1 Bournemouth - Home (3pts)
Review
Well I got a way with that I think, at one point I was at -7 points with Stoke smashing Bristol City and Derby Winning 3-0 at one point against Sheffield Utd I thought I was in for a very poor week. So to come out of that with 6pts I’ll take it. Big bet with hindsight was always going to be a Liverpool win and they did it comfortably to be fair. But we go again still so much football to be played plenty of time to catch up.
Gameweek 12 Picks
Kieran
Blackburn vs Derby (BIG BET) - Home
Derby almost punished me big time for betting against them last week, luckily though Sheffield United managed to get a goal back. Have I learned my lesson? No. These are both teams in excellent form but I have a feeling home advantage might shine through.
Stoke City vs Coventry - Draw
Had I made this pick before Tuesday I would have said Coventry, but after seeing my team get absolutely pummelled at home by Stoke, I feel this might be a real test for the Sky Blues and they will be happy to come away with a point.
Wrexham vs Charlton - Draw
The two surprises of the league as the newly promoted teams face off. Both have had excellent starts to the season, especially Charlton, and I can’t see them losing this myself but I feel it will be a tough challenge with a draw a fair result.
Huddersfield vs Plymouth - Home
I almost had this down as another draw, until I saw Plymouth’s away form. 2 wins in 7 and conceding 15 goals in that time. That’s over 2 goals per game. I feel with Huddersfield’s strong attack at home this could be a straight forward win.
Barnet vs Milton Keynes Dons - Away
I’ve backed Barnet so many times and they’ve let me down so many times that I’m going for a different strategy. Let’s see if it pays off. Knowing my luck that means they’ll win by about 4 goals.
Brentford vs Newcastle - Home
An easy pick when you look at Newcastle’s away form vs Brentfrod’s home form. No wins away from home for the Magpies, with Brentford winning 3 and losing just 1. I’m hoping for a win sealed by half time.
Schoey
Blackburn vs Derby (BIG BET) - Draw
This week’s Big Bet is very hard to predict. Two bottom half teams who have been arguably overperforming in recent weeks. Who will be the first to slip up in their runs of good form. I was originally going for a home win in this game. That was until I noticed that Blackburn had won 1, drawn 1 and lost 4 at home this season! Which is really poor. I think this’ll be a close game which either team could win. I’m hoping the result will be a draw after 90 minutes.
Tottenham vs Manchester United - Draw
Well, it appears Amorim may not be entirely useless after all! Utd have picked up some great results recently. I do think with Spurs’ home form this season, Utd do actually have a good chance of picking up 3 points on the road this weekend. But winning 4–0 at home in the Champions League in the week may be the confidence boost Spurs have needed. And Utd are leaking a fair few goals recently as well as scoring.
Everton vs Fulham - Home
I know Everton have dipped in form lately, but I do expect them to pick up 3 points at home this weekend. Fulham’s away form is too poor to ignore, on par with Wolves, only earning 1 point in 5 away games this season. I can see Grealish returning to his best in this game and playing a massive part in Everton’s home win this weekend.
Stoke vs Coventry - Draw
The Mark Robins derby will certainly be a good one this weekend. He has got Stoke playing free flowing football and scoring goals for fun. He should get a statue just for that! But, as the Sky commentators pointed out on Tuesday. Even if Coventry go behind in a game, they have the attacking quality to always still be in a game until the final whistle. I’d love for us to come away with even just a point on Saturday! I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed!
Salford vs Cambridge - Home
This one felt like a fairly straight forward pick for me. Salford are currently 1 point off of the league leaders Walsall. Also Cambridge have the joint 2nd lowest away record in League 2 this season. With just 5 points through 7 away games.
Manchester City vs Liverpool - Home
A battle of two recent Premier League giants. Man City couldn’t ask for a much better time to face Liverpool. Because although they have redeemed themselves with two wins against Villa and Real Madrid recently, they haven’t actually won an away game in the league since the 14th of September. And that was a 0–1 win against Burnley. So I think Man City can go into this game fairly confident, having only lost 1 of 5 home games in the league so far this season. Also Haaland is back to scoring goals for fun.
Will
Blackburn vs Derby (BIG BET) - Home
Wow well what a game this has shaped up to be. If you read the big bet preview you will see the enormity of this game. Both teams in good form and really quite difficult to split them. I’m following the trend of big bet home wins this week.
Crystal Palace vs Brighton - Home
The M23 derby this weekend and with Mateta and Wellbeck both in fantastic form this season they will be looking to add to their tallies again. Palace still are unbeaten at home while Brighton have only won one road this season. I’m going for the Palace win here as they are always going to be hard to beat at Selhurst park add this to the Mateta and Ismaïla Sarr strike force they SHOULD win.
Everton vs Fulham - Draw
To be honest I’ve looked at this game and just thought this has draw written all over it. I think both teams cancel each other out and yes Fulham won 3-0 last week but against a 10 Man Wolves team that look to be staying rooted to the bottom of the table. Everton on the other hand managed a good point away to Sunderland when you think how well Sunderland have started it is a solid point.
Millwall vs Preston - Home
Millwall have found it tough on the road the past week, after a 96 minute equaliser from Oxford to level the game 2-2 they travelled to Birmingham for an embarrassing away display. Now back at the Den I’m backing them to take the 3pts. Which won’t be an easy task as Preston have won 3 on the bounce.
Swansea vs Ipswich - Away
Swansea are back at home after a tough two away fixture picking up only 1 point and that was away to Charlton. I can’t see it getting much easier for them with Ipswich visiting this weekend, a team who look to be showing that they can still press on for a place in the automatics.
Huddersfield vs Plymouth - Home
I think this could be my safe 3pts this week. Plymouth have gone from Top 6 favourites at the start of the season to relegation contenders and with their last win coming back in September I don’t think it’s getting any easier this week. Huddersfield haven’t been impressive aswell I must say and finally found a win in the Virtue trophy this week against Mansfield.
