Like its American sports betting counterpart the NFL, the English Premier League has its own weekly Monday Night primetime game.  Well, it’s prime time in the UK–here it starts at 12 noon Pacific time which would be 3 PM on the East Coast.  This week Liverpool goes on the road to face lowly Wigan City.  Liverpool is 6th place in the EPL standings but they’re a single point behind Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur who are tied for 4th.  Basically, 1st through 3rd are already out of reach for these three teams as Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal are fighting amongst themselves over these spots.  Right now third place Arsenal leads Manchester City and Tottenham by 12 points, so basically the two important spots that are up for grabs are 4th and 5th.  4th place gets a shot to qualify for the Champions League while 5th place gets to play in the UEFA Europa League.

Wigan is also playing for something, as they’re fighting to avoid relegation.  Right now Portsmouth has already ‘clinched’ last place but there’s going to be a fight to avoid the other two relegation spots currently held by 18th place Hull City and 19th place Burnley.  At this point only 6 points separate Burnley in 19th place and Bolton in 13th place.   Since you get three points for a win and 1 point for the draw so you can do the math.  The 7 teams at risk of relegation certainly have.

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE–LIVERPOOL VS. WIGAN (MONDAY START TIME 12 NOON PACIFIC/3 PM EASTERN)

Tough draw for Wigan as they face a Liverpool team that is still in the hunt for one of the coveted top five spots in the standings.  It’s very likely that Liverpool can get the full six points in their next two since they host hapless last place Portsmouth in their next EPL action–Portsmouth is already headed for relegation and in administration as they try to work out their financial survival.  Liverpool is in a position to salvage a decent season after a substandard start and to do so they need to win here as they can all but ‘phone in’ next week’s game on their home field at Anfield.

Wigan is in their worst slump of the season at the worst possible time.  They’ve only one 1 of their last 14 games, and they haven’t won at home in their past six games.  They’ve had trouble scoring and have now gone over 4 games without a goal.  That’s bad news against a Liverpool side that has seen their offense jump started with the return of Spanish national Fernando Torres.  Torres is not only a very capable offensive player, but he is an uptempo player which helps open up opportunities for the rest of the team.  Wigan has 3 losses and 3 draws in their last 6 home games and have been outscored by an aggregate 9-4 in those games.  Liverpool has 1 win, 3 draws and 2 losses in their last six road games, though against some good opposition.  Their defense has been solid all year, and they’ve only allowed 4 goals in their last six road games.  They drew with Wigan on this field last season, but won the three previous meetings all at Anfield.  They’re well aware that a draw won’t do here, and they should be able to put 2 or 3 on the board while their defense adds to Wigan’s goal scoring woes.

Look for Liverpool to win by a final score of either 2-0 or 3-0.   You’ve got several soccer betting options here–you can either lay -1 goal for a better moneyline price or bet Liverpool to win outright.  In both cases, you’ll lose in the event of a draw.  Bookmaker has Liverpool to win priced at -165 and Liverpool -1 priced at -105.  Personally, I’d rather lay a bit more and get a win instead of a push in the event of a 1 goal win.

PLAY LIVERPOOL -165 OVER WIGAN

If you want to bet on the exact score you can get the following prices for a Liverpool win at Sports Interaction:

Liverpool 1-0 +500
Liverpool 2-0 +550
Liverpool 3-0 +1100
Liverpool 4-0 +2500

The 2-0 or 3-0 are probably the most realistic scores, but worth noting that Liverpool beat Wigan at home several years ago by a 4-0 score.  Since Wigan has scored only 1 goal in their previous 4 games against Liverpool, a shutout is very likely.

If you’re reading this outside of the US and have access to one of the many European books that specialize in soccer you can bet on a myriad of other propositions.  We’ll suggest a couple involving the aforementioned Fernando Torres.

Fernando Torres to score anytime -150
Fernando Torres to score first +300

And another based on our handicap of Wigan not to score:

Liverpool to keep a clean sheet +150 (that’s Euro soccer talk for ‘win by shutout’)