FA Cup betting – Leeds vs Arsenal

Leeds vs Arsenal betting preview

Leeds were left with a sour taste in their mouth after Cesc Fabregas’s 90th minute penalty earned the home side a replay in a game where for large spells of the game Leeds dominated. Leeds now hold the home advantage and will come fast out of the blocks in this game. After the last fixture was settled by two penalties, it seems only reasonable that there could be another in this fixture, the in-form Robert Snodgrass is Leeds’s normal penalty taker and is a good value at 17.0 on Bet365 to open the scoring, however if you have the faith that Arsenal’s keeper Wojciech Szczesny has the number of the Leeds man why not have a bet on that a penalty will be missed in the game with PaddyPower offering 7.0 for this eventuality. Click here to compare free bets.

Leeds will definitely be on a high after a thoroughly convincing performance against Scunthorpe this weekend, temperamental striker Max Gradel scored a good goal to cap an overall good performance and could cause the shaky Arsenal defence a few problems and is therefore worth a look in at odds of 5.0 on Coral to score at any time.

Arsenal

Arsene Wenger’s side have now suffered two cup embarrassments at the hands of Championship opposition in as many weeks. While Wenger holds out on Premier League title hopes, more realistically he wants silverware and the FA cup is as good as any and he will therefore most probably go with a stronger squad than the one used in these teams last encounter, most probably ditching his ineffective 4-4-2 and reverting to his tried and tested 4-5-1/4-2-3-1 that performed so well this weekend against an ailing West Ham.

Arsenal surely will utilise the now fully fit and back to form Robin Van Persie to terrorise the Leeds backline that played well last time out against the ineffective Maraune Chamakh and Nicklaus Bendtner. Van Persie has short odds of 5.75 on Victor Chandler of opening the scoring but after his show on Sunday at Upton Park it’s not hard to see why.

While Leeds can count themselves very unlucky in having a replay in the first place it looks unlikely that an upset will materialise here with Arsenal looking set to play a much stronger side including inspirational captain Cesc Fabregas and a Theo Walcott enjoying the best form of his Arsenal career. An Arsenal win seems the most likely result with them winning by a good margin, 3-0 was the score at the weekend and another 3-0 could be on the cards and has promising odds of 14.0 on UniBet.

Highlighted Bets

First Goalscorer Robert Snodgrass 17.0 Bet365
Penalty to be missed 7.0 Paddy Power
Anytime Goalscorer Max Gradel 4.5 Blue Square
First Goalscorer Robin Van Persie 5.75 Victor Chandler
Correct Score Arsenal 3-0 11.0 BetFred

By John Fernandez

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