Goalscorer predictions: Premier League trio among our selections
- Recommended bets:
- Back Rodrigo to score against Bournemouth
- Back Bryan Mbuemo to score against Nottingham Forest
- Back Victor Osimhen to score against Atalanta
- Back Rafael Leao to score against Spezia
- Back Marcus Rashford to score against Aston Villa
With another big weekend of football on the horizon, we've looked across Europe to pick out five potential goalscorers from the Premier League and Serie A.
Bournemouth have conceded more away goals than any other Premier League side this season and now look set to concede more in the absence of first-choice goalkeeper, Neto.
The Brazilian stopper will be sorely missed as he was keeping Bournemouth in many of their games, recording the highest save percentage of all Premier League goalkeepers at an incredible 83.9%.
Neto was brought in to replace Mark Travers and it is easy to see why — while Neto leads the save percentage rankings, Travers has the worst record of all 22 goalkeepers to feature this season in the Premier League, stopping just 47.2% of shots in his six Premier League outings.
His return last weekend saw him looking shaky as Bournemouth capitulated late on against Tottenham, with Travers arguably at fault for both of Spurs’ last two goals.
Leeds are on a high after beating Liverpool at Anfield last weekend and will be licking their lips as Bournemouth arrive at Elland Road.
Rodrigo could be the man to profit as he scored at Liverpool last Saturday and against Fulham the weekend before, and the Leeds striker should find the Cherries’ backline even more accommodating.
Nottingham Forest have the second-worst defensive home record in the Premier League, conceding nine goals in just six City Ground outings, and while manager Steve Cooper has been trying to tighten things up Forest remain far from solid.
Recent clean sheets against Liverpool and Brighton were collected more by luck than judgement, with the two opponents recording 1.6 and 1.7 expected goals respectively.
Prior to that, goal-shy Wolves and Aston Villa both breached the Forest defence, while Arsenal smashed them 5-0 last weekend.
Visiting Brentford will be without the suspended Ivan Toney but Bryan Mbeumo can step up in his absence.
Mbeumo has an underwhelming goal tally of just two this season but the Cameroon international has been getting into good positions — firing 24 shots — and has been unlucky on numerous occasions.
With added goalscoring responsibility on his shoulders, Mbeumo could deliver at a big price.
Victor Osimhen returned from a lengthy injury absence recently and wasted no time getting back into the groove for club side Napoli.
The Nigeria international scored the only goal of the game at fellow highflyers Roma in his first start in six weeks and followed up with a hat-trick in Napoli’s 4-0 rout of Sassuolo last weekend.
Seven goals in seven league starts show the consistent quality of Osimhen and he remains top scorer of an extremely attacking Napoli side who lead Serie A by five points.
They visit closest challenger Atalanta this weekend but the Bergamo side have conceded five goals in four meetings with fellow top-eight teams this term and have kept just one clean sheet in six Serie A home games.
In a highly competitive field, Rafael Leao is one of Portugal’s brightest new attacking prospects and he will be looking to secure his ticket to Qatar with a few more sparkling performances for AC Milan this month.
He will get few better chances to impress than against a Spezia side who have conceded the second-most goals in Serie A this season — 22 — and have lost to nil in all five trips to teams in the top half of the division.
Leao has six goals for AC this season and is their leading goalscorer in Serie A, so expect the Portugal youngster to make his mark.
Marcus Rashford seems to be finding his form at just the right time as far as England manager Gareth Southgate is concerned, with two goals in his last two appearances making it seven in total for the Manchester United forward.
After a shaky spell of form earlier this season, Rashford has forced his way front and centre into the plans of manager Erik ten Hag and his confidence should only continue to rise in this trip to the West Midlands.
United have an incredible record at Villa Park, avoiding defeat in each of the past 23 Premier League visits and winning three of the last four, and Rashford could lead the charge.
