#INSERT type:image caption:Can Leighton Baines and Everton beat Arsenal and continue their Europe push? END#
There’s much at stake this weekend in the Premier League as teams continue to jostle for position at the top and bottom of the table. From the Everton-Arsenal showdown that will have Champions League implications to the Aston Villa-Fulham fixture that will help determine the relegation race, important matches abound.
Each week, I deliver my picks for the best bets of the weekend, incorporating numbers from ESPN Insider’s Soccer PickCenter.
Here's a rundown of the weekend's top picks.
Everton (home) vs. Arsenal
Asian handicap: Everton +0 (-125) vs. Arsenal +0 (+120)
3-way line: Everton +160 / Arsenal +200 / Draw +250
PickCenter public consensus money line pick: 17 percent draw
Total: 2.5 (Over -105, Under +100)
Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes speaks in public so rarely that he garners attention whenever he does. Yet recent criticisms he made of Arsenal on television also hit home because what he said was so straightforwardly true. Scholes highlighted what he saw as a “lack of discipline” among Arsenal’s midfielders, and pointed toward the team’s poor away results versus some of the Premier League’s better sides as evidence for his case.