SOCCER FOOTBALL 24H

Bournemouth, Brighton and Southampton have each made contrasting starts to the season so Ben McAleer takes a closer look at the south coast side's form so far... It's been a season of mixed emotions for the Premier League's three south coast sides and with 10 games gone, each is enjoying contrasting fortunes thus far. At the beginning of the season, nobody could have foreseen  Bournemouth  to be sixth as October ends, while Brighton have been impressive since a rocky start to the campaign. Saints need to correct their goalscoring woes to avoid the drop Southampton , meanwhile, fresh from beating the drop when relegation seemed a dead cert prior to  Mark Hughes'  appointment, are again battling to consolidate their top-flight spot. Saints' profligacy is the root cause for their issues. Only  Huddersfield  (4) have scored fewer Premier League goals than Southampton (6) this season, while their conversion rate (4.1%) is the second lowest in Englan...

Chelsea v Derby Wednesday October 31, 19:45 Live on Sky Sports Chelsea stroll to Sunday success Ross Barkley  inspired  Chelsea  to a comfortable 4-0 victory at Burnley on Sunday, scoring once and setting up two more as  Maurizio Sarri 's men kept their unbeaten record intact at Turf Moor. The England midfielder set-up  Alvaro Morata  and  Willian , before  Ruben Loftus-Cheek  added a fourth in stoppage-time. The Blues were without top goalscorer  Eden Hazard , who missed the game with a back injury and the Belgian ace isn't expected to be involved on Wednesday night. Nevertheless, the exceptional Willian and Barkley more than made up for his loss, whilst Morata could easily have had a first-half hat-trick. Chelsea saw  Pedro  hobble off after half an hour and is unlikely to now feature in midweek, although  Cesc Fabregas  came on to make his first league appearance of the season and should be involved a...

After kicking off with a winner, Kev's opposing a Premier League side in the League Cup. Much-changed Cherries could come unstuck Bournemouth v Norwich Tuesday 30 October, 19:45 Our old pals Molde came through once again for us  last night,  as their 3-1 win at Start comfortably covered our Over 2.5 Goals bet. We'll head to England now, because the League Cup has reached the fourth round, and either Bournemouth or Norwich will reach the quarter-finals tonight. Bournemouth have made an  outstanding start  to the Premier League season, collecting 20 points from their first ten games. You would think that would give Cherries boss  Eddie Howe the breathing space to take a proper swing at this competition and field a full-strength side, but he has decided to once again shuffle his pack. Howe's team plays an attractive brand of football, and their recent games have featured plenty of goals. Nine of their last 11 games in league and cup have seen an...

Kevin Hatchard returns to the tiller, and he's sailing us to Norway first. Molde to play out another thriller Start v Molde Monday 29 October, 18:00 As it turned out, Le Classique wasn't quite the classic that Tobias hoped for, and PSG's 2-0 win at Marseille left him halfway to heaven with his  Over 3.5 Goals bet. We'll kick off our week in Norway, because Start are up against Molde in the Eliteserien, and we're hoping to be entertained. Start are hovering above the dropzone, but have been on a survival charge of late, winning four of their last five matches in the league. An increase in offensive output has underpinned that improvement - Start have  scored at least twice  in five of their last six games in league and cup. It's therefore no surprise that all bar one of those six matches has featured at least three goals. Molde are trying to secure at least a top-three finish, and are also on  strong form,  having claimed 13 points from their l...

Tottenham v Manchester City Monday 29 October, 20:00 Live on Sky Sports 1 'Tired' Tottenham deserve more credit Despite losing twice already in the Premier League this season Tottenham go into Monday night's mouthwatering game knowing that a victory will  take them above  red-hot title favourites Manchester City. That's some incentive, but it also hits home that Spurs - who have been criticised in some quarters for not making any summer signings as well as being accused of 'looking tired', particularly Harry Kane, in recent weeks -  can't exactly be doing a lot wrong  if winning their next league game means they go above 'sublime' City. True, Mauricio Pochettino's men haven't been particularly impressive in some of their recent wins but they go into Monday night's game on the back of four straight league victories, three of which were achieved without conceding, and they should also welcome back  Dele Alli  in a starting lin...