It is amazing how often history repeats itself and Eberechi Eze will be praying he benefits from a repeat dose of success as he waits for lift-off following his high-profile £60million move from Crystal Palace to Arsenal.
After scoring 15 times in 49 appearances for club and country last season, the England international has got on the scoreboard just once so far this term and that was in the Gunners’ 2-0 victory at League One Port Vale in the Carabao Cup.
He was unfortunate to have a free-kick for the Eagles disallowed in their 0-0 draw at Chelsea before the transfer deadline but although the sparks have yet to fly for the 27-year-old Londoner, the stars are aligning for his projected success to start hitting the heights.
Eze was not used by Thomas Tuchel in the Three Lions’ comfortable 3-0 win in the friendly with Wales at Wembley on Thursday and he also failed to leave the bench in the 5-0 triumph over Serbia in last month’s World Cup qualifier in Belgrade.
But all the best managers know that footballers feed off confidence and sometimes coincidence and if Eze is given significant minutes in this week’s Group K outing in Latvia it could kick-start his campaign, filling him with momentum ahead of Saturday’s Premier League trip across the capital to face Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Get personalised updates on Arsenal everyday
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
True, he has scored just once in 13 outings for England but that goal was in a 3-0 win against Latvia at Wembley last March and he followed that up with the opener for Palace the following weekend when, that’s right, he banged in the opener as the Eagles won by the same margin at Fulham.
Tuchel and Gunners manager Mikel Arteta will be fully aware of the potential trend as football is increasingly devoted to finding small edges and advantages by using analytics in the same way as Major League Baseball and the NFL teams in the United States.
It may be worth waiting until Tuchel names his starting XI before backing Eze to open the scoring at 13/2 with bet365 but even if he is named on the bench he is worth a dabble at 17/10 with BetMGM to hit the net at some stage.
He is also 8/1 with Unibet to break the deadlock for Arsenal at the weekend and 29/10 with BetMGM to score at any time while the Premier League leaders are 3/5 with Coral to gain maximum points, 7/5 with William Hill, Ladbrokes and Coral to lead HT/FT and 11/1 with Hills, bet365 and 888Sport to win 3-0.
American Football odds
Buffalo’s perfect start to the season came to a halt when they lost for the first time in five games in a 23-20 defeat at home to the New England Patriots. The signs they will bounce back at the 2-2 Atlanta Falcons are encouraging, however, as the Bills have won 22 of their last 28 outings following a loss, returning victorious from ten of 12 of those games on the road.
Back Buffalo to win by more than 4.5 points at 7/5 with Sky Bet and Paddy Power while over 52.5 points is 13/10 with StarSports and Bresbet.
Buffalo wide receiver Drake London is 10/1 with Ladbrokes, Coral and William Hill to score the first touchdown and 13/8 with BoyleSports to celebrate a TD while impressive Falcons running back Bijan Robinson is money in the bank to reply with six points at 8/11 which is also with BoyleSports.
Major League Baseball odds
The Milwaukee Brewers were our 8/1 each-way selection to win the World Series when the Major League Baseball playoffs started and they have just beaten their Chicago Cubs arch-rivals to set up a best-of-seven series with the Los Angeles Dodgers with the winners booking a place in the World Series.
While the defending champion Dodgers boast a roster packed with star names like Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Clayton Kershaw, the Brew Crew’s squad has, er, what’s his name, that other bloke, you know and, erm, Christian Yelich.
The team of average Joes won an MLB-best 97 games in the regular season and home-field advantage can see them continue to be above-average Joes and beat the Dodgers in game one in the early hours of Tuesday morning at 13/10 with William Hill and bet365.