Arsenal host Olympiakos in the Champions League on Wednesday and there are several ways to ensure a profit on the game.
The Gunners may not be considered as one of the favourites to win this season's Champions League but it would be a huge surprise if Arsene Wenger's side don't qualify from Group F with Arsenal currently the 1.31 favourites on betfair to finish in the top two in the section.
To do this they will need to win against Olympiakos at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday. This shouldn't be a problem although
betfair odds of 1.44 reflect this fact.
Instead, it makes sense to take a look at the goals market, where odds of 2.28 on under 2.5 goals offers a good chance for
betfair punters to trade out for a profit.
Arsenal have, for all the criticism over their defence, kept clean sheets in three of their five matches at the Emirates. They did concede two to Liverpool earlier in the season, but those only came in the last 12 minutes of the game, after Emmanuel Frimpong had been sent off, while the goal leaked against Shrewsbury can perhaps be given, coming in a match featuring very few first team players.
This means that Arsene Wenger will be confident in his defence's ability to keep things tight in the early stages of Wednesday's match and that is good news for traders as the only thing that can really cause a sweat wehn trading under 2.5 goals is when the unfancied side score first, necessitating that the favourites go and score twice.
Olympiakos didn't look very strong going forward against Marseille in the last round and so one would anticipate that they won't come out all guns blazing at the Emirates, which means we can expect a tight game in the opening half hour. Should it remain 0-0 at this point then there will be an excellent opportunity to trade out at odds of around 1.5 for a guaranteed profit.
If there is an early goal (and it can't be discounted) then it is almost certainly going to come from Arsenal. Should this happen, it is not necessarily a problem. Arsenal, having had defensive issues, will be keen not to push forward too much and expose themselves at the back and so there is a strong chance that the match would reach until half-time, or even an hour, at 1-0. This would, again, afford an opportunity to trade out for a profit.
Further evidence for this trade comes in the form of Arsenal's scores at home after 70 minutes this season (final scores in brackets):
Arsenal 1 Udinese 0 (1-0)
Arsenal 0 Liverpool 0 (0-2)
Arsenal 1 Swansea 0 (1-0)
Arsenal 2 Shrewsbury 1 (3-1)
Arsenal 1 Bolton 0 (3-0)
So those who fancy being bold can continue with the bet for even longer. However, remember to trade out before the last few minutes, as the most recent match saw the third goal of the game go in after 89-minutes and that is a cruel time to lose a bet.
