Paddy Power were at the centre of a storm earlier this week, when they announced that all bets placed on Stoke City to be relegated would be settled as a winner straight away. To compound matters further, they also offered a £50 free bet to all season ticket holders at the Britannia Stadium, something which was regarded as being in bad taste, considering Potters chairman Peter Coates is also the owner of bet365.

Nevertheless, Stoke have the opportunity to make the Irish firm eat a small helping of humble pie by beating Aston Villa on Saturday. Skybet go 4/1 about Tony Pulis’ men taking all three points and it’s worth remembering that this is their first Premier League match at home and they'll be determined to make amends after a 3-1 reverse last Saturday. The Villans are overwhelming favourites after beating Man City 4-2, with Ladbrokes offering 4/5 about Martin O’Neill’s men having maximum points from their first two matches.

The bookmakers expect Hull City to struggle the most out of the three promoted sides this season, although the Tigers got off to a dream start by beating Fulham last weekend. They’ll do well to get a point (13/5 Blue Square) from their trip to Blackburn, with Paddy Power going 5/1 that they land a shock win. Rovers had a fantastic opening day win at Everton and can be backed with a degree of confidence to win this match at 4/6 (Ladbrokes). The 13/8 (Skybet) about them winning at half-time and full-time is also tempting, considering how well they played at Goodison.

And what of West Brom, who were only narrowly beaten 1-0 at Arsenal? They must fancy their chances against Everton, especially with the signing of Borja Valero from Real Mallorca this week. The Baggies are a 2/1 chance (Centrebet) to get their first points on the board and it’s a great time to be playing the Toffees, who are short of numbers and have made no signings all summer. The visitors are 6/4 chances (William Hill), although perhaps this will finish level pegging and the 11/5 (Stan James) therefore makes the most appeal.