Premier League Gameweek 4: The best player prop bets for Ronaldo, Salah, and Torres

The brief international break is behind us, and we are rolling into a feast of Premier League soccer. Tottenham incredibly top the table with Arsenal just one of three teams in the entire eight tiers of English soccer (that’s 19 leagues and 397 clubs) who don’t have a point or a goal so far.

This weekend Cristiano Ronaldo will make his return to the Premier League with Man United, FA Cup holders Leicester take on the reigning champions Man City, and Arsenal and Norwich face-off in what could be Mikel Arteta’s last game in charge of the Gunners.

Bring it on!

Manchester United vs. Newcastle: Cristiano Ronaldo to score and assist a goal (+500)

This might be a bit of an outrageous bet, but it feels like it is absolutely written in the stars. Cristiano Ronaldo has made an incredible return to Old Trafford, and will be pulling on a Man Utd jersey on Saturday afternoon against an opponent he loves. In the 12 years Ronaldo was gone, he scored 392 league goals, while Man United’s various wearers of the number 7 jersey scored 24. He is a difference maker.

In his first spell at United, Ronaldo faced Newcastle 11 times – with the Red Devils winning 10 and drawing once. He scored six goals and assisted another five, averaging a goal or assist every 65 minutes against the Magpies.

Since leaving United, Ronaldo’s trajectory to the top has simply exploded. He averaged a goal or assist every 65 minutes at Real Madrid and every 93 minutes at Juventus. Those are numbers that cover 572 games, and are simply staggering.

Newcastle have conceded 16.7 shots per game this season (ranked fourth in the league), and it would be no surprise to see Ronaldo put them to the sword on Saturday in his return to England’s top flight.  

Leeds vs. Liverpool: Mohamed Salah to score a goal (-109)

This game has the potential to be one of the most entertaining of the weekend, with Leeds’ style of football lending itself to some high-scoring thrillers. Marcelo Bielsa’s men have already been beaten 5-1 by Man United and came from behind twice to draw 2-2 with Everton. Now they face a Liverpool side who can cause their defense some real problems.

Liverpool rank first in the league for shots per game (23.3) and shots on target per game (8) this year. Leeds have already conceded eight goals – only Norwich and Arsenal have conceded more – and they give up 15 shots per game on average, which is third worst in the division.

Mo Salah is of most interest here in terms of finding a goalscorer. He tops the charts in Liverpool’s squad for shots per game (4.3), and his conversion rate this year is a solid 15%. Salah had two goals in the Reds’ opening three games, and in his only previous start against Leeds he bagged a hat-trick as Liverpool won a 4-3 thriller at Anfield last season.

Leicester vs. Manchester City: Ferran Torres to score a goal (+185)

Manchester City’s wealth of attacking options makes it tricky to pick out just who is going to score on any given weekend, but with an away game with Leicester coming up it’s hard not to give a second look at the current champs.

Going into the weekend Pep Guardiola’s City rank second in the league for shots per game with an average of 19.7, while Leicester rank sixth for shots conceded with 16.7. We can expect the Citizens to be flying forward again after back-to-back 5-0 wins over Norwich and Arsenal, and they were ruthless in front of goal before the break.

Gabriel Jesus has been banned for the game by Brazil and FIFA for missing the international games, which is a shame as he loves playing Leicester and has five goals in eight games against them. That does open the door however for 21-year-old Ferran Torres, who scored twice in the win over Arsenal.

A key part of Pep’s starting line-up this season, Torres has a 22% conversion rate in the league and kept his good form up over the internationals when he scored for Spain in their games against Georgia and Kosovo.