Middlesbrough vs Stoke City Prediction & Betting Tips - Premier League

Prediction published on 10/08/2016, 14:00  by | Modified on 13/08/2016 at 18:51 in Premier League Predictions

It was on the final day of the season that Middlesbrough avoided defeat at home to Brighton and Hove Albion and secured promotion to the Premier League. The summer has seen them make some impressive signings including Bernardo Espinosa, Victor Valdes, Gaston Ramirez and Alvaro Negredo. That indicates to me that they might just be a team who will be around 13th or 14th in the table rather than battling relegation. A lot will depend on their home record which was really strong last season with just eight goals conceded. Even more interesting will be how striker Jordan Rhodes gets on this season, prolific for years but this is his first season in the top flight. Stoke City had an up and down season last year. A slow start, lots of games with hardly any goals in them and a period when they suffered heavy defeats. Joe Allen has been their big signing of the summer along with Ramadan Sobhi. They finished 9th last season (not good when there's only eight teams better than Stoke) but lost 15 games. Stoke only managed nine points from their last ten games last season so don't expect too much of them this year (or any really). This looks like being a low-scoring game here so let's go for under 2.5 goals to  be scored.