European Football Best Bets - September 4 & 5

Monaco have been outstanding at the start of the new league season. Wins over Le Havre and Marseille has seen the side take a maximum of six points, meaning they top the standings with no other side able to win their openers. While Monaco have impressed and will be desperate to extend their winning run to three games, a draw on the road against PSG would be a very good result, and I back the form side in the competition to frustrate the champions. 

Bayern Munich have started as they mean to go on, with a barnstorming 5-1 win over Stuttgart enough to see them catapult themselves to the top of the Bundesliga table. As mentioned, an away game in any football league is rarely easy, but most will feel that this will be up there with the easiest matches away from home that Bayern will face. When considering the previous fixtures between the pair across the last seven years, I am backing Bayern to easily win this one with a clean sheet. 

Napoli were left stunned by Como in their last outing as they slumped to a defeat in their opening home game. Despite going a goal down, they bounce back after 30 minutes to make it 1-1. However, they conceded four minutes later, with Como's second goal the final time the net was disturbed. This leaves them languishing three points behind the likes of Inter and AC Milan. While Napoli know that the season is still very young, slipping six points behind the leaders would be a minor disaster after just three matches. Despite their need for a win, I am backing against Napoli securing all three points. The traveling side have drawn four of their last five against Inter, and I predict that having lost to Como last week, they will prioritise being defensively sound over really testing Inter.