{"id":363338,"date":"2025-08-15T16:04:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T20:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=363338"},"modified":"2025-08-15T16:04:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T20:04:34","slug":"epl-prop-picks-and-predictions-matchday-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/epl-prop-picks-and-predictions-matchday-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Best EPL Week 1 prop picks: Back Erling Haaland, Cole Palmer to produce in Premier League season openers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Plenty of star power will take the pitch as the English Premier League is back with Matchday 1 this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pregame narrative: <\/strong>Cole Palmer has lofty expectations in his third season with Chelsea and I expect the Englishman to get off on the right foot. Erling Haaland remains one of the Premier League&#8217;s most dangerous attackers as he starts the campaign against Wolverhampton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out my favourite EPL prop picks for the season-opening soccer action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">EPL prop bets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Best bet: Palmer to score<\/strong> <strong>(+125)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have high hopes for Chelsea and Palmer this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 23-year-old actually took a step back last season, with 23 goals\/assists compared to a tally of 33 the season before. But he comes into this weekend with a ton of momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The attacking midfielder dominated the knockout stages of the FIFA Club World Cup, capped off by a two-goal, one-assist performance in a huge upset over PSG in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite scoring seven fewer goals last year, Palmer had only 0.9 fewer expected goals, showing that his numbers don&#8217;t truly reflect the quality of his season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Matchday 1, he has a good chance to shine against Crystal Palace, which sat in the middle of the pack with 51 goals conceded in 2024-25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Palmer is Chelsea&#8217;s designated penalty taker, which can certainly work in our favour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key stat:<\/strong> Palmer ranked tied for second with Mo Salah for chances created last season (89).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/sports\/soccer\/competitions\/10104\">EPL betting markets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Best Matchday 1 picks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Haaland to score (-143<\/strong><strong style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><strong>)<\/strong><\/strong><strong>: <\/strong>This is another chalky pick but it&#8217;s worth it on opening weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Haaland had a down year by his standards in 2024-25, scoring 22 goals (his fewest since joining Manchester City).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>But Haaland recorded his most shots on target in an EPL season (55) and led the league in xG per 90 minutes (0.72), according to Fotmob.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, he&#8217;s still clinical and one down season \u2014 if you want to even call it that \u2014 doesn&#8217;t change my thoughts on Haaland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Wanderers conceded the fourth-most goals per match last season (1.8) and didn&#8217;t make big enough moves to make me think that&#8217;s going to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Expect Haaland to have his fair share of big chances on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>EPL prop bets made at 4:02 p.m. on 08\/15\/25.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plenty of star power will take the pitch as the English Premier League is back with Matchday 1 this weekend. The pregame narrative: Cole Palmer has lofty expectations in his third season with Chelsea and I expect the Englishman to get off on the right foot. Erling Haaland remains one of the Premier League&#8217;s most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":363319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[452,73],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-363338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-com","category-football","tag-soccer-betting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>EPL prop picks: 2025 Matchday 1 best bets &amp; predictions | NSB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out our best EPL prop picks for Matchday 1 of the 2025-26 season. 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