Velez vs Arsenal

Velez Sarsfield’s crisis continue to go deeper match after match. Last time out, the team succumbed to a devastating 2-1 away defeat at Tigre under interim boss Marcelo Bravo after conceding an own goal from Miguel Brizuela in the 88th minute. As a result, El Fortin are now on 13 league matches without a win (six stalemates and seven losses) and continue sharing the relegation spot in the aggregate table with Banfield on 18 points. At home, Velez haven’t claimed any victories in their last six, drawing five and losing one since beating CA Central Cordoba 4-0 in March. New coach Sebastian Mendez will make his debut on Friday.

Sarandi Arsenal seem to be walking towards the second division week after week. Last Sunday, the team suffered a heavy blow, losing 2-0 to Platense at home in a six-pointer regarding relegation. That result represented their third defeat across the last four league matches, just beating Boca Juniors 1-0 at home in that spell. Following that streak, El Viaducto remain bottom in the point-average table and also in the league table (with 17 points in 21 rounds). On away turf, Arsenal are on eight matches without a win, having lost the last seven and drawn the previous one.  

Velez is seriously looking at relegation as something that could happen to them even if there are still many games to be played, but if they want to avoid it this is definitely one of the must win games. Not a lot of hope left for this very poor Arsenal, I expect them to take risks so I’ll go with the OVER as Velez will miss their starting goalkeeper and veteran defender Diego Godin.

BET: OVER 2 @ 1.97