Premier League best bets: Liverpool, Forest and the derailment of the Crystal Palace hype train

Welcome to Matchday 2 of the Premier League season. Matchday 1 went largely as we all expected it would: City, Arsenal and Liverpool won comfortably, Aston Villa won, well, uncomfortably, Spurs bottled it, Brighton looked young and impishly talented, Everton looked old and leggy. Jamie Vardy cursed, Adama Traore flexed, and Wolves' Yerson Mosquera, fresh out of MLS, brought a little CONCACAF After Dark to the proceedings by strangling Kai Havertz in open play. It all feels so very familiar.

Will Matchday 2 throw some upsets into the mix and change up the order of things? We think it might. There are a few intriguing matchups on offer that could deviate from the norm. Here's what we're looking out for as the Premier League gears up for Round Two:

Crystal Palace vs. West Ham, Saturday, Aug. 24, 10 a.m. ET. Crystal Palace ended last season in fine form, beating Aston Villa 5-0 on the final day of the season to cap off a seven-game unbeaten streak. That streak also saw it best Liverpool, Man United, and, on Apr. 21, a floundering West Ham side just hoping for the season to end already so it could lick its wounds and rebuild.

That April result — a 5-2 win for Palace over the Hammers — appears to be doing a lot of heavy lifting in the odds this weekend. Palace is the clear favorite to beat West Ham again. But things have changed significantly since that fateful clash last spring. Palace sold Michael Olise, its sparkling young French attacker, to Bayern Munich over the summer. (He scored just 12 minutes into his first game; Germany looks good on him.) It hasn't found a replacement for his creativity or his energy and plodded to a 2-1 defeat in its opening match of this season.

West Ham, meanwhile, has delivered upon the promise of a rebuild. New coach Julen Lopetegui brought in defenders Jean-Clair Todibo and Aaron Wan-Bissaka to shore up his back line, but he also brought in a familiar face from the European Championships: German striker Niclas Füllkrug. He's a stellar signing for the Hammers and should cause chaos in the Premier League.

The odds for this match are still on the Crystal Palace hype train; we fear that train derailed mere seconds after leaving the station. We're going against the grain and backing a West Ham win at +220. Want a hedge? Try a West Ham win or draw at -150 instead.

Southampton vs. Nottingham Forest, Saturday, Aug. 24, 10 a.m. ET. We get it: this game is far from a headliner. But it does have a few key storylines that make it worth your time. The biggest one? Who Ben Brereton Diaz while bait into a red card this weekend after successfully trapping Newcastle's Fabian Schär on Matchday 1.

Just kidding. (Mostly.) The real storyline is how Nottingham Forest will perform without Danilo, the Brazilian striker it signed to lift its goalscoring numbers in 2024. Danilo broke his ankle in horrific fashion in Forest's opener against Bournemouth and won't be available for months.

Forest's whole lineup stepped up to rally after Danilo's injury last weekend, but one player did more than the rest: defensive midfielder Ryan Yates. He came on for Danilo and put on an impressive offensive show for an ostensibly defensive player. We're think Yates is set to have another flyer against Southampton, and we're backing him to make at least three shots at +240. He managed that figure in less than 90 minutes last weekend.

Liverpool vs. Brentford, Sunday, Aug. 25, 11:30 a.m. ET. With all due respect to Man City and Ipswich, this is the most unbalanced game of the Premier League weekend by far. Liverpool is the favorite and it's not close. We're not going to get much by betting on it to be victorious at -371.

This is an excellent use case for an add-on parlay bet: sure, we think Liverpool will win, but how? Bet365 has an intriguing special available that could answer the question. It's offering a layered bet of a Liverpool win and at least two shots on target from both Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah at +500. The two of them managed that easily last weekend against Ipswich and should be good for it here.