Last Season’s Runners-Up Aberdeen take on Hamilton Academical in their first match of the 2017/18 Scottish Premier League season.
Scottish Premier League Sunday 6th August – 15:00 UK Time
Aberdeen
Aberdeen cemented their place as the second-best team in the Scottish league last season, and will be hoping to put up more of a title challenge in 2017/18.
Their pre-season started well, with three friendly victories and a win over two-legs in Europa League qualifying against Siroki Brijeg. They then beat Apollon Limassol in the first leg of the next qualifying round to make it six games unbeaten, but they were knocked out after a 2-0 second leg defeat in Cyprus.
They will now hope to put that Europa League exit out of their minds, as they prepare to kick start their league season with a victory.
Hamilton
Hamilton were on the verge of relegation last season, finishing eleventh in the table, but retained their place in the top flight with a play-off victory over Dundee United.
They have started the domestic season in decent form, finishing top of their Scottish League Cup group after two wins, a penalty shoot-out victory, and one defeat on penalties. They have now advanced to the knockout stages of the competition, where they will face Aberdeen again just three days after this league meeting.
So, Hamilton will be looking to start their league campaign with a win and strike a psychological blow to their opponents ahead of another meeting.
Head to Head
Since 2008 these teams have met 22 times, with Aberdeen holding an advantage.
Aberdeen have won twelve, Hamilton have picked up seven victories, and there have been three draws.
The last five meetings have them equal with two wins apiece and a draw.
Hamilton won two of the three meetings last season, including the most recent. However, their last win in this fixture as the away team came back in 2010, in a match where Aberdeen had two players sent off.
Betting Odds and Predictions
Aberdeen are highly fancied to win this game and are priced accordingly. Ladbrokes have them as 1/3 favourites, with Hamilton priced at 17/2 to pick up an unlikely victory. The draw is a more realistic result for Hamilton and is priced at 15/4.
It’s highly likely that only one team will score in this match. Only one team has scored in eight of the last ten games, so backing ‘No’ in the Both Teams to Score market looks a good bet at odds of 8/11. For those who think there will be goals, but both teams will fail to score, it’s 10/11 on just one team scoring.
Punters who wish to go against statistics can get odds of 11/10 for Both Teams to Score.
There have been 13 meetings since the last one to have had more than three goals. Therefore, we are quietly confident that backing Under 3.5 Goals at odds of 4/9 will return a profit.
Top Betting Tip
Our top betting tip in this match is Aberdeen to win, at odds of 1/3 with Ladbrokes.