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St Johnstone v Aberdeen
📅 Kick Off: Monday 5th August at 20:00
🏆 Competition: Scottish Premiership
📺 Watch Live: Sky Sports Football
The final fixture of the opening weekend of the Scottish Premiership season sees St Johsntone square off with Aberdeen at McDiarmid Park on Monday night.
Having both finished up in the bottom half of the table last season, both clubs will be aiming to put in improved showings this time around.
St Johnstone avoided a relegation play-off by the skin of their teeth last term, securing their top-flight status with a 2-1 win over Motherwell on the final day of the season.
As for Aberdeen, they performed well below expectations last season, finishing seventh, with the axe falling on manager Barry Robson back in January. Neil Warnock would then endure an ill-fated 34-day spell in the Dons dugout before interim boss Peter Leven steadied the ship and steered the club to much calmer waters at the end of the campaign. Jimmy Thelin has since been drafted in after impressing at Swedish side Elfsborg.
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St Johnstone v Aberdeen Best Bets
➡️ Aberdeen double chance @ 1.33 with Paddy Power
➡️ Over 4.5 Aberdeen corners @ 1.57 with Paddy Power
After ending last season strongly and subsequently storming through their Scottish League Cup group, there should be plenty of optimism from Aberdeen heading into the new Scottish Premiership season. What’s more, a trip to St Johnstone represents an ideal opportunity for the Pittodrie club to kick off the league season with a positive result. The Saints have a poor home record under Craig Levein, failing to win any of their last nine top-flight matches in front of their own supporters, a wretched run that stretches all the way back to last December. It’s also worth noting that the Saints failed to keep a clean sheet in each of those nine McDiarmid Park matches. With that in mind, backing Aberdeen to avoid defeat on Monday night makes plenty of sense at 1.30 on Paddy Power.
Given that patience may be required from Aberdeen when trying to breakthrough a St Johnstone side content to sit in a low block, the away team also look worth backing to earn five or more corners at 1.57 on Paddy Power. The Saints were conceding an average of just over 6.5 corners per game in the Scottish Premiership last season, a tally only marginally topped by fellow strugglers Ross County. As for Aberdeen, they were averaging a shade under five flag-kicks per 90 minutes in the Scottish top-flight last term, hitting five or more corners in three of their four meetings with St Johnstone. Thelin’s team were pretty prolific corner takers during League Cup group stages, racking up a combined total of 32 corners across their four matches, an average of eight per game. Thus, the Dons merit support to earn a minimum of five corners at McDiarmid Park on Monday night.
📂 St Johnstone v Aberdeen Cheat Sheet
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📊 St Johnstone Form and Stats
Despite steering St Johnstone to safety last season, it would be fair to say that manager Craig Levein is not universally popular among the Saints support.
Levein’s notoriously uninspiring and often reductive tactics quickly alienated the club’s fans last season, leaving them clamouring for a more progressive coach and playing style ahead of the new campaign.
While the McDiarmid Park club successfully navigated their way through their Scottish League Cup group with three wins from four, a 3-2 defeat against Scottish League One outfit Alloa already has alarm bells ringing.
On top of this, the Perth Saints enter the new season having won just six of their last 26 Scottish Premiership matches, with Levein’s side coming away empty-handed from 14 of those fixtures. Despite Levein’s preference for pragmatism, St Johnstone failed to shut out their opponents in each of their final 10 league games of last season.
St Johnstone also held the joint-lowest scoring record in the Scottish Premiership last season, netting a paltry 29 goals across the entire campaign. The fact the hosts scored two goals or more in just six of their 38 league games last season further highlights last term’s toothless attacking record. To date, the Saints’ summer transfer business would suggest that they could be set for another season of struggle in front of goal.
📊 Aberdeen Form and Stats
One of the few positives for Aberdeen last season was the way in which they ended the campaign. The Dons avoided defeat in each of their final nine league assignments of the season, triumphing on six occasions.
New boss Jimmy Thelin has since taken the reins and he has thus far kept the feelgood factor flowing by guiding Aberdeen to a perfect four wins from four in the Scottish League Cup. The Dons’ group stage showing is made all the more impressive by the fact that they scored 15 goals across their four matches to qualify in style.
Thelin has already been busy in the transfer market but keeping hold of talisman Bojan Miovski could prove to be Aberdeen’s best bit of business this summer. The North Macedonian goal machine has scored 30 goals in 66 games for the club across the last two seasons and his scoring prowess could prove crucial to the Pittodrie club’s plan of marching back into Europe.
Graham Shinnie will be patrolling the midfield battleground for Aberdeen again this season. The Dons skipper was averaging 1.86 fouls per game in the Scottish Premiership last season, racking up 10 yellow cards and one red card along the way.
⚔️ St Johnstone v Aberdeen Head-to-Head
After both failing to finish in the top-six last season, St Johnstone and Aberdeen crossed paths four times in the Scottish Premiership last term. The first two meetings of the season ended all square, while both teams picked up a victory apiece from the two fixtures that followed. It’s worth pointing out that goals were in short supply when Aberdeen met St Johnstone last season, with all four fixtures featuring under 2.5 goals. It was a similar story two seasons ago, with the Dons earning a pair of 1-0 wins on either side of a 2-0 success.
* I recommend waiting for confirmed team line-ups before placing any bets.
* All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.
Written by an Andy verified content writer
18+ please gamble responsibly.
