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Best bets: Premier League & Championship tips for 22 April 2026

By Joe Townsend
Football
Tue April 21, 2026 · 5h ago

Football betting tips: Wednesday

2pts Bournemouth to beat Leeds (20:00) at 11/10 (Betway)

2pts Middlesbrough to win to nil vs Sheff Wed (19:45) at 11/10 (General)

1pt Leif Davis 1+ assists in Charlton vs Ipswich (19:45) at 5/1 (General)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair

Bournemouth vs Leeds

Leeds' 3-0 win over Wolves on Saturday all but guaranteed their Premier League safety, with Daniel Farke's side now 33/1 to be relegated after moving eight points clear of the drop zone with five matches to play.

On Sunday they take on a struggling Chelsea team at Wembley in their first FA Cup semi-final for 39 years, an incredible chance to reach the final for the first time since 1973. That simply has to be their priority.

BOURNEMOUTH manager Andoni Iraola, meanwhile, has five games left before departing for a new challenge in the summer.

Victory on Wednesday could take his side up to sixth and would extend their unbeaten run to 14 league matches.

The Cherries are 11/10 TO WIN and even accounting for the vistors' own superb form (W3 D3 last six) backing them to do so is the smart bet.

For comparison Bournemouth were 8/11 at home to Leeds' fellow newly-promoted club Sunderland on the last weekend of February.

Charlton vs Ipswich

Defeat at Portsmouth and a draw with Middlesbrough means Ipswich can afford no further slip-ups if they are to keep their Championship promotion destiny solely in their own hands.

Victory in what is their game in hand would open up a three-point gap on Millwall with a vastly superior goal difference, and crucially put four points between them and seemingly unstoppable Southampton, who they meet in their penultimate fixture of the season.

Charlton boss Nathan Jones

They visit a Charlton team who have rather uncharacteristically lost the ability to keep clean sheets, managing just two in 11 outings.

Nathan Jones' side aren't shipping lots of goals, conceding just 11 in that time, with their opponents scoring one goal or fewer in nine of those matches, but they have become susceptible at set-pieces - especially during their current six-match winless run (D3 L3).

At the weekend Sheffield Wednesday defender Gabriel Otegbayo became the third player in four games to score against them from a set-play and went mightily close to a winning goal late on.

This is very likely to be a tight game settled by fine margins and with no obvious candidate to score from a set-piece for Ipswich, I'll take dead-ball specialist LEIF DAVIS for 1+ ASSISTS at 5/1.

The left-back has been a long way short of his prolific 2023/24 when he racked up 18 assists as the Tractor Boys were promoted to the Premier League, but two of his four this term have come in his last six appearances.

His expected assists (xA) total of 8.36 for the season shows he is still providing plenty of chances, but until recently his team-mates simply weren't taking them.

Middlesbrough vs Sheffield Wednesday

A controversial late penalty denied MIDDLESBROUGH what would have been a huge win at Ipswich, enough to move them within a point of second place with three games to play. While still not quite out of it, it did feel as though there chances of automatic promotion disappeared with that 2-2 draw on Sunday.

There was plenty to be positive about, though. Boro may now be seven games without a win but during that time they have played exceptionally well, simply failing to take their chances - at least at Portman Road they finally did.

During this seven-match run Kim Hellberg's team have created more expected goals than their opponents in every game, but scored only six times from an xG total of 16.83.

Despite recording three successive draws, it's hard to see Sheffield Wednesday holding firm in what is their fifth game in 19 days - too much for this tiny squad to bear.

MIDDLESBROUGH are 1/7 to win against a team on an EFL record 37-game winless run but 11/10 TO WIN TO NIL, which we should back - Wednesday have failed to score in eight of their last 11 away matches.

Tempting as it is to back this to be the game where the floodgates open for both teams, the prices simply aren't there.

It could be one to back in-play if it's still goalless after 20 minutes or so.

Odds correct at 12:30 BST (21/4/26)

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