Both Burnley and Middlesbrough made winning returns to action in the Championship after the World Cup break and they will be looking to bag three more points when they meet in their next game. Burnley, on 44 points, will be at home, seeking to extend their leadership of the league while Middlesbrough, placed 12th with 30 points, are looking to rise closer to the promotion playoff slots. Burnley have suffered just two losses in the league this season and look primed for a straight return to the Premier League. They haven’t been the best defensively this season, but Burnley have made up for that in attack, as they are the best scoring side with 43 goals in 22 games. Burnley are coming from a 3-0 win over QPR, an improvement on their defensive run, that being their second straight clean sheet in the league. It also marked their fourth win in five matches, and they have scored two or more in each of the five games. All of Burnley’s last five matches have produced over 2.5 goals and they have only lost once in the last 19 matches.
Middlesbrough have also put up a strong run ahead of this game; they returned from the World Cup break with a 2-1 home win over Luton Town and they will be up for a fourth straight win when they travel to Turf Moor. In their last five league matches, Middlesbrough are unbeaten, and they go into this game with three straight wins. From a possible 15 points in the last five matches, they have bagged 13, which is one more than Burnley across the same run. They are the team with the best run in the league in the last five matches, a stat they will be keen to keep. Middlesbrough have scored in each of their last five league matches but only one has returned a clean sheet. They have scored two or more in four of their last five league matches, with both teams scoring in four of the last five as well. They have three straight away league wins and each of their last five away league matches has produced over 2.5 goals.
Both these teams take to this game good runs from their recent matches. Middlesbrough are unbeaten in the last five and Burnley have one loss in 19 league games. Another top stat they both take to this game is their scoring runs, which have seen their matches produce high scores, and we believe the same will extend here so we are backing this game to end in over 2.5 goals.