Our first point of call for this weekend’s round of Premier League fixtures is Loftus Road, where two teams fighting at either end of the table lock horns as Harry Redknapp’s struggling Queens Park Rangers take on Louis van Gaal’s Champions League-chasing Manchester United.

Interestingly, the two teams come into Saturday’s 3pm kick-off having both lost the previous game in their respective mini-leagues – United were defeated at home by fellow European football hopefuls Southampton while QPR again lost on their travels to Burnley – and both sides will be looking to get their ambitions back on track with a pressure-relieving victory in this one.

Another theme that both teams share is that their home form is far superior to their form on the road, with the hosts failing to pick up a single point away from Loftus Road and the visitors having drawn more games than they’ve won. As such, odds-on prices of 8/13 on United taking all three points back to Manchester are unlikely to be jumped on given you can currently get 21/4 on a QPR win and 10/3 on the sides drawing – something United have done in their last three away games.

In the preview of last week’s game at Old Trafford, we suggested that Radamel Falcao would be a strong candidate to open the scoring, but Van Gaal threw in a curve-ball by dropping the Colombian from his match-day squad and watched on as his side failed to muster a single shot on target. Having since come under intense scrutiny for the decision, it looks likely that Falcao will return to the team and at the risk of being burnt again, we like the look of the £265,000-a-week man to justify his start.

You can currently get 7/2 on Falcao being the game’s first goalscorer, while the Monaco striker is 13/10 to score at any time. For the hosts, meanwhile, Charlie Austin is predictably the man most likely at odds of 7/1 to score first and the 2/1 on him finding the net at any time is one of the value bets of the weekend given United have conceded in all but two of their away games this season.

Given the above, if you are to back the favourites in this one it may be advisable to boost yours odds by combining the win with a “both teams to score” bet – an outcome that is available at 14/5 – while if you’re really feeling really brave, you can get a massive 8/1 on Van Gaal’s men to win from behind.

100% – All 21 of QPR’s points have come at home this season