Aarau vs Chiasso
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Today’s free tip is the Swiss Challenge League encounter between Aarau and Chiasso.
This type of meeting is usually comedy gold. You have to appreciate that, at this level, there’s a combination/meeting of professional and semi-professional teams. A team like Aarau is professional, and expected to be playing in the Super League more often than not whereas it doesn’t get more unprofessional than Chiasso at this level. However, when the two teams meet, Chiasso tend to embarrass Aarau by working hard and wanting it more than them. The quality is laughably significant between the two teams, even after most of Aarau’s best players called it a day, sick of battling relegation when Aarau were equipped with a squad to push for promotion. Will it show? That’s the million dollar question here.
My opinion is that it will show, hence the tip. For clarity, I have absolutely zero faith in the Aarau defence, and nobody else should either. They intended for their defensive rock to be Schindelholz, knowing full well that the Super League level defender is injured a lot of the time. Subsequently, they can’t really complain now that he is indeed injured, yet again. Thaler is out too. Even if these fellas were available though, I just wouldn’t trust Aarau to keep teams out – ever. They don’t work hard enough to keep teams out, and they sure as hell don’t play defensive football.
That’s why I am not reading much into their early season results, to be honest. Losing 3-1 against FC Wil and 5-2 against Winterthur doesn’t really bother me as I know those teams are good in the final third, and they’re up against a crap defence. I’m also quite convinced that Chiasso’s speed and tenacity will cause Aarau problems tonight, as it always does. This is not a team that Aarau will ever make light work of, even though they really should. Aarau are just the kind of team that should always be trusted to concede goals because everything they do, directly or indirectly, encourages such to take place.
So why am I backing these maniacs to handicap Chiasso here? Excellent question! Well, Aarau finally figured out that, after losing Neumayr, Schneuwly, and others, they would actually need to sign some replacements. No point playing attacking football without an attack, is there? Gashi is not a new signing; he arrived last season, but disappeared for a bit, looking a bit unconvinced with his role at the club. He’s been a regular this season though, and is a Super League level player, so he’ll be the dog’s bollocks for them, I’m sure – he always thrives when teams are built around him. In the past few days, Aarau have pulled off a major coup too, bringing in winger Aratore to finally end his miserable spell in Russia. Aratore is another Super League level creator; a brilliant winger for this level, to be frank. Now, fusing those two with highly-rated Kosovan youngsters Rrudhani and Balaj, as well as the butcher of Monetenegro, Zverotic, is a very exciting midfield. Jackle and Spadanuda are good too. This is an excellent midfield, to be frank.
Now, Aarau find themselves without an actual striker this season, which is an interesting approach of theirs. They’ve always had big target men to call upon if required, but no longer. Therefore, my belief is that boss Keller will deploy a more fluid system, which will work with this midfield of theirs. They’re very fast, energetic, and creative – and most of them are capable of swapping positions on an ad hoc basis. That kind of approach, and that kind of quality, is not something that Chiasso can deal with. They’re simply not good enough. That’s the crux of this tip today; Aarau should have way too much going forward for Chiasso to deal with.
Chiasso have had some good news ahead of this game as they’ve at least managed to recover some of their many, many absent players. For example, Moroccan striker Bnou Marzouk, arguably one of the best in the division on his day (which hasn’t happened for a few years now, for clarity), is back. They’ve also cut Lithuanian misfit Cyzas loose in the past week because he barely played for them. Portuguese attacker Almeida is still out though, and he’s one of their better attackers.
The main problem with the part-timers from southern Switzerland is that playing at this level is, quite frankly, beyond them. This is nothing new; any follower of Swiss football will tell you that this has been the case for four or five years now – and they’re absolutely correct, too. Chiasso have no money with which to strengthen their squad; all they ever do is scour around for bargain basement buys, and they’re actually quite good at finding talented youngsters to sell for profit in order to stay afloat. There’s no long-term plans for this club though. All they do is pray that they’ll avoid relegation from season to season. Last season, they finally got caught out, and were relegated. The writing had been on the wall for a while, to be fair. However, quite miraculously, the Swiss FA bailed them out in Covid-19 relegated circumstances, so plucky Chiasso live to fight another day in the Swiss Challenge League! They really do have special powers of survival, Chiasso. There’s no logic behind them having not been relegated from this division to date.
I love the energy Chiasso play with. It only comes from a team that wants to play football because they enjoy it, which is something I seldom feel with Aarau. In that respect, I like Chiasso a lot. However, the visitors really do lack quality. If it’s not Bahloul, Almeida, or Bnou Marzouk, it’s an average and/or unproven player that is doing the job, and in a highly competitive Challenge League division, that’s just not good enough. They’ve already been hammered by a very good FC Schaffhausen, and then beaten convincingly by another promotion candidate, Grasshopper Zurich. Although Aarau are lazy, they are yet another team with far more quality at their disposal than the visitors can deal with, and given how horrendously Chiasso have been defending, I can’t believe that the minnows would survive this encounter.
One bit of good news for Chiasso is that key Argentinian defender Gamarra is back from suspension here. I’m not concerned, though. This Aarau attack should be more than good enough to blitz Chiasso here, even factoring in the goals that they’ll almost inevitably concede along the way. Therefore, I’m on Aarau to beat the -1 Asian Handicap at 19/20.
Verdict: Aarau to beat the –1 Asian Handicap at 19/20.
Saturday’s Thoughts
As ever, if there are any explanations required then please feel free to post a comment! For the remainder of my thoughts on today’s games, see below, although I feel compelled to write that the below are not necessarily my tips but merely my thoughts. For confidence ratings, you’ll need to go to the members section here.
Austrian Bundesliga:
Admira Wacker vs SV Ried
Swarovski Tirol vs Austria Vienna
Wolfsberger AC vs St. Polten
Belgian Eerste Klasse:
Waasland-Beveren vs Racing Genk
AS Eupen vs Cercle Brugge
OH Leuven vs Zulte-Waregem
Sint-Truiden vs Kortrijk
Brazilian Serie A:
Gremio vs Internacional
Palmeiras vs Ceara
RB Bragantino vs Corinthians
Bulgarian A PFG:
Montana vs Slavia Sofia
Levski Sofia vs Botev Vratsa
Croatian Prva Liga:
Sibenik vs NK Osijek
Gorica vs Hajduk Split
Czech Republic Liga 1:
Zbrojovka Brno vs Karvina
Opava vs Teplice
Mlada Boleslav vs Ceske Budejovice
Sparta Prague vs Baumit Jablonec
English Premier League:
Chelsea vs Crystal Palace
Everton vs Brighton & Hove Albion
Leeds United vs Manchester City
Newcastle United vs Burnley
Estonian Meistriliiga:
Tammeka vs Trans Narva
Kuressaare vs Tallinna Kalev
Faroese Betrideildin:
TB vs IF
Finnish Suomen Cup:
Inter Turku vs HJK
French Ligue 1
Racing Club Lens vs AS Saint-Etienne
OGC Nice vs FC Nantes Atlantique
German Bundesliga
Bv09 Borussia Dortmund vs SC Freiburg
Eintracht Frankfurt vs TSG Hoffenheim
Koln vs Borussia Moenchengladbach
Werder Bremen vs Arminia Bielefeld
VfB Stuttgart vs Bayer 04 Leverkusen
RB Leipzig vs Schalke 04
German Bundesliga 2:
Heidenheim vs Paderborn 07
Hannover 96 vs Eintracht Braunschweig
Jahn Regensburg vs Karlsruher SC
Hungarian Liga 1:
Mezokovesd-Zsory vs Varda SE
Diosgyori VTK vs Paksi SE
Italian Serie A:
Sassuolo vs Crotone
Genoa vs Torino
Udinese vs AS Roma
Italian Serie B:
Chievo Verona vs Salernitana
Ascoli vs Lecce
Empoli vs Monza
Vicenza Virtus vs Pordenone
Reggina vs Pescara
SPAL vs Cosenza
Venezia vs Frosinone
Virtus Entella vs Reggiana
Lithuanian A Lyga:
Kauno Zalgiris vs Zalgiris Vilnius
Panevezys vs Suduva Marijampole
Dutch Eredivisie:
Vitesse Arnhem vs Heracles Almelo
RKC Waalwijk vs PEC Zwolle
VVV vs ADO Den Haag
FC Twente Enschede vs FC Emmen
Norwegian Eliteserien:
Sarpsborg 08 vs Stabaek
Valerenga Oslo vs Mjondalen
Portuguese Liga 1:
Santa Clara vs Gil Vicente
FC Porto vs Maritimo Funchal
Tondela vs Sporting Braga
Portuguese Liga 2:
Feirense vs Sporting Covilha
Cova de Piedade vs Arouca
UD Oliveirense vs Casa Pia
Russian Premier League:
FK Ufa vs Rotor Volgograd
Tambov vs Arsenal Tula
Ural Sverdlovskaya Oblast vs CSKA Moscow
Spartak Moscow vs Zenit St. Petersburg
Spanish Primera Liga:
Real Valladolid vs Eibar
Atletico Madrid vs Villarreal CF
Real Sociedad vs Getafe
Elche vs Huesca
Valencia CF vs Real Betis Balompie
Swedish Allsvenskan:
BK Hacken Goteborg vs Falkenberg
Orebro vs Elfsborg Boras
Swiss Super League:
Lausanne Sport vs FC Zurich
Lugano vs FC Sion
Swiss Challenge League
SC Kriens vs Winterthur
Aarau vs Chiasso
Grasshopper Zurich vs FC Wil
Turkish Super Lig:
Yeni Malatyaspor vs Antalyaspor
BB Erzurumspor vs Rizespor
Istandul BB vs Goztepe
Fenerbahce vs Fatih Karagumruk
Enjoy your free betting tips!