Blackburn v QPR: Yakubu to spoil Hughes’ Ewood Park return

Mark Hughes returns to Ewood Park to face his former club in a crucial clash at the bottom of the Premier League and it is 11/5 that QPR leave with a valuable three points.

Unfortunately, Blackburn boast a good record against QPR, having lost just two of their 14 most recent league meetings and you have to go all the way back to the 1982/83 season for QPR’s last league victory away to Blackburn.

Though Blackburn were thrashed 7-1 by Arsenal last week, when they lost by the same score at Old Trafford last season, they recovered well to beat relegation rivals Wolves 3-0 at home.

Blackburn are well priced at 6/5 to beat a QPR team which has lost seven away games in the Premier League this season – the second highest in the top flight after Bolton and Wigan.

QPR were the most active Premier League team in the January transfer window, making six signings, but despite the high quality of the likes of Bobby Zamora and Nedum Onuoha, they will need time to settle in.

Meanwhile, Hughes has not had the sort of impact the QPR board would have hoped for when installing a new manager, having won just one of his five league games so far and his task will not be made any easier by the return of Yakubu.

Blackburn’s top scorer returns after serving a three-match ban and eight of his 12 Premier League goals have come at Ewood Park this season.

Therefore, Yakubu looks a fair price to open the scoring at 9/2, especially when considered that in three of the last four matches in which he has scored, he has notched the first goal.

For QPR, the suspension being served by Djibril Cisse will heap slightly more pressure on fellow new recruit Zamora, who is 6/1 to break the deadlock.