Football Bet of the Day: La Viola to start another purple patch | OneFootball

Bet of the Day

Raffaelle Palladino has done well since leaving Monza for Fiorentina

After a festive break, Kevin Hatchard's back on the FBOTD beat, and hoping to build on a run of six winners in seven the last time he was on duty.

Monza v FiorentinaMonday 13 January, 19:45

A tough one to take for our pal Tobias in Italy yesterday, as the champions Inter took an early lead at Venezia, but it stayed 1-0, nixing his Asian Handicap bet. As he takes a well-earned break, we'll start our stint with a trip to Italy, as Fiorentina visit rock-bottom Monza.

The hosts have claimed a paltry 10 points from 19 games, and they have lost eight of their last ten top-flight matches, including the last five. Monza never really recovered from losing inspirational coach Raffaelle Palladino to Fiorentina, and tonight they'll have to face the man that took them into Serie A and then kept them there.

Former Italy, Milan and Lazio star Alessandro Nesta took the reins from Palladino, but lasted until December before he was booted by his former Milan bosses Adriano Galliani and Silvio Berlusconi. His replacement Salvatore Bocchetti has no senior experience as a head coach, having been a youth team boss and an assistant at Hellas Verona.

Fiorentina are on a five-match winless run in all competitions, but that run included games against Bologna, Juventus and Napoli. They have actually won four of their last six away matches in the league, and all of those victories were against bottom-half teams.