Weekend Review: Goals galore as layers fork out for City title win
Kindred Group hails a three-way tie for the Golden Boot as bookies wave goodbye to the Premier League
The Premier League season came to close this weekend as bookies paid out on Manchester City to win the title for the second year in a row.
There was an air of inevitability about Pep Guardiola’s side lifting the trophy once more, as City and Liverpool continued their relentless winning streaks by beating Brighton and Wolves respectively.
City went 1-0 down at Brighton and the bookies must have been licking their lips, but the reigning champions refused to concede any ground in the title race and recovered to win 4-1.
He's top of the league… ?? pic.twitter.com/HSEWq4A8NL
— Raheem Sterling (@sterling7) May 12, 2019
The final day was a goal fest, as is so often the case when teams have little or nothing to play for, including eight goals in the 5-3 thriller between Crystal Palace and Bournemouth.
Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said: “The final weekend of the Premier League usually throws up a few mad results and this year was no different.
“Sunday was a bit of a goalfest all round, with all but five teams scoring and some big scores across the board, meaning BTTS and the overs goal line came in in the majority of matches.
Most of the acca-backers went home empty handed however, after Chelsea drew with Leicester, Tottenham drew with Everton and Manchester United lost at home to relegated Cardiff City.
Ladbrokes’ Alex Apati said: “It was a great end to the season on the results front – United losing, Chelsea’s 0-0 and Spurs dropping points – that combined made it a tough weekend for acca backers to call.”
William Hill’s Rupert Adams said the operator will miss Premier League margins but is hopeful the Women’s World Cup, Champions League final and Nations League should keep the punters busy.
Adams said: “It was a decent final weekend for us – once again largely due to a rather pathetic performance from Manchester United.”
Bet365’s Steve Freeth said top-flight results were okay despite the fancied two teams doing the business, as they have done throughout the entire campaign.
“We had a couple of high profile draws and the result at Old Trafford made it a decent end to the Premier League season,” added Freeth.
Kindred were buoyed by a three-way tie in the race for the Golden Boot after Arsenal’s Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang joined Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane on 22 league goals.
? @Aubameyang7 pic.twitter.com/68ZiUs0Kwu
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) May 12, 2019
Gill said: “The Golden Boot result was overall a good one for us, with just one recognised centre forward on the list.
“Before the last game, Mane and Aubameyang were winning results in the book but Salah would have left us in the red, so overall the dead heat worked in our favour.”