Weekend Review: Major Leeds Soccer crushes Chelsea as patriotic punters lose out on Joshua

Punters continued to be dealt a rough hand in the Premier League this weekend as a shock 3-0 defeat for Chelsea and a rollercoaster 3-3 draw between Newcastle and Manchester City gave the bookies a boost.

Sunday was the bright day the layers, as Leeds (9/2) tore Chelsea (1/2) apart at Elland Road as Jesse Marsch continues his American revolution in West Yorkshire.

Goals from early season hotshot Rodrigo, Jack Harrison and a first Premier League goal for US international Brenden Aaronson condemned Thomas Tuchel’s men to defeat.

Chelsea’s performance was littered with errors, as summer signing Kalidou Koulibaly was sent off and goalkeeper Édouard Mendy’s failed fancy footwork allowing Aaronson to poach to break the deadlock.

Up at St James Park, Newcastle were in wonderland after racing into a 3-1 lead against Manchester City following goals from Miguel Almiron, Callum Wilson and a stunning freekick from Kieran Trippier after İlkay Gündoğan had opened the scoring for the champions.

City showed their resolve with goals from Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva drawing the game level, yet neither side was able to find the odd goal to take all three points.

What a performance!! ??#lufc #mot #alaw pic.twitter.com/VbUELTTtRH

— Jesse Marsch (@jessemarsch) August 21, 2022

Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said: “Punters continue to suffer a tough start to the new Premier League season as results continued to go our way this weekend.

“No surprise at all that City’s enthralling draw with Newcastle was the best result of the weekend, topping the turnover and results table for the weekend as well as taking swathes of accas along with it.

“Chelsea’s 3-0 loss to Leeds was another huge result for the book, as overall we came out ahead in six of the nine games played, the red results being significantly smaller than the black ones,” he added.

On Saturday, Tottenham and Arsenal gave the punters a lift as the north London sides eased past Wolves and Bournemouth, respectively.

Spurs (2/5) ran out 1-0 winners thanks to Harry Kane’s 250th goal for the club, while Arsenal (2/5) made it three wins out of three after a 3-0 win on the south coast.

A glut of goals across the Saturday games in the Premier League were also a welcome bonus for the bettors, with Fulham (29/20) edging Brentford 3-2 in a hotly contested local derby and Crystal Palace (29/20) continuing impress with a 3-1 win over Aston Villa.

Betway’s Chad Yeomans said: “It really was a weekend of two halves, wasn’t it? On the two televised games on Saturday, the well-backed Spurs and Arsenal did the job for the punters, although the former did make hard work of it.

“BTTS landed in each of the 3pm kick-offs, so there was more cheer for some punters following those results, although the actual match results were in our favour.”

Looking ahead to Monday Night Football’s headline fixture between Liverpool and Manchester United, Betfred’s Alan Firkins revealed to EGR the chances of ten Hag’s side getting a result.

He said: “Liverpool bid tonight to close the gap on Arsenal and City by winning at Old Trafford against arguably their fiercest domestic rivals, but if you reckon United owe their fans and manager ten Hag a performance, they can be backed at 4/1 to win the match.”

Ladies and gentlemen, 19-year-old Ansu Fati ? pic.twitter.com/ax35uCLHMG

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) August 21, 2022

On the continent, the bookies were bashed following a solid performance in the Premier League, as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich all trounced their opposition.

Real Madrid (13/20) secured a 4-1 win away at Celta Vigo, with veterans Karim Benzema and Luka Modric joined on the scoresheet by youngsters Vinícius Junior and Fede Valverde.

Barça replicated their rival’s result on Sunday evening as 19-year-old Ansu Fati inspired the Catalans (11/10) to a 4-1 victory against Real Sociedad.

Fati was introduced with the scores level at 1-1 and proceeded to lay on assists for Robert Lewandowski and Ousmane Dembele before netting himself.

Lewandowski’s former side, Bayern Munich (1/5), showed no signs of missing the Polish marksman as they smashed VfL Bochum 7-0, while in France Neymar, Messi and Mbappé all scored as PSG (3/10) blitzed Lille 7-1.

Bet365’s Steve Freeth said: “While we’ve got off to a good start in the Premier League it has been a frustrating time in Europe. Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid both winning 4-1 and PSG and Bayern Munich smashing in seven goals is one of those where you look through your fingers at the liabilities because you know it’s not going to be great.”

Elsewhere, in horseracing, Frankie Dettori’s public squabble with trainer John Gosden ended with smiles all round as the jockey led 9/1-shot Trawlerman to a narrow victory in the £500,000 Ebor Handicap at York.

Following Dettori’s performance at Royal Ascot, Gosden had called for a break in the pair’s relationship, but with the Italian landing victory in Yorkshire, tensions have well and truly eased.

Favourite Gaassee ended in last place, with Gill telling EGR how the race went down from the layers’ perspective.

He said: “The final day of the York Ebor festival saw the Ebor handicap go the way of Trawlerman at 9/1.

“He wasn’t unsupported on the day, and with the second and third filled by 8/1- and 5/1-shots, but the favourite Gaassee finishing last after suffering an issue, that result overall was pretty much a draw. The festival overall saw us finish ahead, but we certainly didn’t have it all our own way,” he added.

Finally in boxing, the bookies once again got the better of the punters as a patriotic UK crowd backed Anthony Joshua (19/10) in his bout with Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (5/11).

With the bout going the distance, Usyk won on split decision to retain his status as heavyweight champion before Joshua launched into a bizarre post-fight monologue in Jeddah.

I wish @usykaa continued success in your quest for greatness. You are a class act champ.

Yesterday I had to mentally take myself into a dark place to compete for the championship belts! I had two fights, one with Usyk and one with my emotions and both got the better of me. pic.twitter.com/onnUAALm3R

— Anthony Joshua (@anthonyjoshua) August 21, 2022

Gill said: “Anthony Joshua’s career and legacy took another beating on Saturday night as he once again lost to Usyk. A largely UK and patriotic betting contingent were all over AJ, so that was another nice result for the book as the split decision left us nicely ahead.

Freeth added: “The pre-bout chat and the majority of the money was for an early finish with ‘To Go the Distance’ – No, being punted from 10/11 into 1/2.

“Usyk by Decision (fight outcome) opened at 13/10 but went off at 13/5 and the Ukrainian by Split Decision (Exact Method) had drifted from 8/1 to 18/1 by the first bell. With 15/8 Joshua being backed on the ‘To Win Fight’ market, we were firmly in the corner of Usyk and it ended being a very good night.”