Weekend Review: Pleasure for punters as Arsenal ascend and Haaland hits home
Gunners blitz lacklustre Liverpool while Haaland haunts Saints and bet365 teetered on the brink of £1m predictor game payout
It was a weekend for the punters in the Premier League as the favourites duly obliged across the board to leave the bookies bamboozled.
Arsenal (6/4) strengthened their credentials and a potential title challenger after emerging victorious after a thrilling battle with Liverpool (8/5), who continue to fail to impress.
The Gunners ran out 3-2 winners at the Emirates, with Gabriel Martinelli opening the scoring within 60 seconds setting the tempo for the clash.
Darwin Nunez got his second Premier League goal of the season to level affairs before Bukayo Saka struck to make it 2-1.
Roberto Firmino’s accurate finish made it 2-2 before Saka, banishing the ghost of his missed penalty in the Euro 2020 final, continued his fine form from the spot to make it 3-2 and bag all three points.
Betfred’s Alan Firkins said: “The weekend highlight, and an expensive one at that, was the titanic battle at the Emirates between Arsenal and Liverpool.
“We learned two things – Arsenal’s title challenge is the real deal, and Liverpool, though fighting tooth and nail throughout, are not quite the same force without the departed Sadio Mane and an underperforming Mo Salah. Arsenal were absolutely smashed at around 8/5, and edged a thriller,” he added.
Goodnight, Gooners.
Onto the next one. Together.
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) October 9, 2022
Elsewhere, Manchester United (11/10) came from behind at Goodison to secure a 2-1 win against Everton (5/2) as Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 700th goal in club football.
Alex Iwobi had put the Toffees ahead with a stunning strike, before Antony continued his hot streak to make it 1-1.
Just before half time, Ronaldo was slipped through by his former Real Madrid teammate Casemiro and drove a left-footed finish past Jordan Pickford.
Manchester City (1/10) also continued their imperious march, running out 4-0 winners against Southampton (25/1). The phenom that is Erling Haaland only manged to score once on the day, in a slight respite for the bookies.
Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said: “Very much a punters weekend in the Premier League as seven of the nine games played left us in the red. United’s 2-1 win over Everton hit us the hardest, with league leaders Arsenal’s thrilling 3-2 win over Liverpool being another big win for players.
“A City win and a Haaland goal is never going to be a layer-friendly result, but short odds about an almost inevitable outcome means damage was limited this time around, especially as the Norwegian had an off day and only got the one,” he added.
Elsewhere, bet365 had an expensive weekend as the Stoke-on-Trent-based operator paid out £415,000 in consolation prizes on its £1m Six Scores Challenge.
The free-to-play prediction game sees players aim to guess six correct scores over the weekend.
Bet365’s Steve Freeth revealed to EGR how close the bettors came to getting one over on the bookie.
Freeth said: “The £1m Six Scores Challenge jackpot was close to going yesterday with 126 people getting £1,000 for correctly predicting five out of six scores. In total we paid out £415,000 in consolation prizes with a huge number getting 3 (£5) and 4 (£50) scores correct – the jackpot rolls over to next week.”
Erling Haaland has already scored 20 goals in all competitions for Man City.
TWENTY. pic.twitter.com/CO23TQWZdF
— B/R Football (@brfootball) October 8, 2022
On the continent, PSG decided to rest Leo Messi and Neymar against Reims, much to the layers’ delight. The Parisians couldn’t find a way through and saw Sergio Ramos sent off in a frustrating fixture.
Elsewhere, Real Madrid (2/5) and Barcelona (7/25) scraped to 1-0 wins against Getafe and Celta Vigo, respectively, in another positive for the bookies.
Freeth continued: “They may have a strike force that’s the envy of world football, but PSG did us the second favour in a matter of days by failing to beat Reims on Saturday after drawing with Benfica in midweek. Over in Spain we had both Real Madrid and Barcelona to thank for winning just 1-0.”
Elsewhere, in horseracing, Run For Oscar proved his backers right after running to victory in the Club Godolphin Cesarewitch at Newmarket.
The 4/1 second favourite, ridden by David Egan, secured a impressive win in the race after pulling ahead of Hughie Morrison-trained duo Vino Victrix and Not So Sleepy.
Run For Oscar had been out at double-figure odds earlier in the week but delivered a composed win for trainer Charles Byrnes.
Gill said: “At Newmarket on Saturday the Cesarewitch Handicap went the way of 4/1 shot Run For Oscar, an impressive three-and-a-quarter length winner after being well supported before the off.
“A mixed bag from our point of view with the placed horses in behind, but overall we just managed to come out slightly ahead.”
Boy, can he run!
Run For Oscar proves to be by some distance the best handicapped horse in the Club @godolphin Cesarewitch Handicap @NewmarketRace as he bolts up under David Egan.
A plan well executed by the master Charles Byrnes? pic.twitter.com/xh1cmEQXYZ— Racing TV (@RacingTV) October 8, 2022
Finally, NFL fans were treated to an entertaining encounter at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday as an injury-plagued but resurgent New York Giants upset the odds to beat the Green Bay Packers 27-22.
In what was the 31st regular season game to be played in London since 2007, the Giants had been 14 points down early on and were matched for a total of £128 at a high of 20 (19/1) on Betfair Exchange’s moneyline market.
Meanwhile, more than £85,000 was matched on the Green Bay Packers at a low of 1.08 (1/12). Ouch to those backers.