Weekend Review: Rice with ice in his veins guns down gutless United

A late salvo from Arsenal (8/11) on Sunday afternoon bloodied the noses of the bookies after some solid results on Saturday kicked the weekend off in style.

Entering stoppage time against rivals Manchester United, with the game heading for a 1-1 draw, summer signing Declan Rice popped up at the back post to smash a deflected shot past keeper André Onana for his first goal as a Gunner.

Cue pandemonium, which was doubled as Gabriel Jesus slipped through before sending Diogo Dalot sliding into the next postcode with a chop, before he calmly dispatched his finish to secure a 3-1 win for Mikel Arteta’s men.

United saw an Alejandro Garnacho goal struck off for offside after a VAR intervention, while new signing Rasmus Højlund was aggrieved not to be awarded a penalty after a tussle saw him end up on the turf.

Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said: “All told it was a good weekend for us in the Premier League, as a few big results went our way. Arsenal’s late, dramatic win over United unsurprisingly topped the overall turnover table for the weekend, and Arteta’s men were the punters’ pick as that one left us in the red as the worst result of the Premier League game week.”

Bet365’s Steve Freeth was less enthused than his counterpart, telling EGR it was “simply a weekend to forget” for the bookmaker.

Freeth said: “What a brilliant way to go into the first international break of the season – unless you’re a bookmaker.

“Arsenal’s late show against Manchester United concluded a miserable Premier League coupon. Admittedly, we were hanging onto a 1-1 with two VAR decisions going our way and while Declan Rice’s goal was frustrating, the third from Gabriel Jesus had us shaking our heads in disbelief.

“Saka’s 81st minute shot on target, along with Rashford’s in the first half, had 6/4 Super Boost backers collecting and bet builder backers were in clover with how the game played out.”

Saturday saw Chelsea’s woes continue after the West London side (2/5) fell to a 1-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest thanks to an Anthony Elanga goal. The Blues billion-pound squad is looking more like Championship than Champions League challengers at this rate.

Brighton (8/5) bounced back from their 3-1 loss to West Ham to hand Newcastle a third defeat in four games by the same scoreline. An Evan Ferguson hattrick sealed all three points before a Callum Wilson consultation goal gave the Geordies something to cheer.

In less positive news for the layers, Erling Haaland also found the net three times in Manchester City’s (1/6) 5-1 demolition of Fulham while Spurs (evens) shook off League Cup disappointment to beat Burnley 5-2 at Turf Moor.

Betway’s Chad Yeomans said: “Chelsea and their very expensive squad failing to get past Forest at home pleased our traders greatly and busted many weekend accas. On the other hand, there just seems to be no stopping Manchester City and Erling Haaland, the big Norwegian’s hattrick against Fulham is making the Haaland Anytime punt seem like a given pay day for punters each week.”

Freeth added: “Manchester City’s 5-1 winning scoreline had a big red minus number next to it, as did Spurs’ impressive win at Burnley, even Nottingham Forest’s win at Chelsea was a loser. Brighton’s 3-1 win over Newcastle a rare result for us in the English top-flight.”

Betfred’s Alan Firkins gave his thoughts on the early lay of the land heading into the first international intermission of the season.

Firkins said: “The promoted clubs are finding life difficult, but it’s far too early to get despondent – isn’t it? Champions Manchester City are four from four, and Mr Haaland now has his fifth Premier League hattrick.

“Spurs, West Ham, Liverpool, Brighton and Arsenal can also be absolutely delighted with their early progress. The latest Premier League odds read as City 4/9, Liverpool 7/1, Arsenal 7/1, Tottenham 20/1, and it’s 33s bar.”

Continental success for the punters could also be found as Jude Bellingham scored his fifth goal of the season in stoppage time to give Real Madrid a 2-1 win over Getafe.

Barcelona, Bayern Munich and PSG all notched wins over the weekend, while the interest in Inter Miami thanks to Mr Messi has seen bookies face the brunt of his brilliance.

Freeth continued: “Jude Bellingham continues to be a pain in the backside. I saw him score his first goal in professional football when he scored against Stoke City in 2019 and now, he can’t stop scoring since joining Real Madrid.

“He’s now shortened from 20/1 into 10/11 to score 15 or more this season and 100/1 into 12/1 to be La Liga’s top scorer after his fifth goal of the campaign.”

Francisco Cano, LiveScore Group head of trading, added: “It was a bittersweet feeling this last weekend with amazing results on Saturday for us but great results for customers on Sunday with the majority of the favs winning their soccer matches across all European top leagues.

“We still saw a good margin on the EPL and the Championship but didn’t find the same level of success in the rest of the European leagues.”

On Messi, Freeth noted: “The mercurial Argentine hasn’t just gone there for a holiday with Miami’s punter fanbase growing week on week, and we’re certainly feeling the force of it right now. Arguably, we haven’t reacted enough to his arrival.”

In horseracing, 7/4 favourite Aablan gave trainer Charlie Appleby the take the Solario Stakes at Sandown after battling back against a strong field.

Aablan was able to get the better of 22/1-shot Inishfallen to follow up his winning debut at Newmarket last month.

Gill said: “At Sandown on Saturday, the Solario Stakes went the way of 7/4 favourite Aablan, who just about got his head down ahead of 22/1 shot Inishfallen. Despite that, we managed to finish nicely ahead as punters looked to oppose the favourite, in what was overall a good weekend of results across the board.”

Looking to next weekend, Firkins remarked: “The glittering Champions weekend beckons in Ireland, and King Of Steel is 7/4 to stick it to Epsom Derby winner Auguste Rodin (7/2) in the Irish Champion Stakes. Nashwa, an impressive running-on second in York’s Juddmonte, is 5/1.”

Finally, over in the US, tennis action caught Betway’s Yeomans eye as Novak Djokovic showed his star quality to battle back from two sets down.

Yeomans said: “Our tennis traders had a mixed weekend with initial excitement that Novak Djokovic was on his way out of the US Open after finding himself two sets down to fellow Serb Laslo Djere. However, Djokovic had other plans, and for the eighth time is his career fought back to win in five and is now odds on at 17/20 to go on and win his 24th Grand Slam title.

“Better news for us came out of Flushing Meadows on Sunday evening as Polish top seed Iga Swiatek lost 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to Latvian 20th seed Ostapenko who now goes on to face American sixth seed Coco Guaff,” he added.