Weekend Review: Punters perplexed as Premier League provides further upsets

It was another weekend for the layers in the Premier League as several title contenders stuttered including Manchester United with an unlikely home defeat. United (4/11) fell to a 1-0 loss at Old Trafford to Aston Villa (7/1) thanks to a late Kortney Hause goal, which came moments before Bruno Fernandes stepped ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo to blast a last-minute penalty over the bar. In-form Liverpool (4/11) travelled to newly promoted Brentford (13/2) for the Saturday evening game and headed back to Merseyside with just one point after a scintillating 3-3 draw following a heroic performance from the Bees. Brentford took the lead through Ethan Pinnock before goals from Diogo Jota and Mo Salah made it 2-1. Vitaly Janet clawed the game back to 2-2, but moments later Liverpool’s Curtis Jones struck to make it 3-2. A late goal from summer signing Yoane Wissa made it a six-goal thriller for the home fans to remember on their first season in the Premier League. Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said: “Another layers’ weekend in the Premier League as we came out ahead in eight of the nine games played. “Very tough to split the best result of the match round, but by the smallest of margins we enjoyed Manchester United’s defeat to Villa the most, very closely followed by Liverpool drawing with a hugely impressive Brentford.” Elsewhere, in what could be a pivotal result in the title race, Manchester City (13/8) got revenge on Chelsea (19/10) for three consecutive defeats, including the Champions League final, to gain a psychological edge at the early stage of the season.

Very important win today! A lot of sacrifice and personality from everyone. Let’s go @mancity 👊🏼🦈🔵⚪️ pic.twitter.com/gjHIyg9Fp7

— Rúben Dias (@rubendias) September 25, 2021

Gabriel Jesus’ deflected effort was enough to secure a 1-0 win for Pep Guardiola’s men to send them level on points with the Blues. Gill said: “With Chelsea being the well backed home team, no BTTS and the solitary one goal in the game, even Manchester City winning was a great result for the book this weekend.” Betway saw the fixture differently according to PR manager Chad Yeomans. He said: “The weekend didn’t get off to the best of starts when the well-backed Manchester City beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. “However, a handful of draws and Aston Villa’s late winner at Manchester United, meant that it was an okay weekend in the end.” Betfred’s Alan Firkins commented: “Not often you get to back Manchester City in a football match at 2/1, but that’s exactly what Betfred customers did in their droves as we stuck our necks out on Saturday morning. “Manchester United, and Liverpool, certainly helped somewhat but City was a very bad result for us. They’re in to evens to retain their Premier crown, after a terrific statement victory at the Bridge.” At the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Anthony Joshua was cheered on by a raucous home crowd in his heavyweight championship bout against Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk but ultimately failed to retain his title after losing on points. Usyk showed why he is rated as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world as he snatched Joshua’s belts in North London. With his victory, the Ukrainian has set up a potentially mouth-watering fight against Tyson Fury, who faces Deontay Wilder on 9 October in their third match-up.

🗣 "Probably in the ninth, from the ninth round I couldn't see"

Anthony Joshua explains what went wrong as he was beaten by a glorious display of skill from Oleksandr Usyk in their pulsating world heavyweight championship fight at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/NbeZENsSY7

— Sky Sports Boxing (@SkySportsBoxing) September 26, 2021

Gill said: “Although we did make a profit it on it, perhaps a slight perceived lack of value on AJ, along with a few doubts about his superiority over Usyk, meant that the margin was minimal and punters weren’t a million miles off the mark on that one.” Yeomans added: “AJ was 2/5 to get the job done against the 2/1-shot Usyk, but he was simply outboxed, in what was a terrific performance by the Ukrainian. “Plenty of punters felt AJ would need to win to set up the long-awaited fight with Tyson Fury, which now looks further away than ever.” In golf, Team USA strolled to an impressive 19-9 victory over their European rivals in the Ryder Cup on home soil. The Americans were strong favourites at 4/9 heading into the rescheduled tournament in Wisconsin, and there was very little joy for the bookies following the hammering.

An emotional Rory McIlroy after his singles victory.#TeamEurope #RyderCup pic.twitter.com/nhvkUlVV5V

— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 26, 2021

Gill said: “[The] US team looked the strongest assembled in a long time, were priced up as the short price favourites, and duly delivered a history-making 19-9 victory over the Europeans. “With so much going to script, we were always going to struggle to come out ahead, and so it proved as punters took this year’s Ryder Cup comfortably.” William Hill’s Rupert Adams concluded: “The Ryder Cup was definitely the high point for punters – the discrepancy in the world ranking had punters from all over backing team USA and we took a pounding just like the European team.”