Weekend Review: City close in on title in bumper weekend for the bookies

Manchester City strengthened their stance as champions-elect after a 1-0 victory over Chelsea in what was a bumper weekend for operators.

A stunner from Kevin de Bruyne put the champions, who had been odds of 3/5 versus Chelsea, 13 points ahead of Thomas Tuchel’s side, leaving Liverpool as the only credible challengers to the Citizens following their 3-0 win over Brentford.

With Arsenal successfully postponing the North London Derby following a request to the Premier League, Leeds rose to the occasion on Super Sunday with a surprise 3-2 win over Champions League-chasing West Ham.

A hat-trick from Jack Harrison at the London Stadium saw Leeds (4/1) secure their first win over the Hammers since the Yorkshire club’s return to the Premier League.

💪 Winning in London! pic.twitter.com/GfJlosxs00

— Leeds United (@LUFC) January 16, 2022

Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said: “A layers’ weekend in the Premier League as results largely went our way. Leeds’ 3-2 win away to West Ham was our best result of the match round and came in as our second-best result of the weekend overall.

“The heavyweight clash between City and Chelsea was our best turnover event of the weekend, and although City got the win, the solitary goal meant that we came out nicely ahead overall,” he added.

Janis Strauts, Virgin Bet head of trading, revealed to EGR that the weekend of sporting action was the busiest of the season for the bookies.

He said: “A full schedule of football on Saturday across of Europe’s top leagues was responsible for the majority of our big turnover, even surpassing Boxing Day numbers.

“Results turned out to be favourable for the books, and in fact made up over 70% of the overall profit across all sports,” he added.

Elsewhere, Norwich (5/2) gave their relegation hopes a boost and Everton boss Rafa Benítez the boot after a 2-1 win at Carrow Road while Aston Villa, inspired by new signing Philippe Coutinho clawed back from 2-0 down to a 2-2 draw against Manchester United.

The dream debut for Philippe Coutinho. 😍 pic.twitter.com/kIh4xuH5HS

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) January 15, 2022

Betfred’s Alan Firkins said: “Lots of cheer for the books over the weekend in the Premier League, with strong fancies Man Utd and Newcastle only drawing, while Everton and West Ham fared even worse. The Toffees’ demise at Norwich cost Rafa Benitez his job, and whoever takes over has a tough old assignment at Goodison.”

Betway’s Chad Yeomans said: “Norwich put in a much-improved performance against Everton earning them a 2-1 victory, which was a good result for the book, despite that correct score line being a ‘Betway Boost’.

“It seemed as if we were about to have another good result as a friendless Manchester United, who opened up at 5/4 and went off at 13/8, went two goals up, but yet again, another spineless second half performance meant Villa were able to get back into the game and earned a point.

“Villa were well backed from 9/4 into 13/8, while the draw, a result that had only happen twice in the past 17 Premier League meetings between these two sides, was also a fairy popular selection at 12/5.”

Elsewhere in horseracing, layers were also happy, with William Hill’s Rupert Adams labelling the weekend as “full of bookie-friendly results”.

What a race! 😅

Cobblers Dream wins the Coral Lanzarote Hurdle 🙌

A huge win for Ben Case and Jack Quinlan 👏

Let us know if you had the winner 👇 pic.twitter.com/VoqfQSFLDJ

— Coral (@Coral) January 15, 2022

Cobblers Dream won the Lanzarote Handicap Hurdle at Kemptown after starting out at 10/1 as fancied runners Green Book and Marie’s Rock were upended by the falling Ch’tibello.

Gill said: “In the Lanzarote at Kempton on Saturday, Cobblers Dream won comfortably at 10/1. With the places filled with some big prices, and the joints favs Marie’s Rock and Green Book both failing to finish, a good overall result for the book.”