Weekend Review: Giant killings few and far between in FA Cup as Liverpool edge out Arsenal
Majority of Premier League outfits get the job done in FA Cup third round with favourites Liverpool and Man City progressing as West Ham and Forest held to draws
An FA Cup third round weekend without any major giant killings went the way of the punters but a few surprise draws gave the bookies a boost.
Three Premier League outfits nearly saw their journey in the cup end at the first hurdle with West Ham United, Nottingham Forest and Luton Town all drawing against lower league opposition.
League One Blackpool (11/2) took a shock 2-0 lead on the road against Forest (9/20) thanks to goals from Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel and Albie Morgan, before Nicolas Dominguez pulled a goal back before the break and Morgan Gibbs-White levelled the score 10 minutes into the second half.
West Ham (9/20) were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Bristol City (6/1) while it was a dour 0-0 between Luton (7/10) and Bolton (5/1)
The biggest game of the weekend was Arsenal (6/5) versus Liverpool (11/5) on Sunday afternoon, with Jurgen Klopp’s side running out 2-0 winners in London after the Gunners were wasteful in front of goal.
Liverpool made the home team rue their missed chances when a Trent Alexander-Arnold free-kick was headed into his own net by defender Jakub Kiwior with 10 minutes remaining.
Luis Diaz’s finish in the 95th minute put a cherry on top to send Liverpool into the next round of the cup.
Bet365’s Steve Freeth said: “It was an FA Cup Saturday of very few surprises with bet365 customers taking advantage of the Soccer Acca Boost as many of the fancied teams progressed to the Fourth round.
“But we fell in love with the famous old competition again on Sunday as West Ham, Forest and Luton all failed to see off lower league opposition, although we did pay on Blackpool thanks to our 2 Goals Ahead Early Payout offer.”
On Liverpool’s triumph, Kindred Group’s Sam Farley said: “Arsenal versus Liverpool was obviously the big game of the weekend and caught the customers’ imaginations. It wasn’t the best result for bookies but you’d have to say there was a lot of value for punters betting on Liverpool at what was a big price.”
LiveScore Group head of trading Francisco Cano added: “This weekend saw a routine FA Cup third round with a large majority of the favourites progressing to the next round and plenty of goals being scored.
“The biggest event of the weekend was the Arsenal versus Liverpool game that resulted in a decent margin for us, thanks to the number of goals, corners and shots on target.”
There’s still one fixture left in the FA Cup, with struggling Manchester United travelling to Wigan Athletic on Monday night, with a potential upset not out of the realms of possibility.
Betfred’s Alan Firkins added: “The fourth-round draw will take place just before tonight’s remaining outstanding tie between Manchester United and Wigan – a potential DW Stadium banana-skin, with the League One side sure to be suitably fired up.
“In the outrights, Villa and Brighton, both 16/1, and West Ham, 33s, are sides I’d want to keep on the right side of. Half-decent draws and they’re exactly the kind of teams that could go all the way.”
On the continent, bet365 added that it had a poor weekend in Spain as all the favourites won, including Barcelona and Real Madrid, and had Italian club Fiorentina beaten Sassuolo, it would have been worse for the operator.
Freeth explained: “It was a pretty miserable Saturday in the Copa del Rey as well with a clean sweep of favourites doing the business and things would’ve been a lot worse had in-form Fiorentina beaten struggling Sassuolo in Serie A, so take a bow the two Andrea’s – Pinamonti for his match-winning strike and Consigli for saving Giacomo Bonaventura’s penalty.”
Elsewhere, Farley said Kindred Group punters got “stuck in” to the Roma versus Atalanta game, which ended 1-1 on Sunday evening.
Finally, Farley also lifted the lid on Kindred’s US-facing sporting weekend. He said: “US sports bettors also looked to get their last week of regular season action in on the NFL. As usual, plenty of upsets and some great games, although an odds boost featuring both Jonathan Taylor and Nico Collins to score in the Colts Texans game didn’t give us the best reading on Sunday morning.”