Weekend Review: Haaland’s Derby Day double sinks United 

Manchester City (3/5) beat Manchester United 3-0 in the weekend’s headline Premier League fixture, as favourites across the board mainly delivered for punters.

Phil Foden opened the scoring for the home side, before a double from Erling Haaland compounded the misery for the red half of Manchester.  

Liverpool (3/10) produced another late show as Mo Salah’s 95th minute penalty was enough to see off 10-man Burnley, with a 0-0 draw that seemed all but secured leaving the bookies beaming.

North London clubs enjoyed a fruitful weekend as Arsenal (2/5) ran out 3-0 winners at home to Nottingham Forest, with rivals Tottenham (6/5) repeating the same scoreline away at West Ham.  

Brentford produced a last-gasp equaliser to hold Chelsea (4/5) to a 2-2 draw at the Gtech Stadium, in what was one of the silver linings for the layers this weekend.

There were home wins all round on Saturday as Bournemouth (3/2) beat Brighton 2-1, while Newcastle (9/25) and Fulham (1/1) came out 1-0 winners against Wolves and Leeds United, respectively.  

The weekend’s Premier League results were completed by a pair of 0-0 draws played out between Everton and Aston Villa and Crystal Palace and Sunderland.

FDJ UNITED’s Ali Gill remarked on an up and down weekend for the operator in terms of the league’s results. 

He said: “Slightly mixed bag across the Premier League at the weekend with punters coming out ahead in a few matches.

“Liverpool’s late, late win via a Salah goal had heads in hands in the trading room as that was a fair swing in favour of players, a great result for the book snatched away by the last kick.

“The Manchester derby had a lot of the things punters were after, with a City win and two Haaland goals, but overall that one finished close enough to level pegging.

“On the opposite side to Liverpool’s win, a 93rd minute equaliser for Brentford against Chelsea was a good swing in our direction as that ended with a nice result for the book.

“North London teams were expensive though, as Arsenal and Spurs’ wins were the worst Premier League results of the week for us.” 

Bet365’s Steve Freeth added: “Not much to cheer about in the bet365 trading room after a tough weekend for us on the domestic front.”

Betfred’s Alan Firkins was slightly more optimistic: “Three draws kept the trading desk interested, especially Brentford’s late leveller against Chelsea at the Gtech, so honours were about even.”

On the title race, BOYLE Sports spokesman Brian O’Keeffe said: ‘Even at this early stage, the Premier League is looking like a two-horse race. Liverpool’s series of smash and grab wins see them at 5/4, just in front of Arsenal at 6/4. Third-favourites Manchester City are out at 7/1 despite their thrashing of local rivals United on Sunday.”

Across in Europe, Barcelona (9/25) ran out 6-0 winners at home to Valencia, which Gill said the was worst result for the operator over the entire weekend.

Despite going down to 10 men, Real Madrid (3/5) maintained their 100% record at the start of the season with a 2-1 win away at Real Sociedad.

Atlético Madrid (3/ 4) picked up their first win of the season following a 2-0 win at home to Villarreal.

In the Bundesliga, Harry Kane scored twice as Bayern Munich (3/50) thrashed Hamburg 5-0 at the Allianz Arena.

Borussia Dortmund (3/5) won 2-0 away at Heidenheim, while nine-man Bayer Leverkusen (23/20) secured their first victory of the campaign with a 3-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt.

In Italy, Juventus (7/4) scored a dramatic injury time winner to beat Inter Milan 4-3 in the Derby d’Italia.

Rasmus Hojlund scored his first goal for Napoli (19/20) since joining on loan from Manchester United, as the reigning champions beat Fiorentina 3-1 away from home.

AC Milan (3/4) beat Bologna 1-0 at the San Siro, with Luka Modric scoring the winner.

In Ligue 1, Champions League holders PSG (9/25) made it four wins from four with a 2-0 home win over Lens.

Freeth noted it was a tough weekend for the bookmaker on the continent.

He said: “The big guns performed well on the continent with wins for 1/16 Bayern Munich, 4/7 Real Madrid and 4/11 PSG, with other high-profile teams like 4/7 Borussia Dortmund, 2/5 Atalanta, 4/5 Milan and 19/20 Napoli obliging with goals from Kevin de Bruyne and Rasmus Hojlund against David de Gea’s Fiorentina.  

“Even 4/5 Atletico Madrid secured their first win of the season for Diego Simeone.

“We were scratching around for beaten short-priced favourites on the European coupon but Simeone’s son, Giovanni, helped us by scoring his first Serie A goal for Torino against 1/2 Roma, along with bits and pieces from Alaves’ 1-0 win over 8/13 Bilbao and Werder Bremen’s hammering of 11/10 Borussia Monchengladbach.

“We could’ve salvaged something in the final game of the weekend had Barcelona stumbled against Valencia. However, the 6-0 victory for the 4/11 favourites kind of told the story of our weekend as we head into a busy Champions League midweek licking our wounds.”

In horseracing, Scandanavia (2/1) romped home in the Betfred St Leger Stakes at Doncaster, beating out Rahiebb (14/1) and Stay True (11/2).

In the process, Aidan O’Brien became the first trainer in modern history to secure three consecutive St Leger winners.

Getreadytorumble (9/2) took victory in the IPM Group Handicap ahead of Duran (11/1) and the favourite Jer Batt (2/1).

In the Champagne Stakes, the Puerto Rico (15/2) won out ahead of Oxagon (13/8) and Cape Orator (9/1).

On the weekend’s horseracing, Betfred’s Alan Firkins said: “There was a fantastic climax to the Betfred St Leger Festival at Doncaster as a packed and animated 27,000 crowd saw Aidan O’Brien’s Scandinavia dig deep to repel all challengers and take the world’s oldest Classic on Town Moor.

“Four days of tremendous flat racing, Oisin Murphy was on fire riding winners for fun, and the masterful O’Brien securing a ninth St Leger. Tom Marquand gave the winner a terrific ride as he just held the late charge of Rahiebb by a fast-diminishing neck.”

Alex Firth, senior trader at Midnite, added: “The best of Sunday’s racing action saw Eve Johnson Houghton’s exciting unbeaten colt, Zavateri, maintain his unbeaten record getting the better of Gstaad by a head.

“Zavateri will be primed for a tilt at the Dewhurst Stakes now before they surely have the 2000 Guineas in their sights for next year. Exciting new stayer Al Riffa took the Irish St Leger in striking fashion and he is now being aimed at the Melbourne Cup.”