Weekend Review: South Coast sides stun City and Spurs

Brighton (5/2) came from behind to beat Manchester City (1/1) 2-1 to hand Pep Guardiola’s side their second successive league loss, with bookmakers coming out on top heading into the first international break of the season.

Erling Haaland gave the visitors the lead before James Milner equalised from the penalty spot against his former side, becoming the second oldest goalscorer in Premier League history. Brajan Gruda’s 89th minute strike was enough to secure the comeback win for Seagulls.  

In another display of South Coast superiority, Bournemouth (11/4) beat Spurs 1-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, handing Thomas Frank his first defeat since taking charge of the club.  

In the weekend’s headline fixture, Liverpool (7/5) edged out Arsenal 1-0 in a tense affair at Anfield, thanks to a stunning free kick from Dominik Szoboszlai.  

Betfred’s Alan Firkins explained how the game has altered odds for the Premier League title winners. 

He said: “Some of the chat ahead of Anfield, and champions Liverpool’s clash with bitter rivals Arsenal, was about the Premier League already looking like a two-horse race.  

“After once again arguably accentuating survival over victory, Arsenal missed out on both courtesy of a sublime Dominik Szoboszlai free kick in the dying embers from every inch of 30 yards. 

“Some of those same voices were now crowning the 100% Scousers after just three matches – a tad premature of course but our traders have the champs at 11/8 for a repeat, it’s now 15/8 the Gunners, and a huge-looking 7/1 bar.” 

Manchester United (2/5) secured their first win of the season, beating Burnley 3-2 courtesy of a 96th minute penalty from Bruno Fernandes.  

Both Crystal Palace (11/5) and West Ham (4/1) secured their first league wins of the campaign with 3-0 away wins at Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest, respectively.  

FDJ UNITED’s Ali Gill explained how the operator came out on top from the weekend’s Premier League action. 

He said: “Another good weekend in the Premier League as we managed to come out ahead in all 10 games. Liverpool’s narrow win on Sunday afternoon was of course the headline and, with just the one goal and a very very quiet Mo Salah, that was a great result for the book.  

“However, the biggest cheers from the trading room came for Brighton and Bournemouth, whose wins over City and Spurs, respectively, were the best two results we saw, while Newcastle’s 0-0 bore draw at Leeds wasn’t far behind.” 

Alex Firth, senior trader at Midnite, added: “A dramatic turnaround at the Amex Stadium saw Man City falter again. Having gone 1-0 up courtesy of Erling Haaland, they went into cruise mode. A James Milner penalty and a very cool finish from Brajan Gruda completed a turnaround for the Seagulls in the 89th minute, which they had been as big as 16/1 in-play to do. 

Bet365’s Steve Freeth said it was the operator’s “best weekend of the season” in the Premier League, although there was tougher results to swallow on the continent.

He added: “This was our best weekend of the season to date with Manchester City losing, Newcastle held, Liverpool versus Arsenal producing just one goal and Spurs, Forest and Villa beaten at home to nil.

“While we entered the first international break on the back of a profitable Premier League coupon, we suffered losses in Europe on Saturday night before a late fightback in Spain and Italy on Sunday.”

On the relegation battle, BoyleSports’ Brian O’Keeffe said: “Burnley remain strong favourites to go down (3/10) despite a battling performance at Old Trafford, while Sunderland, who have picked up two wins from their opening three matches, remain odds-on to be relegated at 5/6. Wolves, who are now winless after three matches, are also among the favourites to go down, while Leeds are a 2/1 shot to be relegated after a 0-0 draw against Newcastle.”

Across Europe, Real Madrid (4/25) maintained their flawless start to the season with a 2-1 win at home to Mallorca and despite a penalty from Lamine Yamal, Barcelona were held to a 1-1 draw away at Rayo Vallecano.  

In Germany, Bayern Munich (7/25) ran out 3-2 winners away at Augsburg, while Borussia Dortmund won 3-0 at home to Union Berlin.  

Bayer Leverkusen conceded in the last minute to draw 3-3 away at Werder Bremen, in what would prove to be manager Erik ten Hag’s last game in charge of the club.  

In Italy, Inter Milan (1/4) succumbed to a shock 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Udinese.  

There were away wins for Juventus (17/20) and AC Milan (3/5) against Genoa and Lecce, respectively, while defending champions Napoli (2/5) won 1-0 at home to Cagliari.  

In France, PSG (3/10)  made it three wins from three with a 6-3 victory away at Toulouse.  

Regarding results across Europe, Freeth added: “ Saturday’s Bundesliga coupon may have read four winning favourites from five but not at bet365 as we paid out on 10/11 Bayer Leverkusen after they went 2-0 up at Bremen making it a full house. 

“There was a raft of goals in Ligue 1 with 23/20 Lille and 1/3 PSG winning 7-1 and 6-3, respectively, and in Italy we had 2/5 hotpots Napoli winning in injury time, as well as victories for 8/11 Roma and 5/6 Juventus. However, 2/5 Inter suffered a surprise home defeat to 9/1 Udinese on Sunday with Keinan Davis on the scoresheet.

“In La Liga, it was Atlético Madrid to the rescue again with the 7/10 shots still waiting for their first win, and then 2/5 Barcelona dropping their first points of the season when drawing 1-1 with Rayo Vallecano to scupper a number of accumulators.” 

Gill added: “In La Liga, a 1-1 draw for Barcelona at Rayo Vallecano came in as our best result across the weekend, while in Serie A, Inter losing to Udinese was another tough one for punters.”

Meanwhile, in horseracing, 2/1 favourite A Bit of Spirit came out on top in the Solario Stakes at Sandown.

The Rossa Ryan-ridden winner beat out Humidity (11/4) and Oceans Four (25/1).  

At Berverley, Shagraan (15/2) emerged victorious in the Beverley Bullet Sprint Stakes ahead of Adrestia (9/4) and Star of Lady M (22/1).