Are West Ham still flying in the Europa League?

The Hammers are strolling through the Europa League group stages and have one foot in the knockout round already after their third win in three games, all without conceding a goal. David Moyes’ side overcame a slow start to score three times in 13 minutes either side of half-time to wrap up a 3-0 win over Genk. They are six points clear at the top of Group H with a perfect 9 points, 6 clear of the other three teams, all level on 3 points.

Headed Goal Minutes (settled at 102)

As we pointed out yesterday, we’d seen some buying in the Headed Goal Minutes market, with West Ham’s central defenders a threat at set pieces, and Genk including highly-rated 6ft7 striker Paul Onuachu. Buyers almost got their reward in the first half when Onuachu, who scored 29 goals in 33 games last season and has been compared to Romelu Lukaku, beat home keeper Alphonse Areola to the ball but saw his header go wide of the open goal. However, just like on Sunday at Everton, it was a Hammers centre-half who opened the scoring in first half injury time, Craig Dawson looping home a header from Aaron Cresswell’s cross. And 12 minutes after the break, Dawson’s partner at the back Issa Diop repeated the trick, again from a cross from left-back Cresswell. Buyers of the spread, set at 37-40, made 62 times their bet.

Are Spurs doing the same in the Europa Conference?

Tottenham aren’t enjoying the same sort of success in the lesser Europa competition, though they remain top of Group G on goal difference after losing 1-0 at Vitesse Arnhem. Nuno Espirito Santo named a completely new team from the one that won at Newcastle on Sunday, with big names like Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min left at home. Despite still having nine full internationals on show, Spurs never really got going and Vitesse, who finished 4^th in the Dutch league last season, deserved the 1-0 win given to them by Max Wittek’s volley. Still, it could have been worse. Ex-Spurs boss Jose Mourinho saw his new side, Roma, thrashed 6-1 by Norwegian minnows Bodo/Glimt, his heaviest defeat as a manager.

Cross-Bookings (settled at 1200)

While Spurs produced a pretty lifeless performance, they did at least do their bit for buyers of the Cross-Bookings market by having four of their players yellow carded. The Cross-Bookings market awards 10 points per booking, 25 for a sending off, and multiplies one team’s total by the other. Spurs managed to accrue four yellow cards and Vitesse three to settled this market at 1200, locking up a profit of 615 times their stake for those that bought the pre-match spread of 505-585.

How’s Andy Murray getting on after his marathon match the other day?

Murray is out of the European Open after a straight sets loss to Diego Schwartzman, though he blamed a poor attitude rather than anything physical after his 7-6 6-7 7-6 3 hour 45 minute slog to beat Frances Tiafoe in the 1^st round. Schwartzman has now played Murray, new British number 1 Cameron Norrie and the man he took over from, Dan Evans, in the just over a week, with Norrie the only one to get the better of the Argentine on his way to Indian Wells glory. Murray started well, but from 4-1 up in the first set he lost it 6-4. The second looked like going the opposite way, Murray fighting back from 4-2 down to force a tiebreak, but the world number 14 prevailed.

Match Supremacy (Sch/Mur settled at 20)

This match was priced up very close to a pick ‘em, with Murray fans pointing to the fact that he was victorious in Antwerp two years ago having come back from surgery. Realistically though, competing against a top 16 player when not fully fit, never mind having come off a 3 hour 45 marathon two days earlier, is a big ask, and the Schwartzman backers were rewarded when the younger man got through the second set tiebreak for a straight sets win. The Match Supremacy index awards 10 points to the winner and 5 point per set won by, so with the spread set at Mur/Sch 0-4, sellers at 0 made 20 times their stake.