Is Liverpool red or blue?

Liverpool thrashed Merseyside rivals Everton 4-1 at Goodison Park to keep their title challenge on track and plunge the Blues into crisis. The Toffees have generally remained competitive with Liverpool, especially at home, where 8 or the last 10 derbies have been drawn, but this game was men against boys as Jurgen Klopp’s side looked like scoring every time they came forward. As it was, Jordan Henderson opened the scoring after nine minutes before Mo Salah got his customary couple of goals, and Diogo Jota added a fourth. Demarai Gray had given home fans some hope by pulling it back to 2-1 before half-time, but Everton were outclassed from start to finish and the pressure on Rafa Benitez, of course a former Liverpool manager, grows by the day.

Goals x Corners x Bookings (settled at 4900)

This was a derby with a bit of everything, including goals, corners and bookings, which is a recipe for big winnings for buyers in this market! Liverpool have scored at least two goals in 18 straight games now, and could have scored a lot more than four with the chances they created. With 14 corners and seven bookings thrown in, it was a good day for buyers of Goals x Corners x Bookings. The spread was set at 1250-1400, meaning buyers won 3500 times their stake!

Did Claudio Ranieri get one over on his old club when Watford faced Chelsea?

Watford gave as good as they got, going down to a narrow 2-1 home defeat against Chelsea that had visiting manager Thomas Tuchel admitting was a bit lucky. Mason Mount scored the opener and set up the winner for substitute Hakim Ziyech, with the impressive Emmanuel Dennis having pegged the Premier League leaders back just before half-time with his fourth goal in five games.

Multi-Bookings (settled at 1200)

With four yellow cards being flashed in the first half, and another three in the second, buyers of Multi-Bookings made a tidy profit. The spread was set at 265-335, with Chelsea expected to head to Vicarage Road and take the three points without getting out of first gear. As played though, Watford showed plenty of fight, and the Blues knew they were in a game for the full 90 minutes. Buyers of the Multi-Bookings spread won 865 times their bet.

Is the title battle still a three horse race?

Manchester City kept up with Chelsea and Liverpool with an impressive 2-1 win at Aston Villa. Steven Gerrard has transformed Villa and made them much harder to beat, but he couldn’t make it three wins a row to start his tenure. Bernardo Silva volleyed in a goal fit to win any game to give City the points that leaves them in second place in the Premier League, one point behind Chelsea and one ahead of Liverpool. Ruben Dias opened the scoring with a curler from the edge of the box before Silva scored one of the goals of the season as City hit Villa on the break. Ollie Watkins got one back straight after half-time but City held on comfortably.

Cross-Bookings (settled at 0)

We told in yesterday’s blog how we’d seen buying in various bookings markets ahead of last night’s game, but despite Gerrard’s aggressive pressing tactics, this was a game with few bad tackles and one in which referee Mike Dean kept his cards in his pocket. It was the sellers in the bookings markets that therefore made the money in this game, all finishing at 0. The spread for Cross-Bookings, which is made up of Villa booking points multiplied by City’s, was set at 410-470, so sellers made the maximum 410 times their stake.