James Tavernier picks up the ball miles away from goal as he looks to find a way to help Rangers into the lead at St Johnstone - What Happens Next?

FOOTBALL

There were mixed fortunes for English clubs in Europe this week, but the question now is how will their midweek exertions affect the weekend’s Premier League action?

Leaders Manchester United travelled to Switzerland, and played he majority of the game with 10 men, suffering the gut wrenching concession of a late winner to Young Boys to make matters worse.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men had taken the lead through returning hero Ronaldo, but after Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s red card, they decided to go into all out defend mode, and their resistance was breached twice, the second time in the 95^th minute.

Solskjaer now has to pick up his men mentally as well as physically for their third game in eight days against West Ham, and we’re industry best price 17/20 that they bounce back with a win.

Buoyant West Ham, who had a much more pleasant European midweek break, are 18/5 to end United record 28-match unbeaten away record.

The Hammers negotiated a tricky trip to Croatia with the ease of seasoned campaigners, beating Dinamo Zagreb 2-0, with goals from Michail Antonio and Declan Rice.

Former Red Devils boss David Moyes was able to bring off some of his players with one eye on United as his side shut the game down, although the absence of striker Antonio, serving a one-match suspension, will hit them hard.

United are expected to get 24 more points than West Ham on our Premier League Points spreads – United’s spread is 77-78.5, West Ham’s 53-54.5) and it will be interesting to see if they can press home that advantage on Sunday.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Chelsea, who are level on points at the top of the table with United, head across London to take on Spurs, who have gone from league leaders to crisis in the space of a week!

Chelsea are best price 3/4 to take the three points back to West London, while Spurs are 17/4, amost 4/1 for a team at home who were going to win the league last week!

It’s not expected to be a high-scoring encounter, with a spread of 2.4-2.6 Total Goals, but that’s mainly down to the fact Chelsea don’t ever seem to concede these days. Can Harry Kane, anonymous last week, change that? His Player Goal Minutes spread is 13-16, low for a man with his scoring record, but can he breach that brick wall of a Chelsea back line?

Nuno Espirito Santo headed to his first London derby, at Crystal Palace, last Saturday with his team sat on top of the table with a perfect nine points from nine.

Fast forward 90 minutes and Tottenham had been played off the park by Palace, their injury list had grown and Japhet Tanganga’s red card added to the list of those unavailable.

Punters predicting more disciplinary trouble in this game, which is always a bit spicy, will be buying the bookings spread at 44-48. Remember, that spread awards 10 points per yellow card and 25 for a red.

Nuno picked his players up to face Rennes in the hard-to-get-up-for Europa Conference League on Thursday, and while they showed some spirit to claim a draw from 2-1 down, Spurs had been gifted the lead by an own goal before allowing the French side to take over.

Worse still for Nuno, Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn both went off injured, leaving the Spurs boss with a headache in attacking positions as well as at centre half. He does seem to have plenty of defensive midfielders however, and he’s not afraid of playing them, all of them!

Chelsea, meanwhile, enjoyed a home victory over Zenit St Petersburg in the Champions League. A solid first half was followed by an upping of the intensity, and sure enough, Romelu Lukaku grabbed the only goal of the game while the ever-reliant backline stood strong in the face of any Zenit riposte.

Saturday’s action is highlighted by Liverpool’s home game with new-look Palace. The Reds are as short as 1/4 to take the three points, (and remember that’s the best price in the industry) despite Palace’s impressive 3-0 win against Spurs last time out.

If you fancy Patrick Vieira to continue his revolution, you can have 14/1 about the away win!

The Reds had a ding-dong battle with AC Milan in their midweek Champions League encounter at Anfield, but after coming out on top by the odd goal in five in front of their adoring fans, Liverpool will be happy to play as many games as they can while they’re in this form.

Odsonne Edouard, the new hero of Selhurst Park after his late double last week, has a goals minute spread of just 9-12, though do remember he needs to start the game for the bet to count, and last week he did the damage off the bench. Sadio Mane’s Goal Minutes (27-30) catch the eye for Liverpool, given he missed at least 10 decent chances before getting his goal late against Leeds last weekend.

Pep has intimated he wants Manchester City’s fans to play their part against Southampton on Saturday, but the way City are playing, he could probably pick a couple of them to play centre half and still win this game.

City smashed RB Leipzig 6-3 in the Champions League, and that followed back-to-back 5-0 wins in their previous two Premier League home games; can they make it three 5-0s in a row?

They’re 1/6 to win the game (Southampton are 20/1!) and 12/1 to complete the hattrick of 5-0 victories!

Of course, the football action starts with the Friday night game between Newcastle and Leeds.

Neither side has collected their win bonus so far this season and second-bottom Newcastle are now predicted to finish in the bottom three, according to our season points totals spread, with just 33-34.5 points.

Leeds haven’t fared much better, standing 4^th bottom with two points, but they have had tougher games and don’t seem to be in half as much of a crisis as Steve Bruce’s side. Their season spread is 48-49.5.

The visitors are favourites to head back to Yorkshire with the three points tonight, best price 7/5, while you can have Newcastle, should anyone want them, at 21/10.

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HORSE RACING

Away from football, the big race of the weekend is the Ayr Gold Cup.

For the first time in nearly two years, a full house will be there screaming on the 25 runners on a day that really does say ‘racing is back’ in Scotland.

Scotland’s premier flat race is regarded by some as impossible to solve, and there’s been some big priced winners in the past. It’s Great Ambassador, third behind Commanche Falls in the Steward’s Cup at Glorious Goodwood, who heads the field this year, but don’t be surprised if an outsider comes to the fore.

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RUGBY UNION

A new domestic rugby season gets underway on Friday night, and it’s the return of an old team that is taking all the headlines.

Saracens, one of the most successful teams in English rugby history, have served their time in the Championship, having been relegated for breaching the salary cap, and are straight back into the Gallagher Premiership and starring in the live TV game on the first night of the season.

They go to Bristol, who topped the Premiership table in the regular season last time around, in a stiff test of how good this Saracens team is.

Without any European commitments, Sarries are expected to be serious challengers once again for the title, but Bristol will be out to take them down a peg or two as soon as the season begins.

Exeter (15/8) are favourites to win the Grand Final again, but Saracens are second favourites at 12/5 and Bristol next in the betting at 5/1. Punters who think Sarries will at least make the final can buy their spread (20-23) in the Grand Final Index in the knowledge that they’ll make 2 times their stake if Saracens lose the final and 27 times it if they win. Though if Sarries fail to make the big day, they’ll lose 23 times their stake.

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CRICKET

Cricket fans await the resumption of the IPL, with Sunday’s game between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians kicking off the action after a four-month delay.

Mumbai have won the last two titles, but after an indifferent start, will need to up their game once the action gets back underway. They are narrow favourites to win this game with a spread of 1-9, where each run won by counts 1 or wicket won by counts 10.

Any team with Jasprit Bumrah in it always stands a chance, and while Delhi Capitals (5/2 favourites) stand atop the standings so far with six wins in eight, Mumbai (7/2) look to be the real danger once again. A victory against second favourites Chennai (9/4) in this opener could be crucial to mounting a challenge.

Johnny Bairstow, Chris Woakes and Dawid Malan have all made themselves unavailable for the resumption of the IPL, but nine England players are still involved, including Moeen Ali and Sam Curran of Chennai, though Curran may miss this first game due to quarantine.

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*Prices subject to change