The Longshot: Jong shot puts pressure on our return
RETURNING home from a two-week break at the weekend, there was some thoughts of getting the sack swirling around my skull.
No, the bosses probably hadn’t heard of the incident with the inflatable lilo that had ended with me being questioned by the Italian authorities, but they couldn’t have failed to have noticed that my replacement in the hotseat for the past fortnight had tipped an 83/1 winner.
A late Luuk de Jong strike saw his longshot (Jongshot) choice this day last week of the striker to score and PSV Eindhoven to draw 2-2 away to Rangers come in.
It’s almost as if he has ‘psychic’ abilities, picking something so random to click, although he did justify it by pointing out the same score in the fixture last year.
It’s 16/1 for it to end 2-2 again tonight in the Netherlands and 9/2 on de Jong to score the final goal of the game.
I may not be able to pick such precise winners, but at least my pick to temporarily take over in these pages worked out.
What is especially frustrating is that I missed the Rose of Tralee, where bizarrely I’ve got an incredible record in choosing winners (sometimes one cannot have control over their metier).
And what should I be greeted by all across my local area when I arrive back but signs wishing all the best to the New York Rose, whose family hails from the locality.
I don’t know what the price was, but I’m pretty sure I would have tipped her.
Anyhoo, higher-ups in Echo Towers are much more patient and understanding than Premier League office-dwellers thankfully, otherwise I could be out on my ear.
Last season, 14 managers were sacked or departed in the division, with Scott Parker not even making it to September with Bournemouth.
Before this season had even begun, there was the first managerial casualty of the year as Julen Lopetegui left Wolves by mutual consent, to be replaced by former Bournemouth manager Gary O’Neil.
Sean Dyche is now the 3/1 favourite in the sack race betting after Everton’s attacking woes resulted in a third successive Premier League defeat to begin the new season, reinforcing the fact that his short stint in charge already inferior to Frank Lampard’s even before the 1-0 home defeat by Wolves. Everton have gone over 300 minutes without a Premier League goal and they’re 11/8 for relegation, for the first time since 1951.
Sheffield United are also on nil points after three games and Paul Heckingbottom has moved out to 7/2 after the Blades’ narrow defeat to Man City.
The only other sides not to get off the mark are fellow promoted sides Luton and Burnley (who have only played two games and whose game was postponed the weekend before last because Kenilworth Road was not ready to host games).
The Hatters were thumped by Chelsea last Friday evening and their first home game will be in the same slot this week as they face the Hammers, the side with the closest nickname to theirs.
Their boss Rob Edwards is 8/1 to get the chop next but you would imagine the board there will be a bit more patient considering the budget he is working with.
Marco Silva and Steve Cooper began the weekend as 10/1 shots and saw their sides threaten surprise wins away from home, Fulham taking an early lead at Arsenal as Nottingham Forest stunned Manchester United with two goals inside the opening five minutes.
While 10-man Forest eventually succumbed, Cooper’s odds remained relatively stable at 9/1.
Forest are around the 1/4 mark for Premier League survival, a shorter price than Everton under Dyche. Fulham scored early and late to earn a point at the Emirates, a result which saw Silva drift a point to 11/1 as the Gunners were eased to 5/1 in the title betting.
-
WIMBLEDON this summer offered us a final for the ages. The pretender v the king. And the young Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz was the one who was all smiles after smashing home a shot that Novak Djokovic could only return into the net.
The Serb remains one behind Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slams (although 13 of these were before the Open era began in 1968, when the Grand Slam tournaments began allowing professional players to compete with amateurs).
Alcaraz is on two, but will certainly add many more and perhaps surpass all records unless his peers begin catching up or someone younger emerges with his talent and drive - the Spanish world number one, who only turned 20 in May, has lost only six of his 59 matches this season. The US Open that he won last year (and that Djokovic hasn’t claimed since 2018 - only three of his 23 Slam victories have come in Flushing Meadows) began yesterday and he is rated 2/1, having been placed on the tougher side of the draw. Alcaraz has to mix it with the next three in the odds, 2021 winner Daniil Medvedev (11/1 and winner three times on hard courts this year), Jannik Sinner (14/1) and Alexander Zverev (33/1). In his half of the draw. Medvedev could be lurking in the final four, but the Russian’s levels have dipped since Wimbledon. He lost to Alex De Minaur in the quarter-final in Toronto and then in the last 16 in Cincinnati against Zverev. The Serb has an easier route to the final and has been installed as the 13/10 favourite.
At SW19, Djokovic was also favoured by the layers. In a recent encounter at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati when the two renewed their rivalry in a decider and Djokovic came out triumphant despite losing the opening set. However, that contest was played over three sets and the less mobile 36-year-old only narrowly prevailed 5-7 7-6 7-6. Djokovic was unable to compete in last season’s event due to Covid vaccine rules, which made things easier for Alcaraz as he made his Grand Slam breakthrough. On the women’s side, Iga Swiatek (3/1), Aryna Sabalenka (5/1) and Elena Rybakina (10/1) have dominated the betting at the women’s Grand Slam tournaments. For the final major of the year, they have been joined by Coco” Gauff at the top of the betting at 8/1 after the 19-year-old’s triumphs in US hard-court tournaments in Washington DC and Cincinnati and these have seen her price to win her home Slam halved. Wimbledon supremo Marketa Vondrousova is 25/1.
-
Zach Johnson revealed his selections for the Ryder Cup that will begin in Italy in exactly a month’s time. Fair to say it is an embarrassment of riches for the two-time Major winner and some seriously talented golfers will not be travelling on the plane to the venue outside Rome.
Luke Donald has something of the opposite problem and outside the top three of McIlroy, Rahm and Hovland, you’d be hard-pushed to see any of the rest make the US team. Fitzpatrick, Hatton and Fleetwood maybe. Europe are 6/4 but 3/4 on the US looks far more tempting considering the gulf in class.
The European Masters will offer one final chance for players to earn qualification points in their pursuit of featuring for Donald’s team which will be named next Monday.
Shane Lowry is likely to be a pick but his poor form of late doesn’t guarantee it.
-
Spurs have begun well under Ange Postecoglu and a 2-0 away win in Bournemouth at the weekend has given his project some impetus after Golden Boy Harry Kane (who scored twice on his home debut in Munich) departed.
Fulham put it up to Arsenal at the weekend and secured a draw after scoring first and last and after going down to 10 men in the second half.
Tottenham have won their last seven games against Fulham at Craven Cottage since 2011so take them at 12/1 to win 2-0 as the Aussie boss attempts to break the club's 15-year trophy drought (14/1 for outright glory), going back to the last time they won the competition back in 2008.
The Bet
WE’LL have to try and top the pretender to the crown I suppose so let’s throw it on Medvedev and Gauff to win the US Open at astronomical odds of 95/1.
