Football: bet365's Market Movers as Man Utd lose ground in top four race and QPR continue play-off push
As Manchester United and Everton’s struggles continued and QPR solidified their play-off credentials, we’re looking at some of the week’s biggest market movers.
Any United fans looking for a new-manager bounce under Ralf Rangnick have been left sorely underwhelmed, winning just three games from six (one at Norwich and two at home to Burnley and Crystal Palace), most recently throwing away a two-goal lead at Villa Park.
The opening half hour saw the home side totally nullified, with the Red Devils taking an early lead, Bruno Fernandes must have felt particularly pleased seeing Emi Martinez allow his long-range effort through his legs after his penalty miss in the reverse fixture.
From there though, Villa were allowed back into the game, getting in behind the United defence on a number of occasions, before Fernandes’s second which crashed in off the crossbar seemingly put the result beyond doubt – the goal of course triggered bet365’s 2 Goals Ahead Early Payout offer, with a seven-figure sum being paid out early.
But the remainder of the game was all Villa, and you could hardly begrudge Steven Gerrard’s side of their two late goals.
The result leaves Manchester United a point behind Tottenham who have two games in hand, and their price for the top four grows by the week.
After their dramatic win at West Ham in September which left them on 13 points from their opening five games, the Reds were 1/5 for a top-four finish, but a wretched run of one win in seven (including the humiliating defeats at the hands of Liverpool and Manchester City) saw Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sacked with United 6/5 for the top four, and they're now 9/4.
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Everton finally parted ways with Rafael Benitez at the weekend after a miserable run of form which left some fans wondering if they were actually getting dragged into a fight for survival. What was a 50/1 shot pre-season is now 7/1, and it didn’t seem totally out of the question, especially when losing 2-1 to Norwich, a side so bereft of goals their fans were heard singing ‘let’s pretend we scored a goal’ at Selhurst Park over Christmas.
The season which started so brightly was quickly derailed by an injury to Dominic Calvert-Lewin and with Richarlison spending time on the sidelines shortly after.
The Toffees were 2/1 for a top-six finish after the draw at Old Trafford at the start of October, which would’ve been shorter still had Yerry Mina’s late goal not been ruled out by VAR. But Everton then picked up just one point from seven games, Demarai Gray’s thunderous strike against Arsenal finally stopping the rot.
The Blues will now look to appoint a manager whose first priority is ensuring their survival, any hopes of European football a very distant memory (they’re now 80/1 for the top six and 6/1 for the top half…), before going again next season.
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Wissam Ben Yedder continued his fine form this season, joining Jonathan David at the top of the Ligue 1 goalscorer charts with a brace against Clermont this weekend as his price for top scorer was cut from 9/1 to 11/4, having been 33/1 at the start of the season.
However it’s worth noting that six of his 12 goals have been penalties, and his non-penalty Expected Goals this season is just 3.6, so don’t be surprised if he dries up in the coming weeks and months.
The 31-year-old had to contend with Niko Kovac’s rotation policy, though, in which he started just 13 of Monaco’s 21 games, and it remains to be seen whether new boss Philippe Clement will make him a more regular fixture.
Kylian Mbappe remains favourite at 10/11; despite being two goals behind Ben Yedder and David, you’d think he has a higher ceiling than both, especially registering 12.2 xG but only scoring 10 so far this season.
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QPR continued their impressive campaign with another late win at the weekend, this time over fellow promotion chasers West Brom.
The Rs were 13/2 for promotion in pre-season, shortening to 7/2 after their unbeaten August which left them third in the league through five games. Things unravelled a bit from there over the next couple of months and they were back out to their pre-season price after their 2-1 loss to Peterborough.
They’ve since taken 23 points from 33 and are currently on a three-game winning run – all without Seny Dieng and Ilias Chair no less – which started with a 93rd-minute winner at Bristol City, with Charlie Austin’s 89th-minute goal securing all three points against the Baggies on Saturday.
They were 7/2 shots for the top six pre-season and 4/5 shots before the weekend, the win over Valerian Ismael’s side has them looking good for a play-off campaign at least – the Rs are now 8/15 for a top-six finish.
By Steve Freeth
