Any time is a good time to land a £1,523 acca win, but the weekend before Christmas? That has to go down in the ledger as perfect timing!
And one Betfair customer, who the firm were still trying to identify on social media as of Monday morning, will be enjoying one of their best Christmases yet after correctly predicting the outcome of all eight of Saturday’s Premier League games.
That haul included three draws and what could arguably be described as a shock at Elland Road as Leeds United thumped Crystal Palace.
To make the punter feel even more festive, they had only staked £2.50 on their eight-fold acca, which returned odds of around 608/1!
Here’s the tale of the tape of a Super Saturday of EPL predictions…
Call It a Draw
Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off saw Chelsea make the long trip north to take on Newcastle United.
The Magpies got off to a red-hot start, with Nick Waltemade putting them 2-0 ahead with a brace of goals.
At half-time, the punter’s very first selection – a draw – looked to be a long way from home, but Chelsea came out fighting in the second period and found a goal back through Reece James’ free kick.
It remained a close encounter between two evenly-matched sides, but it was Chelsea that would conclude the scoring via Joao Pedro – a fun game ending in a fair 2-2 draw.
Our punter also had two other draws on their coupon: Burnley’s long trip to Bournemouth and Sunderland’s even longer trip to Brighton.
Bournemouth were a strong favourite with the bookmakers to see off the Clarets, which looked set to come to fruition when Antoine Semenyo fired the Reds ahead. However, Armando Broja hit back on the stroke of the 90th minute to conclude proceedings at 1-1.
There was a similar scenario at the American Express Stadium, where Brighton were odds-on against a Sunderland side blighted by injuries and AFCON call-ups.
But neither team really found a way to assert their dominance on the other, so despite some good chances being missed the contest ended goalless.
In terms of pure pricing, draws can be the hardest selections to get over the line in an acca, so this Betfair customer was going along rather nicely with three stalemates to their name.
Fantastic Four
The other two 3pm kick-offs went comfortably in the direction anticipated by our punter.
Manchester City rolled over West Ham 3-0, with that man Erling Haaland – who else? – at the double with a brace. Tijjani Reijnders rounded out the scoring at the Etihad.
Beleaguered Wolves showed plenty of fight in an unlucky defeat to Arsenal last time out, so could they get a positive result on home soil against Brentford? Our punter certainly hoped not, having come down on the side of the Bees.
Brentford were largely the dominant force in this one, yet were unable to find their way through Wolves’ spirited resistance.
However, in the end, Keane Lewis-Potter took advantage of some abject defending to fire the Bees in front, before the winger added his second after fine work by Mikkel Damsgaard.
With the first part of the day complete, our punter had five selections in the can and three more to run: starting with Liverpool’s trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at tea time.
Two sides that have variously disappointed at times this term doesn’t necessarily make for easy betting, but the Betfair customer had seen enough about Liverpool to predict they would see off Spurs.
And they would, ultimately, as Tottenham self-destructed by picking up two red cards. Goals from Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike were enough to see Liverpool home.
The Premier League, in their infinite wisdom, opted to arrange two 8pm kick-offs on a Saturday evening last week. So it was a late night of nail biting for our punter, as their picks Leeds and Arsenal tackled Crystal Palace and Everton respectively.
On face value, you might have thought Leeds were the vulnerable pick against a solid but inconsistent Crystal Palace outfit. However, Daniel Farke’s men romped home: a brace from the in-form Dominic Calvert-Lewin doing much of the damage in a 4-1 victory.
Arsenal, meanwhile, were made to work by Everton, but the Toffees rarely threatened the Gunners’ goal and so Viktor Gyokeres’ first-half penalty was enough to take care of business.
A £2.50 bet on, £1,523 won. It was a long day for this Betfair punter, but boy was it a fruitful one!