Supporters of Burton Albion do not have fond memories of Manchester City and the Etihad Stadium. The Brewers’ 9-0 drubbing at the hands of Pep Guardiola’s reigning League Cup champions in the competition back in January came by surprise.
Nobody expected the League One outfit to beat City and everyone expected them to be thrashed, but 9-0, though. Nine? Little would have foreseen that. It puts into perspective how poor Southampton were against Leicester earlier this season, when they were hammered by that very scoreline on home soil against a team from the same division as themselves, but that’s a story for another day.
This evening, another team from League One, who also play in yellow, face City in the League Cup quarter-finals. This time, though, it is Oxford United and not Burton Albion, much to the presumed joy of the Staffordshire club’s fans.
The U’s are progressing well in the third-tier this season, 8th in the league under Karl Robinson. They travel north with little hope of victory, but do carry a sizable deal of momentum into the game having already beaten Peterborough, Millwall, West Ham and Sunderland in this season’s competition.
Funnily enough, these two sides actually met in the League Cup back in 2018, where goals from Garbiel Jesus, Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden secured a routine 3-0 win for the Sky Blues at the Kassam Stadium.
This time around, the bookies are predicting the scoreline to be bigger, with the visitors priced at whopping odds of 30/1 to win the tie. We found this quite amusing, so decided to take a look at what ridiculous bets are currently out there, priced at shorter odds than those.
Here are 5 of our favourites:
Arsene Wenger returning to Arsenal – 28/1
After 22 years of service in north London, Arsene Wenger eventually departed Arsenal in the summer of 2018, with his replacement – Unai Emery – massively failing to live up to expectations. The Spaniard was sacked a fortnight ago with the Gunners languishing just above mid-table, and ex-player Freddie Ljumberg has now stepped in as interim boss until a permanent manager is appointed. Certain bookies have included former manager Wenger in Arsenal’s list of potential new managers, pricing him at stark odds of just 28/1 – shorter than Oxford are to get the win this evening. It’s just a bit ridiculous, isn’t it.
Neymar signing for Chelsea – 10/1
Neymar is the most unsettled footballer on earth. At Barcelona, playing in a team that won pretty much everything and was arguably the best of all time, he got upset because he was always in Messi’s shadow. At PSG, he has grown tired of the poor standard in Ligue 1 and is now playing in Kylian Mbappe’s shadow so is now considering a move back to Barcelona.
Real Madrid are also keen on signing the Brazilian when the transfer market reopens in January, while Chelsea are currently priced at 10/1 to capture his signature next month. Simply put, there is absolutely no way the Blues will sign Neymar, especially not in January, when the window is famously much quieter than it is in the summer.
Frank Lampard is building a young, exciting squad based on homegrown talent at Stamford Bridge and it is working really well for him – signing a player of Neymar’s calibre would completely go against all of that. To say that Oxford are three times that price to beat City this evening is, quite frankly, absurd.
Thomas Tuchel joining West Ham – 25/1
West Ham may have got a crucial win away at Southampton on Saturday but they are still struggling at the wrong end of the Premier League table this season. 15th in the league after 17 matches has seen pressure begin to mount on manager Manuel Pellegrini. The South American is among the favourites to be relieved of his duties next, but it is one potential successor – priced at just 25/1 – that has really caught our attention.
Current PSG boss Thomas Tuchel is among the list of names to be hired by West Ham, despite him still being employed by the French champions and Pellegrino still being in charge of the Hammers. PSG are currently seven points clear at the top of Ligue 1, and breezed through to the last-16 of the Champions League last week after coasting their qualifying group, so there is little to no chance of Tuchel receiving his marching orders anytime soon. Even at 250/1, this would be a dud bet.
Gareth Bale signing for Man City – 16/1
Where to even begin with this one? Gareth Bale looks set to depart Real Madrid next summer but it will not be to Manchester City, that is for sure. Bale is an unbelievable footballer and has been one of the world’s greatest in recent years for Real, but he is now 30 years of age and cannot stay fit to save his life. Exiled at Madrid under Zidane, the Welshman’s future is now in complete disarray, with it looking a certainty that he will move to China on a financially-lucrative contract in the not-so-distant future.
Bale is on a reported £500,000-a-week at Madrid and still has two-and-a-half years left to run on his current deal in the Spanish capital. City could afford those wages, but there’s more chance of hell freezing over than them forking out that much on a player who is injured 40% of the time. The fact that he is priced at just 16/1 to obtain a move to City in January – not even the summer – is laughable. For the record, he’s also 25/1 to join Leicester next month, madness.
Gemma Collins hosting the next series of Love Island – 20/1
Caroline Flack has had an absolute Weston Super-Mare. Arrested for assaulting her boyfriend last week, the 40-year-old has now taken the decision to step down from presenting the sixth series of Love Island which is due to air in January. Flack could well return for the summer edition of the show in June, but it has left question marks surrounding who will fill her shoes for the brand new winter version based in Cape Town at the start of 2020.
Laura Whitmore – partner of mainstay narrator Iain Stirling – and Radio 1 DJ Maya Jama are current bookmakers favourites to land the job after the betting markets opened yesterday, while the likes of Sophie Monk and ex-Geordie Shore star Vickie Pattison are both priced at 14/1. TOWIE’s Gemma Collins is also included in the list of possible candidates, too, priced at a mere 20/1.
Considering Collins has absolutely no experience at presenting and is found unbelievably annoying by the majority of the British public, it’s highly unlikely that she will be the new face of Love Island. Still much shorter than the U’s making it through to the next round tonight, though.
