Unai Emery, Diego Simeone and Chris Wilder may be poles apart when it comes to their coaching philosophies, but our punters won’t have cared one bit where they put an ‘x’ on the blackboard last weekend.
That’s because these top-class tacticians delivered cold hard cash into our punters’ pockets all thanks to our 2 Up – You Win promotion.
Despite all being 2-0 down in their respective matches at the weekend, Arsenal, Sheffield United and Atletico Madrid all battled back to claim some points in their respective league games – much to the annoyance of Paddy Power’s finance boffins.
Sheffield United were the first side to set off the 2 Up – You Win klaxon in Power Tower after a first-half brace from Tammy Abraham looked to have put Frank Lampard’s Chelsea into an unassailable 2-0. That, of course, forced us to pay out on a win for the Blues in the 43rd minute – as per the rules of 2 Up – You Win.
* 2 Up You Win sees us pay out our punters in full on Premier League and La Liga games if their selection goes two goals up. This applies on pre-match singles in the Win-Draw-Win market only.
Wilder and his Blades were having none of it though, and strikes from Ireland’s Callum Robinson along with a last-minute own goal from Chelsea’s Kurt Zouma meant we also had to shell out on the end result of a draw. The wait for a first home league win goes on for poor Frank.
Worse was to come for our bean counters in Sunday’s North London Derby though as Spurs raced into a 2-0 lead in the first half with strikes from Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane.
That clicked a pay-out on a Tottenham victory, but Arsenal replicated Sheffield United’s efforts from the day before and goals from their lethal front pairing of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had us staring yet another double pay-out.
The hits weren’t finished coming either and later on Sunday evening Atletico Madrid delivered a final blow to an already staggering Paddy Power payout! Despite being heavy-favourites to beat Eibar at home, Atletico inexpiably found themselves trailing 2-0 to the minnows after just 19 minutes at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium
While Eibar backing punters were already counting their cash, there was still plenty of time for Simeone’s men to recover – and that’s exactly what they did. New signing Joao Félix and Vitolo levelled matters before substitute Thomas Partey won it for Atleti in the 90th minute, leaving us with no choice to shell out on victories for both Eibar and Atletico Madrid!
All told, the three results cost us just north of £195,000 and left our punters with the last laugh!
What a bloody weekend, eh?
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