ODDSTRACKER: In this week’s edition of Oddstracker, we take a look at the extraordinary clash between Aston Villa and Liverpool, which saw the hosts hit a stunning seven goals past the Premier League champions to produce one the most remarkable results in recent years.
Aston Villa v Liverpool: The odds showing how underdogs Aston Villa turned the match on its head
Not many would have foreseen a victory for Aston Villa over Premier League champions Liverpool on Sunday, but even fewer would have predicted the scenes that unfolded at Villa Park.
Heading into kick-off, Liverpool were quite rightly the overwhelming favourites at 1.44 following recent statement Premier League victories over Chelsea and Arsenal. Little-fancied Villa, unsurprisingly, were a lot further back at 6.5 and even drifted to 7 on the exchange at kick-off.
Jurgen Klopp’s side, however, got off to a slow start as summer signing Ollie Watkins bagged his first Premier League goal inside just four minutes following an error from Adrian to more than halve Villa’s odds for victory to 3.4.
Now priced at 2.05, Liverpool were still expected to turn the game around, only for Villa to double their lead 18 minutes later through a second goal and superb strike from Watkins. The Reds’ chances had slumped to 3.6, with Villa favourites for the first time at 1.87 on BETDAQ.
Normal service to resume?
As expected, Liverpool soon fought back as Mohamed Salah netted to score his fourth goal of the season, with the Reds once again favourites for the three points – though only just at 2.5 to Villa’s 2.7.
But John McGinn’s deflected effort reinforced Villa’s two-goal lead just two minutes later, before Watkins completed a stunning first-half hat-trick another four minutes on. In just a matter of minutes, and now losing 4-1, Liverpool’s chances of winning had fallen from 2.5 to a staggering 12, with Villa just 1.18 for victory.
The half-time whistle at Villa Park soon went and that saw the odds change once more – Villa now being backed at 1.15 for the win, with Klopp’s men at 15 – an unthinkable price ahead of kick-off.
Villa masterclass
But if Liverpool thought they would be able to at least keep things respectable in the second half, how wrong they were, as Villa made it 5-1 ten minutes after the restart through new signing Ross Barkley. Villa were as short as 1.03, with Liverpool a staggering 81 and soon to be 101 just a few minutes later as the prices continued to drift, with Villa now at 1.01.
Salah’s second goal of the game on the hour-mark, surely just a consolation, did at least bring Liverpool’s odds down by nearly half to 56, with Villa at 1.05 – but that didn’t last long as Jack Grealish soon made it 6-2 as the Reds’ odds rocketed up to 151, with the hosts back at 1.01.
Liverpool’s odds continued to drift as the second half wore on and by the time Grealish had bagged his second to make it a quite unbelievable score of 7-2, Liverpool were out to a whopping 251, having conceded seven goals for the first time since April 1963
