Sport: 5 things we learned from the weekend
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There was plenty of thrills and spills over the weekend as the Premier League season got underway, plus find out what happened in the world of Horse Racing, Cricket and Formula 1 with our five talking points.
We’ve had six football matches from the top-flight to digest, along with action from the St Leger festival, a manic day of Formula 1 racing in Tuscany and more!
Salah hat-trick sinks Leeds
Liverpool ensured they got their Premier League title defence off to a winning start with a seven-goal thriller at Anfield.
Mohamed Salah opened the scoring from the penalty spot after four minutes before thrashing home the Reds’ third in the second half. The Egyptian completed his treble on 88 minutes with the decisive fourth goal from the spot once again.
Leeds showed great spirit on the return to the top-flight managing to level the score three times with goals from Jack Harrison Patrick Bamford and Mateusz Klich on Merseyside. But Marcelo Bielsa will now have to dust his side down and prepare to host Fulham next weekend.
Meanwhile, Jurgen Klopp’s side travel to Stamford Bridge next weekend and are 6/5 to beat Chelsea.
New signings impress on debut
This was our first chance to see many of the Premier League’s new signings and there were debuts to remember for a host of stars.
Firstly, Gabriel and Willian starred for Arsenal against Fulham. The defender scored the second goal in their victory with Willian providing two assists at Craven Cottage.
Both Callum Wilson and Jeff Hendrick shone in their new club colours as Newcastle beat West Ham. Wilson opened the scoring before Hendrick doubled the Magpies’ lead to secure three points.
James Rodriguez, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure starred in a new-look Everton midfield as they beat Tottenham by a goal to nil. Timothy Castagne also broke the deadlock for Leicester at West Bromwich Albion following his arrival from Atalanta.
Galileo Chrome shines at St Leger
Tom Marquand picked up a fairytale win on board Galileo Chrome to land the Pertemps St Leger at Doncaster on Saturday.
Marquand was a late replacement for Shane Crosse and rode to devasting affect to clinch his first Classic triumph ahead of Berkshire Rocco and Pyledriver in third. Frankie Dettori and Santiago had to settle for fourth.
Trainer Joseph O’Brien also became the second man after Harry Wragg to seal a jockey-trainer double having won the race as a jockey in 2013.
Hamilton wins Tuscan thriller
There was chaos in the Tuscan Grand Prix with three race starts, two red flags and eight retirements as Lewis Hamilton emerged victorious for Mercedes.
Hamilton secured his 90th win to close in on Michael Schumacher’s record. Valtteri Bottas ensured it was a Mercedes one-two finish with Red Bull’s Alex Albion sneaking third ahead of Daniel Ricciardo to record his first podium finish.
There hadn’t been a red flag in Formula 1 racing for three years, and after a red flag at Monza last weekend there were two at Mugello on it’s F1 debut. It was a dramatic race in which only twelve drivers finished with rival Max Verstappen a first lap casualty.
The season continues in a couple weeks’ time with Hamilton 2/5 to win the Russian Grand Prix.
England fightback against Australia
Eoin Morgan’s side produced a stunning comeback to level the series in the second one-day international against Australia at Old Trafford to win by 24 runs.
England won the toss and elected to bat with Morgan top scoring with 42 from 52 balls. A late partnership between Tom Curran (37) and Adil Rashid (35) set the Aussies a target of 232 to win off their 50 overs.
Aaron Finch (73) and Marnus Labuschagne (48) were cruising at 144-2 before England took six wickets for 22 runs as Australia collapsed to 207 all out.
Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes and Sam Curran all took three wickets each to clinch a vital victory.
England now have a chance to keep their five-year unbeaten run in home one-day series in the final match on Wednesday with England 8/11 favourites to beat Australia.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication.
