Weekend talking points: Super Bowl and Six Nations thrills and spills - (2025)

Updated: 19/01/2025

Plus big wins for Man City, United and Chelsea

With the dust now settling, it’s time to catch our breath after another barnstormer of a sporting weekend.

With Super Bowl LIII, the opening round of Six Nations matches and a full Premier League schedule, we were spoilt for choice this weekend. Here’s our round-up of the big talking points…

Brady and the Pats do it again

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are now six-time Super Bowl champions, after a tense yet enthralling 13-3 win over the LA Rams.

In a game dictated by defensive plays, the Rams had Brady rattled early on. The 41-year-old threw his first interception of the season in the Pats’ opening drive, and took two timeouts in the early stages.

But Brady took it all in his stride, and masterfully picked out Rob Gronkowski midway through the final quarter to set-up the game’s only touchdown in what became the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in history.

England and Wales make their claims

While Super Bowl dominated things Stateside, back on this side of the Atlantic the 2019 Six Nations roared into life.

Wales came from 16-0 behind to pounce on a number of France errors and claim a memorable 24-19 win in Paris on Friday night.

That was followed by a 33-20 win for Scotland over Italy at Murrayfield before England laid down a marker with a 32-20 victory over Ireland in Dublin.

The Red Rose produced a superb display of both attack and defence in a rip-roaring encounter at the Aviva Stadium. It means Eddie Jones’ men are now 4/6 favourites to win the Six Nations, ahead of Wales at 11/4, with pre-tournament fancies Ireland slipping to 6/1.

Man City pile pressure on Liverpool

In the Premier League, Manchester City showed no lasting effects from last week’s loss to Newcastle United, by downing Arsenal 3-1 on Sunday afternoon.

Sergio Aguero bundled home a hat-trick, and though the Gunners occasionally threatened, City had little difficulty breaking past the Arsenal defence.

Victory moves Pep Guardiola’s men just two points behind Liverpool. The Reds can extend their lead to five points if they can defeat West Ham United tonight. They’re 1/3 to do so. In the title betting, City are 5/4, with Jurgen Klopp’s Reds 8/13.

Rashford continues to keep Lukaku out

Manchester United made it nine wins from 10 under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with a hard-fought win over Leicester City.

Marcus Rashford bagged the game’s only goal, again latching onto a superb Paul Pogba pass.

The combination also proved enough to beat Tottenham Hotspur last month. It means Rashford has now bagged six times in the 10 games since Solskjaer took charge, and in doing so he’s keeping £75m man Romelu Lukaku on the bench.

United are 7/5 for a top-four finish, ahead of Arsenal at 16/5, but behind Chelsea at 8/11.

Higuain hits home for Chelsea and Sarri

Speaking of the Blues, it seems Maurizio Sarri might finally have landed the striker he’s been seeking.

Gonzalo Higuain fired in his first two goals in Chelsea colours in their 5-0 win over Huddersfield Town on Saturday. His first was a smart finish at the near post, while his second was a 25-yard belter.

With games against Man City, Man United and Spurs to come this month, Sarri will be delighted to see his former Napoli striker continue the goal plundering form he showed in Naples.

The Blues are 5/1 to beat City for the second time this season on Sunday.

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All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing

Original source: http://news.coral.co.uk/american-football-other/nfl/weekend-talking-points-super-bowl-and-six-nations-thrills-and-spills.html

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