With the title race heating up and racing’s biggest festive prizes hurtle into view, I reflect on the weekend’s talking points from the world of sport.
1. Trent lands a blow
A Premier League cannot be won or lost in November. Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have been involved in enough title races to know that, but that didn’t mean that what happened on the frozen Etihad pitch on Saturday lunchtime was without serious implications in this season’s race to the top.
By the end of the weekend, courtesy of Kai Havertz, neither City nor Liverpool sit top of the tree,
but we saw enough during that tense, tactical affair to suggest that Liverpool are in this. Despite being City’s biggest challengers over the last five years, this is a new Liverpool team. It was sink or swim for Liverpool 2.0 and they did not sink in what is undoubtedly the toughest Premier League assignment in the calendar.
They are not the finished article either, but they have more points gained (12) from losing positions than any other team league and a right back (if you can call him that) who is capable of the sublime. Klopp’s men demonstrated both the steel and subtlety to stay with Pep’s Sky-Blue juggernaut. This season, with the Champions appearing a little more mortal than previous years, clinging onto their coattails and seeing where you end up, might just be enough.
Liverpool to win the Premier League @ 9/2
2. Where will Shishkin end up?
In a glittering career that has spanned four years Shishkin has never behaved as he did on Saturday. If there were signs something like this might happen, they certainly weren’t obvious. His last visit to Ascot yielded a relentless 16 length success over Pic D’Orhy and he signed off last season authoritatively dispatching a talented field in the Aintree Bowl.
There was genuine shock at the start-line and sheer bemusement for Nicky Henderson as one of the heavyweights of Seven Barrows simply refused to run. Where he will go from here is still very much up for debate. The Rehearsal Chase at Newcastle has been mooted, but he would have to carry a hefty amount of weight and the clock is ticking with the King George now less than a month away.
Shishkin to win the Rehearsal Chase @ 6/4
3. Farrell ends the drought
It was a strange game for the England fly-half who left his kicking boots at home, missing six times from the tee for the first time in his career. He then found himself embroiled in a spat with the referee, for which some are arguing he should be banned.
Yet, with the ball he enjoyed a fine game, it was a sharp burst that broke the lines to yield a first try in a Sarries shirt since May 2018. It is this positive aspect of Farrell’s performance that will perhaps fly under the radar but is worth pausing on in light of how decisively Farrell’s Saracens dispatched Marcus Smith’s Harlequins last weekend. The debate continues to rage about who should start for England, but the fact is, since December 2019 Marcus Smith has 33 tries for club and country to Owen Farrell’s two.
This alone does not mean Smith should immediately displace a man who has been a leader and talisman for England for the better part of ten years, but England – despite all the grit and fight shown in defeat to South Africa – need to find ways to get the ball over the try line more often. Perhaps the Six Nations could offer the chance for Marcus Smith to provide the answer.
England to win the Six Nations @ 11/2
4. Money flowing for Gerri
There can’t have been many forecasting anything other than Bravemansgame doing the business at Haydock and iron-cladding his King George credentials. Nicholls’ charge clearly relishes tight twists and turns at Kempton Park, so for him to be displaced as favourite for a race he won so impressively last season, it says a lot about Gerri Colombe.
Gordon Elliott only raised the prospect that the seven-year-old might make the trip over the Irish Sea on Sunday and already punters have responded, reeling him in from 10/1 to 5/2 for the Boxing Day showpiece. If indeed he does head to Kempton in a month’s time it would offer a decisive acid test of last year’s Gold Cup form which has not worked out as expected in the season’s early months.
With Galopin beaten in the John Durkan and Bravemansgame labouring at Haydock, Gerri Colombe’s claims look more convincing every day. It’s shaping up to be quite a campaign for Cullentra’s latest star.
Gerri Colombe to win the King George @ 5/2
Lola Katz Roberts is a Content Executive at Fitzdares.
