We round-up the significant pre-season results from the weekend
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The World Cup Final wasn’t the only football taking place over the weekend. For a number of the Premier League’s big hitters, pre-season is now well underway.
Some sides opted for slightly easier first assignments, while others tested their squads against decent quality opposition from the lower divisions.
We’ve rounded up the most significant results from what can best be described as an interesting weekend of action…
ATV Irdning 0-22 Everton
As pre-season fixtures go, this one was straight out of the Football Manager handbook. Build the fitness, smash a bunch of no-hopers and improve the squad’s morale – job’s a good’un.
While Over 21.5 Goals backers may have been laughing, the ATV Irdning goalkeeper wasn’t.
The stopper quite literally gave up after an incredible own-goal to allow Oumar Niasse to seal his hat-trick and make it 20-0.
After the match, a parody account for the Austrian minnows saw the funny side, though, poking fun at beleaguered Liverpool stopper Loris Karius. Poor bloke.
To follow on from yesterday’s match we can confirm that after medical tests all 11 members of our team suffered concussion 2 minutes before kick off. Hopefully that settles any disputes about us being a bad team when clearly they were playing through pain
— ATV Irdning (@AIrdning) July 15, 2018
Boreham Wood 0-8 Arsenal
Robbie and Ty weren’t stationed outside Meadow Park on Saturday afternoon.
But it’s fair to assume the Arsenal Fan TV gang reckon Arsenal are dead-certs for the quadruple next season after this dominant performance.
Unai Emery’s first match saw Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang clock a 10-minute hat-trick, alongside strikes from the likes of Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah.
New signings Konstantinos Mavropanos and Sokratis both featured for the Gunners, who are 25/1 to win the Premier League this season.
Bury 0-0 Liverpool
After relatively high-profile cock-ups against Chester and Tranmere Rovers, it was a quieter afternoon between the sticks for Loris Karius at Gigg Lane.
Liverpool’s Loris Karius with another howler last night against Tranmere Rovers. Oh dear. pic.twitter.com/rXHaEvHaXE
— Natter Football (@NATTERFOOTBALL) July 11, 2018
The soap-fingered stopper kept a clean sheet as Naby Keita and Fabinho got a tan but not much else during a sun-soaked afternoon in East Lancashire.
Wycombe Wanderers 0-1 West Ham United
After defeat to FC Winterthur last weekend, this was much more like it from West Ham.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side overcame a difficult test at League One new boys Wycombe Wanderers thanks to a first-half strike from Marko Arnautovic.
Issa Diop and Andriy Yarmolenko got some much-needed minutes in the bank as the East Londoners continued their pre-season preparations.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
