The first edition of ‘Round the Sports World in five minutes’ in 2026 takes us to Turf Moor at Burnley, and then to London for the annual Snooker Masters tournament.
Burnley - Manchester United
- Start: Wednesday, 7 January at 19:30
- Venue: Turf Moor, Burnley
- Coverage: Sky Sports Premier League
- Fun fact: United have 58 wins in the league in matches between them, but Burnley have 41 of their own, with 41 draws over the years.
Betting
In normal circumstances, this match wouldn’t necessarily be a big deal in the grand scheme of things. A team in 19th place in the league and battling to avoid relegation against one in sixth and looking for a Champions League place, isn’t generally the sort to take note of.
But these aren’t normal circumstances.
Manchester United are 1.7 to win the match. Many would argue that’s a pretty short price about a team that has just three wins in their last 11 in the Premier League. And after all, if Man Utd were playing well and getting decent results, they wouldn’t have sacked Ruben Amorim on Monday morning, would they?
Burnley are second from bottom for a reason. They’re as short as 1.05 with some bookmakers to be relegated. If United’s recent form was considered too poor for their manager to stay in a job, then Burnley’s is even worse, with seven straight losses in the league. Burnley are 4.6 to hit back with a win and 4.0 to at least salvage something from the match with a draw.
Three of Burnley’s last four matches stayed under 2.5 goals, the same record as for United’s last four games, so it’s a bit surprising that ‘overs’ is the favourite at 1.7 with ‘unders’ available at 3.0. Neither of these sides has been scoring particularly freely, so there may be some value in going low on goals here.
Mattheus Cunha was the scorer of United’s sole goal at Leeds on Sunday and has been playing well in the absence of the likes of Bruno Fernandes and Bryan Mbeumo, but he’s been lacking support of late.
Odds of 2.35 to score may seem decent given he’s up against one of the weaker defences in the league, but he’ll need better support than what he’s been getting of late if he’s to score in back-to-back games. Patrick Dorgu, who played in a much more advanced role in Amorim’s last match in charge and may do so here again, is 9.5 to be the first goal scorer, while Casemiro (8.5) and Diogo Dalot (21.0) are occasional scorers not without a chance on that market, either.
2026 Snooker Masters
- Start: Sunday, 11 January
- Venue: Alexandra Palace
- Coverage: BBC, Eurosport
- Fun Fact: Eight of the 16 players taking part are English. After that, there are more players from China than anywhere else, with five. The remaining three players are Scottish, Welsh, and Australian.
Betting
In many ways, this is one of the hardest tournaments to win, if not the hardest full stop.
Not only are the world’s best 16 players all here, meaning there are no easy matches but also the short format, particularly in the early rounds, means that a couple of mistakes in the first few frames and you could be heading home pretty quickly.
In light of that, the bookies aren’t making anyone a hot favourite, and it’s one of the most open tournaments you’re likely to see this year in terms of the betting.
Judd Trump is priced at 5.0, with Mark Selby at 5.5 and current World Champion Zhao Xintong just behind them at 6.0.
It’s perhaps a sign of the times and his inconsistent performances that Ronnie O’Sullivan, an eight-time winner of this event to go with a further six runner-up finishes, is available at 9.0.
There will be some takers of that price, given that everyone knows that when Ronnie turns up in a good mood, motivated and focused, it’s hard for anyone to live with him at the table, especially when this is one of the venues he enjoys the most. After all, as a Londoner, he gets louder and more support here than just about anywhere else.
The Rocket has, for the last few years, cut back on playing tournaments and even practising, as his career as a pro snooker player winds down, so it’s anyone’s guess as to which Ronnie will show up.
And there are no freebies at the first time of asking. His ‘reward’ for qualifying for the event is a first-round match against Neil Robertson, a two-time winner of this event himself, and a winner of a total of 26 ranking events throughout his career, who was also the 2010 World Champion. The bookies really can’t make up their minds on this one, with both players priced up at 1.91.
Robertson is 10.0 to go all the way, the same price as defending champ Shaun Murphy and Kyren Wilson.
But there’s quality everywhere you look with Mark Allen available at a high price of 21.0 and veteran Mark Williams, who is somewhat surprisingly the World Number 6 going into this event, on offer at the same price. Allen and Williams face each other in the first round next Monday, and it’s another tight one in the betting, with Williams at 1.8 and Allen at 2.0.
Bet of the Week: Back Under 2.5 Goals in Burnley - Manchester United
Just 20% (2/10) of Burnley’s matches this season have had over 2.5 goals, which included a run where all of their first seven failed to produce three goals.
United’s stats away from home paint quite a different picture with 80% of their matches on the road going ‘overs’, but that was often a case of the likes of Tottenham, Forest, Brentford and Man City scoring two or more goals by themselves, something Burnley are quite unlikely to manage here.
Incredibly, all of the last 10 matches between these two at Turf Moor ended with under 2.5 goals, so they really have to think that run will extend to eleven.
