It seems as if Mourinho is channelling the spirit of Kevin Keegan with a set of 3-2 and 4-2 wins to date, a case of ‘we’ll score one more than you’.. Had you had the 3-2 win in mind when Tottenham played Olympiakos, then I hope it would have occurred to you to either lay Olympiakos as they led 0-2 or back Tottenham 0-2 down.

You’d have been amply rewarded .

With December just round the corner and with Aintree the next big meeting on the horizon, I thought I would look at the performance of favourites at Aintree’s December meetings.

And , last 10 years, straight out of the blocks, there is a 26 point profit to be had to Betfair SP ( BSP) and 22points profit to Industry SP ( ISP) for the favourite backer. 

Let’s drill a little deeper.

20 furlong races ( 2 miles and 4 furlongs) produced an 11.49 points profit and 96% return on investment. May not excite but that’s over 12 races in the last 10 years. A 3 race losing run suggests a winner may be on the way?

Handicaps, hurdles and chase races in Aintree in December turned 22, 15 and 12 points profits for the favourite backer in December. 

The Twiston-Davies, trainer and jockey, top the profit tables for favourite backers in Aintree in December. So if you see a Twiston-Davies associated with a favourite, they show up well. 1 win in 2 for Sam and Nigel last year produced a level stakes profit. 

The profit figures may not be outstanding but remember that they refer only to favourites at the Aintree meeting in December.