As always, Good Luck and Play Responsibly.
LAS VEGAS — Here it is. The Premier League weekend is here and Matchweek 5 is all systems go. As for the aftermath of MW4, I thought City was dominant in the derby. Man Utd has a lot of work to do. I was in disbelief and felt so bad for Burnley and fans in its stoppage time loss hosting Liverpool. I thought Everton did enough to earn a result versus Villa but failed to capitalize on scoring chances as the MW4 featured play. Nevertheless, here we are for MW5 — Fan Fest weekend here stateside — and hopefully I have some winners for you, again, now.
THE TIMELINE
COINCEDENTAL STADIUM of the WEEK
A new series depicting a stadium which corresponds to a play featured in The Premier League Prologue actions to open the show.
- American Express Stadium, Brighton, England.
MW4 POSITIONS PL
*Best Bet by Darkseid Sports* RECORD: 3-0-1 (Record displayed in Win-Loss-Push format)
2025-26 PUBLISHED BET RECORD: 7-3-1, 63.6% (All plays, W-L-P format)
- Straight Bets: 7-0-1
- Parlays: 0-3 (?!?)
— ⚽️: “THE BTTS SPECIAL”
*2TM PAR (+50)*
- MUNCHE: Both Teams To Score
- BOUNEW: Both Teams To Score
📚: William Hill/Caesars
KEY METRICS
- MUNCHE: CHE ranks 2/20 in aggregate npxG (6.9) & npxG/90 (1.73). MUN ranks 3/20 in aggregate npxG (6.3) & npxG/90 (1.58). MUN & CHE rank 2nd and 3rd respectively in aggregate xG (7.9, 7.7) & xG/90 (1.98, 1.92).
- BOUNEW: BOU ranks 9/20 in aggregate xG (6.0) & 8/20 in npxG/90 (1.29). NEW ranks 11th in npxG/90 (1.10) & SoT/90 (3.0).
MY TAKE
The BTTS Special has been very un-special thus far but I’m undeterred in the pursuit of delivering a winner here. Not sure what I’m supposed to say really re: my take on The BTTS Special: I think all parties involved can score a goal. There. How’s that?
— ⚽️: ARS -.05 (-05)
📚: William Hill/Caesars
KEY METRICS:
- ARS: ranks 6/20 in xG/90 (1.56) and 5/20 in npxG/90 (1.36). ARS is 4/20 in Progressive Carries (88). ARS ranks 2/20 in (GK) Save% (91.7%).
- In 104 home matches in this competition under the current manager, ARS has a 68W 12L 24P ledger (65.4%).
KEY OPINION
- MCI: Played a UCL joust Thursday and on short turnaround has to go to the Emirates. Bad spot. No thanks.
MY TAKE
It’s a play on home Arsenal when the Gunners host City at Emirates Stadium in North London on Sunday in the premium fixture of MW5. Whilst I acknowledge City has been great thus far and is better at the metrics I touted ARS with, I just can’t get there with The Citizens in this spot. The Thursday UCL match (Napoli) is disqualification worthy. The turnaround is too short and I’m thinking there has to be some level of squad rotation from Pep Guardiola. ARS is very good, will be fresher and usually in these spots of premium fixture I tend to side with the home side. It’s a play on the Gunners for me up to, say, 15-20 cents.
— ⚽️BB: BHA DNB (-50)
📚: FanDuel
KEY METRICS
- BHA: Ranks 4/20 in aggregate xG (6.7) and xG/90 (1.67). It ranks 10th (TOT is 9th) in npxG/90 (1.10). BHA is 3/20 in SoT% (36.8%) and 7/20 in SoT/90.
KEY OPINION
- TOT competed in UCL play on Tuesday and I’m expecting some degree of squad rotation from manager Thomas Frank as it has a League Cup match the ensuing Wednesday and then another Prem joust a few days later next Saturday.
MY TAKE
For the *Best Bet by Darkseid Sports* in MW5, it’s a play on the home Brighton & Hove Albion in the Draw No Bet market when it hosts Tottenham Saturday afternoon near England’s south coast. I’m backing the Seagulls home ethos and ledger in total and I’m playing against this schedule spot from Spurs. I can’t get there. Would you believe the Seagulls have earned 1.61 points per match at American Express Stadium on average over the last 5 Premier League seasons? A trip way down south is no vacation. I’m comfortable going to -60 here. I try not to exceed laying 60 cents in most plays regardless of the sport I share on my site. If 60 cents is too expensive, maybe sports betting isn’t your speed?
FC Record YTD: 1-0
— ⚽️: FUL 90+ (EV)
MANCHESTER UNITED MINUTES
PREMIER LEAGUE MINUTES
BEYOND THE TABLE
You can get the Premier League table anywhere. It’s superfluous at MW5. But a table built on xG is something we can use for Sports Investment purposes and Squawka has done solid, practical work in bringing us this PL table built on xG.
https://www.squawka.com/en/features/xg-table-premier-league-2025-26/
FUTURISTICS REVISITED
REFERENCES:
- X
- Various individual and entity social media accounts on X as cited in this work
- Peacock
- USA Network
- FB Ref
- Opta Analyst
- Transfermarkt
- Squawka
- Grok
- Google Gemini
- NBC Sports Soccer
- CBS Sports App
- William Hill/Caesars
- FanDuel Sportsbook
- Getty Images
- Darkseid Sports Intellectual Properties
DISCLAIMER: The purveyor of Darkseid Sports (me) and the author of this writing (also me) has no affiliation, whatsoever, with Manchester United, the Premier League, any of the above athletes, managers, media entities, sports betting entities, social media accounts and/or any other corporate entity, either portrayed in written form or depicted in corresponding images. The author of this writing is a passionate and very serious Manchester United and Premier League fan.
INDUSTRY NOTE: I put considerable time and effort into this. Being the best is a process. Don’t plagiarize me, please. It’s already bad enough I’m totally excluded in the space yet have to be subjected to absolute hacks who get the run I don’t. As of this writing I have not seen any person or entity share the plays I have. So that makes me the source material. Any sharing or touting of my plays should include credit to Darkseid Sports. It’s easy. Failure to do so is an explicit proclamation of a gross lack of professional integrity on your part. I am also available to appear on your platform either via phone interview or in digitally written segment to feature my thoughts and selections, FYI.
Sports is sensationally prohibited.
Darkseid Sports 
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