Followers of the English Premier League's big four must have been confident of a big dividend last weekend by the time Arsenal kicked off at home to Hull City, with Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool having all won earlier in the day. Things looked even rosier when Arsenal took the lead, but what happened next was almost beyond belief as 17.0 shots Hull caused the biggest upset in Premier League history with a 2-1 win.
Hull's famous victory stopped a clean sweep for the big four, yet there will still be many punters confident that the English elite will do the business this weekend with Manchester United away to Blackburn, Arsenal at Sunderland, Chelsea at home to Aston Villa and Liverpool away to Manchester City.
The big four do not all win on the same weekend as often as many punters might think, yet their superiority over the rest of the division can still make them a sound bet. Last season they had 24 chances to complete a clean sweep (when they all played on the same weekend against non-big four teams) and all four won six times (that is, 25 per cent of the time). Excluding Liverpool, the big three had a better strike-rate, all winning 10 times out of 24 (42 per cent).
United, Chelsea and Arsenal are very short odds to win this weekend - no bigger than 1.57 - and Liverpool are rated the most likely to fail as they are 2.1 for their clash with City.
Yet Chelsea - the shortest-priced of the big four - are far from guaranteed to land the odds against Villa. Martin O'Neill has not lost to Chelsea in four league meetings as Villa manager, with three draws and one win, and last season his talented team were responsible for spiking a big four clean sweep on three separate occasions.
Last season Villa won 2-0 at home to Chelsea and then led 2-0 shortly before half-time in the reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge. Even when they fell behind twice at 3-2 and 4-3, Villa still found enough to fight back for a remarkable 4-4 draw.