The Beach Ball assigns Liverpool to their fourth defeat of season and adds to the pressure on Rafa Benitez

The Odds on Rafa Benitez to be the next Premier League manager sacked have been cut by bookmakers following the bizarre events at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon. When any manager’s job comes in to question, reasons including fall out with the board, fan pressure, loss of the dressing room or bad tactical decisions are often cited as reasons for a bad run of form but a balloon scoring the winning goal in a game is one reason for pressure mounting on a manager that will take some beating!

The only goal in the game came in the most surreal circumstances when Darren Bent’s fifth minute shot deflected off a beach ball, emblazoned with the Liverpool crest which had been thrown on to the pitch by a Reds supporter. Unfortunately, the Press Association who report on the time of goals and goalscorers for the Premiership did not give the goal to ‘Inflatable Ball from the Official Liverpool FC Beach set’  instead opting to credit the goal to Bent. However, the fact remains that it was the only goal of the game and assigned Liverpool to their fourth defeat of the season, two more than the whole of last season and just nine games in to the season.

Bookmakers have reacted by slashing the odds on Benitez to be the next Premiership manager to be sacked with Paddy Power more than halving the odds that were available last week. The Spaniard is now 8/1 in the Irish bookmaker’s next Premier League boss to leave betting market, cut from the 18/1 available before Saturday’s game and those odds could well retract further in the coming week with the Merseyside club facing two crucial games.

On Tuesday night, Liverpool face a crucial Champions League game against French side Lyon which the Reds must win if they are to maintain any hope of qualifying for the knock out stages of the competition following a 2-0 defeat to Roma last time out. They then welcome arch rivals Man Utd to Anfield on Sunday in what is one of the most eagerly anticipated Premier League clashes of the season. Anything less than a win in either of these crunch games is sure to add further pressure to co-chairman, George Gillett and Tom Hicks, to consider  the position of Rafa Benetiz as Liverpool manager.