Chelsea Drawing Strongest Support To Win Premiership


Manchester City is the favourite to win the league, but it’s another perennial contender drawing the most betting support on the Premier League championship odds for 2017-18.

According to Pinnacle.com, 18% of the Premier League future bets the sportsbook has received have been on defending champion Chelsea. Liverpool has also been a popular bet, drawing 16% support.

Man City is third at 15%, Man United and Arsenal are next at 14%, and 10% of tickets have been on all other teams combined (also known as “the field”.)

Premier League Championship Odds 2017-18 At Pinnacle.com

  • Manchester United: +171
  • Chelsea: +362
  • Manchester United: +377
  • Tottenham Hotspure: +806
  • Liverpool: +1106
  • Arsenal: +1106
  • Field: +2764

A Closer Look At The 3 Premier League Favourites

It’s not unusual to see Man City favoured to win the Premier League. They were also favoured to win it all at the start of the last two seasons, following a four-year run in which they finished first twice and second two other times. However, Man City has failed to meet expectations in each of the last two years, finishing third and fourth.

Offensively, it’s hard to argue with Manchester City as the favourite. They regularly lead the Premiership in possession percentage and their quick passing game is a pleasure to watch, while Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero form one of the most dangerous tandems in the league.

However, they have had weaknesses at the back end, where Claudio Bravo had the worst save percentage of any #1 keeper last year while John Stones made three defensive errors that led directly to goals. Man City hopes they’ve addressed those problems by spending a combined 150 million pounds on keeper Ederson and three new defenders, but it could also make things a little more chaotic on defence – at least in the early going until the new players settle in.

Defending champ Chelsea not only needs to fend off the danger of a letdown season, they also now need to find a way to keep scoring goals without Diego Costa. Costa’s goals last year led directly to 15 points for Chelsea, the greatest contribution by any player in the league.

There’s also no guarantee that Chelsea will be able to stay as healthy this year, a major key to their success in 2016-17. They lost only 21 games due to injury last year, enabling head coach Antonio Conte to consistently roll out the same lineup game after game.

Still, Chelsea were no fluke last year, leading the league for a total of 184 days en route to their second championship in three years. Their disciplined 3-4-3 formation proved difficult for opponents to crack, and they were able to create a lot of scoring opportunities on the counterattack. And Conte has shown in the past with Juventus that he won’t let a team get complacent after winning a championship.

After being a dominant force in the Premiership for years, it’s been difficult for Man United to simply crack the top four in recent years. Fans of the Reds hope that changes this year now that Jose Mourinho has taken charge.

Mourinho’s fingerprints are already all over the franchise with the signings of Victor Lindelof and Romelu Lukaku. Lukaku is one of the favourites to win the Golden Boot this season, and Man United will need a strong offensive year from him in order to fill the big shoes left by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Manchester United needs to do a better job of pulling out victories instead of settling for draws, especially at home where their 10 ties were the most in Premier League history. But if they can simply improve on their 35.5% shooting percentage of last year, there could be a lot of value on Man U at this price.

Premier League 2017-18 Top Four Odds And Relegation Odds

Top Four Finish

  • Manchester City: -900
  • Chelsea: -500
  • Manchester United: -500
  • Tottenham Hotspur: -200
  • Liverpool: +100
  • Arsenal: -200

To Be Relegated

  • Huddersfield Town: -175
  • Burnley: +115
  • Brighton and Hove Albion: +120
  • Watford +160
  • Swansea City: +200
  • Newcastle United: +350
  • Stoke City: +400
  • Crystal Palace: +400
  • West Brom: +550
  • Bournemouth AFC: +550
  • West Ham United: +900