Premier League Betting: Lukaku favourite for the golden boot with Chelsea now just 11/4 for the league

It was another excellent weekend of football in the Premier League as Chelsea put in one of the most notable performances with a convincing 2-0 win at the Emirates against Arsenal. Here at BettingOdds.com we’ve taken a closer look at Tuchel’s side to analyse whether or not they could be worth backing for the league title. 

The final piece of the jigsaw

The only thing that separated Romelu Lukaku from scoring a brace on Sunday was a fine finger-tip save from Bernd Leno as he sent the Belgian attacker’s goal-bound header onto the crossbar to deny him a second.

This was in fact Lukaku’s 16th appearance for the club after he initially made his debut for the Blues almost ten years ago. It took just 15 minutes for the former Inter Milan striker to open his account after shrugging off Pablo Mari with complete ease to slot home Reece James’ cross from close range. Before the weekend, ‘Big Rom’ had been priced at 9/2 for top scorer but after his eight shots (more than the entire Arsenal team) and a goal on Sunday, he’s now into favourite at just 11/4 with most firms. 

Lukaku’s presence as an out and out striker and focal point in attack for Chelsea looks to be a match made in heaven. After his £97.5m switch from Inter Milan, he looks to have returned to the Bridge a more complete and determined striker with a certain cleverness about his game that he lacked as a youngster.

The pundits pick and into 11/4

With Manchester City being priced odds-on at 8/11 to win the league before a ball was kicked this season, plenty of pundits put up Chelsea as their pick to lift the trophy this campaign. The Blues had been 5/1 a couple of weeks ago but after two wins and two clean sheets, Thomas Tuchel’s side are now into 11/4 to claim their first title since 2016-2017 under Antonio Conte.

Last season’s Champions League winners have firmly asserted themselves as title contenders this time round and when you look at their squad, it’s easy to see why when you consider that their players are now worth over a combined €900m.

Keep Mendy’s numbers in mind

Chelsea have kept two clean sheets in their opening two games of the season and since Thomas Tuchel took over last season they have been one of the most defensively solid teams in the world. 

In their two Premier League games so far they have conceded just 0.95xGA (expected goals against), which is lower than any other side so far this term. Furthermore, since Thomas Tuchel arrived at the club, goalkeeper Edouard Mendy has made 25 appearances for Chelsea and has kept a remarkable 16 clean sheets in that period. Mendy’s record of just 14 goals conceded in 25 games under Tuchel is one that can’t be ignored and the protection in front of their defence with Jorginho and Kante is arguably the best in world football.

Record against Manchester City under Tuchel

As mentioned earlier, Chelsea have now been cut into 11/4 second favourites to win the Premier League this season and another factor worth remembering is that Thomas Tuchel beat Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City three times in just six weeks at the back end of last season.

The first of those three victories for Chelsea came on 17 April 2021 when they met in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley. A solitary Hakim Ziyech goal was enough to give Chelsea a 1-0 win and they soon followed that up on 5 May 2021 with a 2-1 victory at the Etihad in the league with goals from Ziyech once again and Marcos Alonso.

The one that must have really hurt Pep Guardiola, though, was the Champions League final. The Spaniard tweaked his side, leaving out both defensive midfielders in Rodri and Fernandinho and paid the price. Kai Havertz got the only goal of the game in Porto to give Chelsea a second Champions League trophy and one thing that is for certain, is that Pep Guardiola will be fully aware of his poor record against the German manager. 

There’s a strong case to be made for Chelsea winning the league this season and you can find a full list of odds from various bookmakers below.