Premier League Betting: City now the 4/11 favourites for another league title
After last night’s 5-0 romping away at West Brom, bookmakers are now giving Manchester City a 73% implied probability of winning this season’s Premier League with odds of 4/11. It’s a campaign that has certainly been unprecedented for obvious reasons and a new record was set last night with Pep Guardiola’s side becoming the ninth team to top the table this season.
Arsenal, Leicester, Everton, Southampton, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City have all been first in the Premier League standings at some point this term. Just like with our government, it’s been a case of expect the unexpected on the playing field, however one thing we have been used to over the last four years that has returned over recent weeks is Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City playing some of the best football on the planet.
Blue Moon Rising Again
At Christmas, Manchester City sat eighth in the table after 13 games played. The four-time Premier League winners were eight points behind first-placed Liverpool and were priced at 9/4 with the bookmakers to claim a fifth title.
Since then, City have won all six of their league fixtures, accumulating an aggregate score of 17-1. That’s a run of 18 games unbeaten in all competitions now for the Sky Blues, and even with the loss of Kevin De Bruyne for a few weeks, it’s hard to see their form changing.
One striking element of Manchester City’s recent impressive showings has been the central defensive pairing of John Stones and Ruben Dias. The duo have started 12 games for Pep Guardiola this season, with Manchester City winning 11 of those matches without conceding. With just one goal conceded between them when starting, Stones and Dias have brought solidity to a side that had kept just two clean sheets in their first eight league games.
The Slump
On the flip side, Liverpool are enduring their worst run of form for many years. On Chritsmas day the Reds topped the pile after being 9/4 to do so pre-season. Bookmakers had made them odds-on favourites at ⅚ to make it back-to-back titles heading into Boxing Day, but since then Jurgen Klopp’s mentality monsters have failed to score in four league matches.
Stalemates against Fulham, Newcastle and Manchester United, alongside defeats to Southampton and Burnley, have left many asking how a team that have performed so highly over recent years can suddenly have such a drastic change in form. Fatigue, pandemic related problems, fixture pile ups and injuries have undoubtedly had a part to play in the recent slump, but the facts are that the Reds need to turn their form around, and fast. Just 12 points separate the top 12 sides at the minute and a prolonged period of under-performance could be costly in this most unforgiving campaign.
They Couldn’t, Could They?
Having a look at the odds currently available in the Premier League Winner market, and Liverpool are now the biggest price they have been all season at 9/1 with BetVictor. Behind Manchester City (4/11) in the market we have Manchester United, who can be backed at 6/1.
After being branded a ‘P.E Teacher’ by many social media football fanatics, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer endured a positive second quarter of the season and has seen his team go top of table, which they can do once again with a win over Sheffield United this evening.
No team took more points than United in the calendar year 2020 and a large number of those came due to the impact of Bruno Fernandes. The Portuguese midfielder has 11 goals and seven assists to his name this term and is currently the 2/1 favourite to be crowned this 2020/21 PFA Player of the year with BetVictor.
With no league title since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure in 2013, United’s performances, particularly away from home, have given fans belief that their period of suffering could well be coming to an end. With burnout set to become an even bigger issue in the second half of the campaign, we feel it would require a serious underperformance from City to miss out on the title from this stage. The return of Sergio Aguero or a January signing such as Diego Costa, which has been rumoured over recent days, would only bolster the chances of City’s dreams coming true, in blue.
