Chelsea climbed to the top of the table at the close of match day 12, but they are not the bookies favourite to win the coveted Premier League title. That is the principality of Man City, always has been since markets went to press with preseason football outrights. Should the market be taking Antonio Conte’s side a lot more seriously than it currently is?
The way the football betting market is cast right now bookies are making a clear distinction between Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham. Listing the clubs in the aforementioned order on the betting odds board and, crucially, backing out the latter two to the point of seemingly writing them entirely out of the frame.
It does make you wonder though, with four of those clubs theoretically within touching distance of the summit, whether such a distinction is merited never mind being a true assessment of their credible threat.
At a best-price of 3.60 for Chelsea to win the title, markets aren’t exposing themselves to the kind of losses they endured with Leicester City last term but they’re not giving the Blues the respect they deserve as current leaders.
Consider back in September they were written off (backed out to 26.00) following defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal, the sheer fightback to claw to the top of England’s top flight is impressive. Add to that the fact that they boast seven clean sheets since the last of those so-called defining defeats (3-0 to Arsenal at the Emirates) in Premier League and you get a sense of just what a turning point it really was for both Antonio Conte and his precious Blues. They’ve not looked back since and reeled off 17 goals in the process, as if to exorcise those demons on hapless opponents.
In any event, for Chelsea fans this is the time to pounce on the market if you haven’t already placed your bets. You won’t get football odds as high as 26.00 anytime soon – something would have to go spectacularly wrong for Chelsea in order for markets to flirt with such hefty football odds again.
Keep in mind, next up is the key match with Man City. Should Chelsea get the better of the tie – reasonable to assume they might seeing the Blues have form and City are mired in multiple campaigns, looking at a jam-packed, pressure-filled schedule in the lead up to Christmas – you can bet the market will be forced to realign accordingly and the value on Chelsea will be lost.
