Date: 4th December 2016 at 6:24pm
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Usually, a third of the season in and the Premier League narrative is quite straightforward: one of the established top-flight heavyweight clubs separates from the chasing pack and rides the momentum to the finish line. [Cue: bus parade]. Of course, suppose most will say, ‘what about Leicester City?’ Which is a salient point. But – let’s face it – we must be able to agree that 2015-16 was a one off campaign, a fairy-tale run for the ages that defied logic, fundamental football reasoning and, not least of all, the football odds. By now the ginormous losses incurred by bookmakers has gone down into sports betting folklore.

From the start of this Premier League season, the campaign was supposed to be all about Manchester City. After all, they’d scooped up the most desirable manager in Pep Guardiola. How could bookies not colour Premier League betting markets in their particular swash of blue when his accomplishments with Barcelona and Bayern Munich speak volumes and had Man City fans giddy all summer, impatient for the season to get underway.

Well, underway it is… 14 laps in to be exact. Lo and behold, the Citizens aren’t exactly riding roughshod over the table as preseason marketers had it. It’s a crush of clubs at the top with Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal and Tottenham all nipping at each other’s heels.

Granted Guardiola’s side is in the mix all right. Sat in fourth-place after 14 laps around the league with 30 points, level with Liverpool and only four points adrift of current leaders Chelsea. Recent form has been a bit –oh, dunno, shall we say – up and down. They don’t have the look of a sure-fire champion, and mumblings of a crisis in Man City, insider strife with management and player dissatisfaction all contribute to this feeling of uncertainty that permeates from them.

That’s not to say they won’t win it. It would be premature to dismiss Man City so early into the 2016-17 campaign. Bookies adamantly maintain the Sky Blues are the Premier League betting favourite priced at 2.75 football odds, well ahead of Chelsea 3.50 and Liverpool 4.00. Funny enough well ahead of Arsenal (backed out to a whopping 9.00) and Tottenham (backed out to staggering against-odds of 17.00).

What is glaringly obvious even to the neutral football betting fan is just how packed of a house it is at the top of the table. Theoretically, each have a credible shot at the title. That includes yours truly Arsenal.

Bookmakers do appear rather hasty in writing off Arsenal. (For that matter, Mauricio Pochettino and his young Spurs might have a bone to pick with marketers too seeing as they’re considered long shots). How they can say Arsenal trailing by three points don’t have a shot better than the 9.00 football odds suggests, beggars belief.

Whatever the reasoning is behind this football betting outlook isn’t the point. Point is, for Gunners’ fans this amounts to a value football wager, one to make now before the football odds shorten.

 

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