At the start of the season, while many bookmakers had Manchester United down as clear favourites to land yet another top flight title, most were listing Chelsea as second favourites after finishing in the runners up position last season. However, as the clubs headed into the first international break of the campaign, all that had changed.
The stunning performances from Roberto Mancini`s Manchester City had ensured that the club had leap frogged Chelsea to become second favourites and for many, this City side has a real chance of the title this season.
At the other end of the table, three teams completed the first set of matches without picking up a single point and it may have surprised many fans to see Tottenham Hotspur propping up the rest of the table.
While Spurs are still very much an outside bet to go down, there are some clear favourites elsewhere and Blackburn Rovers` poor start to the season has seen them emerge as one of the main contenders for relegation as far as the bookmakers are concerned. At the start of the summer, the three promoted teams from the Championship, QPR, Norwich City and Swansea had the shortest odds to go down but Blackburn have now joined them.
But by far the greatest movement as far as premiership betting is concerned relates to the popular gamble over the first premier league manager to leave his post. Once again, Blackburn feature heavily and their manager Steve Kean is the odds on favourite to leave Ewood Park and become the first boss to vacate his post in 2011-12.
However, if you`d been looking to place a bet on Arsene Wenger in the `sack race` as it is affectionately known, you could have found odds as high as 50/1 back in July. However, after Arsenal`s dreadful start to the season, that price had dropped to as low as 5/1.
It does seem unlikely that Wenger will leave the Emirates before another manager loses his job but those odds make for very interesting reading.
There have been notable changes too in the betting for the Premier League`s leading goal scorer at the end of the season and while last year`s joint Golden Boot winners Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov started this campaign as the favourites, they have been overtaken by some early pacemakers.
The favourites after the premiership`s early exchanges include Wayne Rooney, Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko, all of whom are in blistering form. Betting can be very fickle in this respect and the likes of Tevez shouldn`t be ignored as a quick goal scoring blitz from any player can quickly see their odds shorten.
As the season continues, all of these odds will fluctuate to a great extent and that`s one of the reasons why premiership betting is so exciting. If you`re looking to watch live football then a bet can only add to your enjoyment of any game and over time, hopefully you can turn your premiership betting into a lucrative side line. |
