As we are now into August this means one thing and one thing only in the UK, the start of another thrilling season of Premier League football action. After much drama from last season seeing the unthinkable happen with Leiceister City rising to the top, can we expect more of the same this time around in 2016-17?
For an inside look at the top teams set to contend, let’s begin with the odds courtesy of online bookmaker M88 who are touting newly appointed Pep Guardiola and Manchester City as favourites as Barclays action gets underway.
【2016-17 English Premier League Outright Winner Odds】
※ Current Odds Date & Time: August 8, 3:00 a.m. (GMT)
Manchester City
After an extremely disappointing campaign last season which ultimately led to the dismissal of Manuel Pellegrini, Manchester City fans will be hoping to bounce right back to the top of the pile in their first season under Pep Guardiola. The former Barca boss has already made five notable signings as he aims to put his stamp on the Cityzens ahead of what could be his toughest challenge yet.
Ilkay Gundogan, Nolito, Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus and Marlos Moreno have all been confirmed as new Man City players while John Stones is being hotly tipped for a move to the Etihad. Overall, it seems as if Pep is giving the squad a makeover as per his likings and a lot is expected from them over the course of the coming season.
Last Season Finish: 4th
Outright Odds: 3.30
Manchester United
Like their city rivals, Manchester United also had a disastrous season last time around which also led to the dismissal of their manager, Louis Van Gaal. The 20-time champions have had to endure a massive fall from grace and hopefully for them, the rot will stop now that they have employed Jose Mourinho as their new manager.
The former Real and Chelsea boss has already shaken up the United squad after having splashed well above 50 million pounds on Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic and with the signing of Paul Pogba looking imminent, it seems as if the club’s glory days could be about to come back.
Last Season Finish: 5th
Outright Odds: 4.00
Chelsea
Chelsea is yet another one of England’s big guns who massively faltered last time round. The Blues set the record for putting up the worst ever title defence in the history of the Premier League as they managed to finish just 10th following their title winning season. Blues legend Jose Mourinho was sacked from his post at the Bridge for the second time in his career with Italian manager Antonio Conte being hand-picked to be their new boss.
Conte, however, has not really made wholesale changes to his squad having only added Mitchy Batshuayi and N’Golo Kante to their ranks over the summer. Chelsea is expected to make a few more signings in time for the big-kick off though and despite their poor form last year, the Blues are being tipped to do well this time around.
Last Season Finish: 10th
Outright Odds: 6.50
Arsenal
Arsene Wenger leads the Gunners into a Premier League season for the 20th straight time. The veteran Frenchman has seen his fair share of good times and bad times over the years but with 12 years since his side last won the League, Wenger has come under massive scrutiny from the Arsenal faithful.
Granit Xhaka, at around 30 million pounds, is the Gunners’ only notable signing so far. Takuma Asano and Rob Holding are the two other players who the club has signed but their involvement with the first-team is expected to be minimal. Arsenal has a tough season cut out ahead of them and being one of only two top six teams to have actually performed as per their standards last season, their fans will have a fair amount of expectation from their side to kick on from last time round.
Last Season Finish: 2nd
Outright Odds: 6.50
Tottenham Hotspur
The only other team from the traditional top six other than Arsenal to have had a good season last year was Tottenham. Their third place finish in the Premier League might seem to be a poor place to finish the season considering that they were title contenders for a long, long period of time. In hindsight though, Spurs fans would have happily accepted third place had God offered it to them back at the starting of August last year.
Looking ahead to the new campaign, Spurs boss Mauricio Pocchettino has gone ahead and splashed the cash on Vincent Janssen, a forward from the Dutch league, and the South Coast’s favourite tank, Victor Wanyama. Tottenham, like any other team in the land, will have a hard time this coming season thanks to the added commitment of European football. It will be interesting to see how far the Spurs progress on all four fronts this season especially considering the fact that they now have the added pressure of being a title contender.
Last Season Finish: 3rd
Outright Odds: 9.00
Liverpool
Liverpool and their performance from last season truly resemble the protagonist from R.L. Stevenson’s most famous horror story, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Reds performance towards the opening end of the campaign was as horrendous as the character of Mr. Hyde himself. Their uncharacteristic start ultimately led to the dismissal of Brendan Rodgers who was then replaced with Jurgen Klopp.
While the Liverpool of the Klopp era didn’t instantly turn into a man as graceful and elegant as Dr. Jekyll, a transition phase of about a few months eventually made the Reds your average Joe from down the street. Two impressive cup runs and a pretty decent end to the season meant that the Reds were on a high towards the end of the campaign. But after losing both cup finals, they ended up with a superbly disappointing 8th place finish in the League while the club’s fans were left starving for much, much more.
Klopp has brought in a lot of players over the summer, a total of seven to be precise, but his business in the window has been widely praised all over. A successful campaign is what’s being expected from the Reds this time and Jurgen Klopp knows that the time to show results has officially arrived.
Last Season Finish: 8th
Outright Odds: 9.00
Leicester City
This list of the upcoming season’s title contenders could not have been complete without the Champions of last year. Leicester City, under the magnificent guidance of Claudio Ranieri, created arguably one of the most unbelievable sporting stories of all time after lifting the Premier League title ahead of household names such as Manchester United, Chlesea, Arsenal and Liverpool.
Leicester’s unshakeable title challenge stood firm over a span of nine gruelling months where the entire world predicted their good run of form to topple over towards the business end of the campaign. Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante and the rest of the Foxes squad stuck together though as they dealt with wave after wave of relentless pressure from initially Manchester City, and then Arsenal and Tottenham. This time round, Ranieri has lost the services of Kante and looks set to lose Mahrez as well, but the additions of Ahmed Musa, Nampaly Mendy, Ron-Robert Zieler and Luis Hernandez should see them continuing to be a steady Premier League force.
Last Season Finish: 1st
Outright Odds: 31.00
