Premiership Odds – England will be colored Chelsea blue in 2009-10
This year’s Premiership odds are giving a slight betting advantage to the defending champions from Manchester United, but Chelsea has a new coach and is looking to get the crown back.
Premiership odds: Chelsea will stop United title run at three in a row
- Ronaldo loss, aging van der Sar will hurt United
- Ancelotti will have Chelsea fired up
- Manchester City have become the new Chelsea with their spending tactics
United are rated at +235 to win their fourth straight Premiership title, but they’ll have to find a way to replace the 40 goals lost when Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez left the club. Michael Owen has been solid in preseason action, but he’ll have to prove he can stay healthy. This means Wayne Rooney will have a more central role, which is a good thing for United and for the English national team. Anderson and Nani will be counted on since Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are getting on in years, while Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic are still England’s best defensive partnership until they fall. Ben Foster should also get more time in goal as Edwin van der Sar will be 39 in October.
Chelsea comes in with soccer lines of +250, and the Blues lured Carlo Ancelotti away from A.C. Milan to try and lead them back to a Premiership title, and maybe the Champions League. The spine of the team is Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, captain John Terry and Petr Cech, who didn’t have a great year in goal for Chelsea. Florent Malouda and John Obi Mikel signed new contracts, and they’ll need to back up their big paydays. Andriy Shevchenko returns from his loan spell at Milan, but he’ll have a hard time cracking the lineup with Drogba and Nicolas Anelka up front. Another huge addition: a healthy Joe Cole, who missed half of last season with a knee injury.
Liverpool’s title bid came up just short last season, and they’re back with Premiership odds of +320. The addition of Glen Johnson from Portsmouth will help out the backline, and Liverpool is still trying to fend off Real Madrid’s offers for the midfield duo of Xavi Alonso and Javier Mascherano. The attack is led by Fernando Torres and captain Steven Gerrard, whose ability to go forward is only possible because of Alonso and Mascherano.
Arsenal has fallen down the pecking order in the Premiership, and they have soccer betting odds of +900 for the 2009-10 campaign. Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure have left for Manchester City, but Robin Van Persie re-upped with the Gunners, now all he needs is to stay healthy. Cesc Fabregas is still drawing offers from all around Europe, and a healthy Tomas Rosicky would be a major help to Fabregas in the midfield. The goals should come from Andrei Arvashin and Theo Walcott, and many people are waiting to see more from Arvashin after his four-goal performance in a match at Liverpool last season.
Manchester City is the wild card of the season with odds of +1400, and they spent almost $160 million during the offseason. The strike pairing of Tevez and Adebayor will be under an intense amount of pressure, while Gareth Barry strengthens the midfield along with Stephen Ireland. Of course, the likes of Robinho, Shawn Wright-Phillips, Shay Given and Micah Richards are in town, and with their talent, they should be able to get into a Champions League spot. The question remains: how quickly can they gel, and is there enough playing time to keep everyone happy?
Tottenham is the perennial darkhorse at +12000, and their big buy of the summer was 6’7” Peter Crouch from Portsmouth. With Crouch joining Jermain Defoe and captain Robbie Keane, Spurs will be able to score goals: the problem is keeping enough defenders on the field. Ledley King, Michael Dawson and Jonathan Woodgate are all injury prone and may not even be able to start the season.
TODD’S PICK: In 17 years of the Premiership, only once has a team outside of Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea won the league title (Blackburn, 1994-95). Arsenal is still too young and they struggle to score goals, so they’re out. For all of City’s spending, manager Mark Hughes still isn’t on the level of United’s Sir Alex Ferguson, Liverpool’s Rafa Benitez and Chelsea’s Ancelotti. Liverpool defends too heavily on Torres and Gerrard, so unless someone steps up, they’re out. So that leaves United and Chelsea, winners of the last five titles. Ferguson’s guile on the bench will keep United in it all season, but unless Nani or Anderson blossoms into the next Ronaldo, replacing the World Player of the Year will be tough. If anything, Chelsea may be even stronger, and they have one of the best coaches in the business in Ancelotti. Go with Chelsea in your offshore sportsbook.
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