After a poor 10th place finish in the 2015-16 premier league season (explaining their odds of 13/2 to win the league at the start of the this season), Chelsea certainly upped their game in 2016-17 by topping the league table with an impressive 93 points. In fact their year was something of a record breaker with no previous premier league example of a team being able to rack up 30 wins in a season. For a team that started the season fourth favourite (behind Arsenal at 6-1, Manchester United at 5-1 and Manchester City at 9/4) it was certainly a good showing!
The bookies have taken this on board when looking ahead to the 2018 season. Chelsea are currently 2nd favourite at 3-1 to win the league. Last season’s favourites, Manchester City, haven’t budged as favourites though, and so have another opportunity to prove themselves. They’re the same odds as last season (9/4)! It’s been a very topsy turvy couple of years in the league though (I still can’t quite get my head around Leicester topping the table in 2016!) and so I’m sure I’m not the first to caution against lumping on at those odds. It’s unlikely there will be much of a shift in odds over the first 3 or 4 games, so it may be best to get a feel of how things are starting to pan out!