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Manchester City Favored To Repeat As Premier League Champions

The English Premier League season ended less than two weeks ago and bookmakers are already looking ahead to the 2014-2015 campaign.  A number of sports books have already posted futures book odds on next season’s EPL championship winners and astute bettors can find good value now if they’ve got a strong opinion.

Manchester City is celebrating their second Premiership title in the past three seasons which has propelled them into the ‘power elite’ of English football along with Chelsea and Manchester United.  According to SportsBettingInfo.com , while neither team will be catching Manchester United’s record of 20 all time championships any time soon Manchester City has equaled Chelsea with four titles.  If bookmakers are correct they could surpass Jose Mourinho’s team next season—Manchester City has been installed as a +175 favorite to win their fifth Barclays Premier League title next season.

While there is plenty of precedent for teams winning back to back EPL titles the past five years have seen Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea take turns wearing the crown.  The current economic realities of high level soccer suggest that this trend could continue.  Players on championship level teams are tempted to make a move elsewhere while their ‘market value’ is at its highest.  At the same time the teams that fell short—particularly the deep pocketed teams at the top of the Premier League table—are willing to make aggressive moves to improve their fortunes quickly.

Chelsea is second favorite at +225 after finishing the season in third place four points behind Manchester City.  Manchester United is the third choice at +450 despite their dreadful season this year.  Man U finished in 7th place a whopping 22 points out of first—a performance that resulted in a comprehensive overhaul of the coaching staff with Louis Van Gaal taking over and Ryan Giggs retiring as an active player to serve as his assistant.

Liverpool came achingly close to winning their first Premiership title since 1989-90 and ended up settling for second place just two points behind Manchester City.  Despite this impressive showing they’re only the #4 choice in the futures betting market at +650.  They’re followed by Arsenal at +900 with every other team in the league priced at 50/1 or higher.  When you consider that Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal have won 21 of the last 22 titles that isn’t surprising.  The last time a team outside of the power quartet emerged as champion was the Blackburn Rovers who won in 1994-1995.

If you want to take a flyer on an upset winner for 2014-2015 you might want to take a look at Everton.  Everton has a legacy of success at the top level of English football and finished 5th last season though they were 14 points behind Manchester City.   It would certainly be a shock if one of the powerhouse teams didn’t win next year’s title but should Everton break through you’d be rewarded handsomely—they’re currently priced at +12500.

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