Sports Blog 09/08/2016: Football Preview – Premier League, Saturday 13th August 2016 to Sunday 21st May 2017

With Sunday’s FA Community Shield providing the first proper taste of Premier League football, and the season’s kick-off only a few days away, it’s time to take a look at the wealth of top flight spreads on offer at Spreadex.

First up is the Premier League Index, where the champions get 60 points, the runners-up 40, 3rd place 20, 4th place 10 and 5th place 5. The newly Pep Guardiola-led Manchester City sit atop of the index, at a spread of 33-36, with Mourinho’s Manchester United, winners of the Community Shield at the weekend, just behind at 27-30.



A fair bit lower than the Manc pair are London duo Arsenal and Chelsea, who both head into the new season at a spread of 19-22; that would mark a huge improvement for the Conte-helmed, and Kante-buying, latter, and a familiarly frustrating finish for the former. With Klopp set for his first full season in charge Liverpool then pop up at 13-16, while Tottenham, who blew their title-chances last year, find themselves on the outskirts of the top 5 at 11-14. As for Leicester, well, our traders aren’t expecting lightening to strike twice, offering a Premier League Index spread of 1-3.



Unsurprisingly the same side comprise Spreadex’s Trophy Trail Index, where 75 points are awarded for winning the Champions League, 50 for winning the Premier League and 25 for lifting the FA Cup. Once again Man City top the Index at a spread of 21-15; City are desperate for a Champions League title are will be expecting Guardiola, a man who won the competition twice with Barcelona, to at the very least lead them to the semi-finals. Last year’s FA Cup winners Man United are then at 13-17, followed by Arsenal, whose 10-14 spread surely comes from their cup form rather than hopes of European or domestic success. Round out the Trophy Trail Index are Chelsea at 9-13, Tottenham at 6-9 and Liverpool at 5-8.



Of course the Premier League season isn’t all about glory. There is plenty of money to be made from those struggling at the bottom of the table, with Spreadex’s Relegation Index seeing 20th place receive 50 points, 19th place receive 25 points and 18th place take 10 points. Somewhat inevitably the top 3 spots on the Relegation Index are inhabited by the latest promotees, with play-off victors Hull at 18-21, Championship winners Burnley at 16-19 and runners-up Middlesbrough at 9-12. Yet last season, of course, only 1 of the 3 promoted sides got the chop, Norwich joined by Newcastle and Aston Villa. Up for a potential shock Premier League exit, then, are Watford and Sunderland, both at 5-9, West Brom at 5-8 and Swansea at 4-7.