Premiership Preview
Now calculated in days and hours rather than months and weeks, the business end of pre-season is upon us as spread bettors countdown to the new Premier League season. Despite months of transfer tittle tattle, other than Manchester City's oil-rich owners signing blank cheques to fund Mark Hughes' expensive shopping tastes all summer, there has so far been a level of circumspection not often witnessed in the cash-fuelled Premier League years.
With The Citizens sticking to premium purchases, local rivals Manchester United have dipped their hands in the bargain bin, picking up a few untried items and another approaching its best before end date. Chelsea have gone for a pick and mix approach, rather than on a spree of glamour buys that were the staple of yesteryear, and Rafa Benitez has managed to prize open the Anfield purse strings just once to tighten further an already stingy defence. Spread betting punters may look upon this comparative inactivity by City's rivals as a chance for them to loosen the four-way stranglehold at the league summit and consider buying their spread in the outright index. However, to do this, Sparky's side will need to significantly improve on their points earned; they have a five-year average of 48.4 - way off the 68.8 mean for fourth place - a statistic that will concern spread punters buying their overall total.
Spread sellers of debt-ridden Arsenal's league points will see that Arsne Wenger has again been reluctant to make significant changes. But the Gunners boss is unlikely to modify his thrifty policy any time soon - although he may be forced to add following Samir Nasri's leg-break - confident in the knowledge that his side have the third-best average points tally from the past five years at 74.6. Sporting Index soccer traders will be interested to know that Chelsea are top-dogs here with a Mourinho-era-boosted-figure of 87.4, leading The Red Devils who weigh-in second with 85.2, in spite of a hat trick of league wins in the last three years.
The once-illustrious trio of Spurs, Everton and Aston Villa have shown glimpses of past glories in recent seasons with a mixture of cup final appearances and promising league runs. Premier League spread bettors may feel that with each having a shrewd and wily British manager in the hot seat, they will be competitive in the Premier League Championship Index where 60 points are awarded to the winners, 40 to second, 30 to third, 20 to fourth, ten to fifth place and five to the team ranked sixth.
While ostensibly harbouring dreams of gatecrashing the division's higher reaches, the remaining 12 sides will be happy to survive. However, the beauty of spread betting is that punters can bet not just on how well a team will do, but also how badly. Comprised by also-rans West Ham, Fulham, Wigan, Blackburn, Bolton and Portsmouth, yo-yo clubs Birmingham, Wolves and Sunderland and inexperienced Burnley, the Premier League Relegation Index should be fascinating. Joined by Hull and Stoke who will be battling against the second season syndrome that so afflicted Reading and Ipswich in recent years, it is an inverse of the Championship Index where the bottom side gets 60 points, second-from-last take 50, and so on.
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