Punters should be flocking to Betfair, where customers have been able to snap up a price of 3.1 on Chelsea winning the Premier League this season. It is a strange price for the second favourites really, because the stats are on their side to suggest that they are a much stronger challenger for the title than that.
Perhaps the distant price is all down to Jose Mourinho, who has insisted all season long that his side aren’t genuine title challengers.
The Special One was quick to press home that fact after a tremendous 1-0 victory at the Etihad against Champions-elect Man City on the weekend, saying “The title race is between two horses and a little horse that needs milk and needs to learn how to jump. Maybe next season we can race… I don’t agree we are title contenders.”
The price that was hanging at Betfair seemed to suggest that punters were believing firmly in Mourinho’s words. There is little other explanation as to why the Blues would be so distant from 2.12 market leaders Man City in the title race. A quick look at some stats suggests that Chelsea are certainly have some massive title potential this season, despite what Mourinho says.
The Blues have strung together the Premier League’s longest unbeaten run (nine games), and they have posted the meanest defence in the top flight this season. That speaks volumes, and their clean sheet against City showed how strong they are at the back. They also remain the only Premier League side not to have lost at home this season, and they have taken down Man City, many people’s champions-elect, both home and away this term.
What more of a title contender could they be?
City have a far superior goal difference to that of Chelsea, and that is worth an extra point in their bank in the title race. That isn’t going to change over the course of the title run in. But Chelsea have gotten most of their tough fixtures out of the way, and their only remaining away game against a side currently in the top-nine is a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool. Man City still have to go to Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton and that could be a deciding factor come may.
