Seeing as the fixtures for the 2017/18 season are being released on Wednesday morning I thought now would be a good time to start the thread for next season.

 

 

Title Odds:

 

Manchester City 2/1

Chelsea 3/1

Manchester United 7/2

Tottenham 8/1

Liverpool 9/1

Arsenal 12/1

Everton 100/1

Southampton 150/1

Leicester 200/1

Newcastle 500/1

Stoke 500/1

West Ham 500/1

Bournemouth 750/1

Crystal Palace 750/1

West Brom 750/1

Brighton 1000/1

Burnley 1000/1

Huddersfield 1000/1

Swansea 1000/1

Watford 1000/1

 

Source: William Hill

Relegation Odds

 

Huddersfield 4/7

Brighton 6/5

Burnley 5/4

Swansea 7/4

Watford 7/4

Crystal Palace 7/2

Bournemouth 4/1

Newcastle 4/1

West Brom 4/1

Stoke 7/1

West Ham 8/1

Leicester 16/1

Southampton 20/1

Everton 50/1

Arsenal 500/1

Liverpool 500/1

Tottenham 750/1

Chelsea 1000/1

Manchester City 1000/1

Manchester United 1000/1

 

Source: William Hill

I'm going to try and effect my best Chris 'Swami' Berman here, with both my top and bottom 4 prognostications before a single fixture in the new season upcoming being played...

 

Top 4

 

1 Tottenham

2 Chelsea

3 Manchester City

4 Arsenal

 

Bottom 4

17 Crystal Palace

18 Burnley

19 Huddersfield

20 Brighton

 

Bold? I reckon. Different? To be sure....thus sayeth 'the swami'.....

 

Now to see how this plays out by Championship Sunday May 2018....

I'm making no predictions until I see who everyone signs!

 

However, I do feel Crystal Palace could be in trouble this year. Be interesting to see who they get as manager.

I'm surprised the bookies have Manchester City as favourites, haven't they learnt from the past two seasons? Manchester City always start really well by winning their first 5 or 6 matches then they lose form and tail off.

Watford will be a contender for relegation if they continue their downwards slump. They'll struggle this season.

 

 

Fixtures set to be released in about 15 minutes time.

 

Looking forward to that.

 

 

Opening Day:

 

Arsenal v Leicester

Brighton v Man City

Chelsea v Burnley

Crystal Palace v Huddersfield

Everton v Stoke

Man Utd v West Ham

Newcastle v Tottenham

Southampton v Swansea

Watford v Liverpool

West Brom v Bournemouth

 

 

Final Day:

Burnley v AFC Bournemouth

Crystal Palace v West Bromwich Albion

Huddersfield Town v Arsenal

Liverpool v Brighton

Manchester United v Watford

Newcastle United v Chelsea

Southampton v Manchester City

Swansea City v Stoke City

Tottenham Hotspur v Leicester City

West Ham United v Everton

 

List of fixtures:

 

https://www.premierleague.com/news/408956?sf88382301=1

 

 

What do you make of the opening day fixtures?

 

 

Brighton's run-in is similar to Bournemouth's in their first season - three of the last four matches are against Tottenham, Man Utd and Liverpool. Clearly need to be outside the bottom three before getting to those matches.

Quite a tricky first match for Man United, hopefully the Theatre Of Draws wont strike again in that match against West Ham. December looks like a tough month for us with back to back matches against Arsenal & Manchester City. I'm almost certain that the match against West Ham will be played on a Sunday or Monday instead of the 12th August placeholder date that has been given, especially as we're playing Real Madrid in the Super Cup a few days earlier.

Super Cup is the 8th? Or 10th? I know it's mid week. Heard nowt about tickets yet like

Puel SACKED

Was he not sacked 2

Weeks ago??

BBC Sport has it as breaking news as of 10 mins ago:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40051080

A strange decision from Southampton to sack Claude Puel, they did quite well last season with a top 10 finish and an appearance in the EFL Cup final. Maybe Alan Pardew will take over next?

Was expecting that some point Puel being sacked. Who now for Southampton?

Were Southampton genuinely expecting better than a top 8 finish & a cup final? Delusional...

With a Top8 and a cup final appearance, I would consider that a very good season for Southampton. But obviously the owners weren't happy.

 

 

A strange decision from Southampton to sack Claude Puel, they did quite well last season with a top 10 finish and an appearance in the EFL Cup final. Maybe Alan Pardew will take over next?

I can't see him being their style at all. Can't think of anyone off the top of my head, Silva from Hull was perhaps the obvious one and I wonder whether he might be thinking that he should have turned Watford down.

It's odd that it's happened so late after the season. There must have been discussions with Puel and Soton not happy with his ambitions or aims or attitude. Either that or they've been courting a free manager and have given him the shove so they can get him