Chelsea will start their season as the 2/1 favourites to win the Premier League title, with the Manchester clubs 9/4 joint second favourites, Arsenal 10s and 33/1 bar the four.
The Blues were 9/2 when we began betting on the market at BetVictor but the return of the Special One has meant those odds have shrunk considerably although, at the time of writing, there has not been the marquee signing one might have expected.
Chelsea have two very winnable looking home games before they travel to Old Trafford on Monday week, with Hull the visitors to the Bridge on Sunday before they entertain Villa on Wednesday.
They are unbeaten in their four previous league games against Hull and it is over 25 years since the Tigers beat Chelsea.
It would be some surprise if they bucked that trend this weekend. Chelsea are 2/9 to win the game and, daft as it might sound, that could be good value when you consider they have won 12 and lost none of their opening weekend fixtures in the Premier League.
We have a number of discreet markets at BetVictor for Blues fans this term including:
Chelsea to remain unbeaten at home in the Premier League: 7/2
To go the whole season unbeaten in the Premier League: 50/1
Top Chelsea Premier League goalscorer 2013/14:
Torres 10/3
Lukaku 10/3
Lampard 5/1
Ba 6/1
Mata 6/1
Hazard 8/1
Schurrie 12/1
Chelsea to win a trophy this season: 8/11
Not to win a trophy: 11/10
Premier League and FA Cup: 20/1
Premier League and Capital One Cup: 25/1
Premier League and Champions League: 40/1
All four major trophies: 500/1
Fulham travel to Sunderland and if punters have got behind Chelsea during pre-season the same cannot be said about the Whites, who are 12/5 to win at the Stadium of Light despite not having lost at Sunderland in their last four visits.
The Black Cats only won one of their last eight games at home last season and I think Martin Jol’s men can get a draw, which is also priced at 12/5.
Dimitar Berbatov is 6/1 to open the scoring and 9/5 to net at any time. More about the season-long markets for Fulham next week ahead of the visit of Arsenal.
To mark the start of the Premier League season, we at BetVictor are giving customers, old and new, a cracking offer: place a treble on the opening weekend fixtures and, irrespective of whether you win or lose, we will give you the same bet free up to a maximum of £25 on the second set of fixtures next weekend.
The treble involving Liverpool (home to Stoke), Arsenal (home to Villa) and Manchester City (home to Newcastle) has been the most popular to date at 8/5, with punters having the insurance of having a free bet next weekend to the same stake whatever the outcome of the fixtures.
For all your weekend odds check out betvictor.com.
Be lucky
Charlie
This post was last modified on 18/08/2013