With the return of the English Premier League, we spoke to Bet9ja Ambassador Victor Ikpeba, about what is set to unfold over the next year.
One hot topic at the start of every season is the main relegation candidates – will a new side exceed all expectations, or will they crash back down to the EFL Championship at their first time of asking?
So Victor, who do you have as your three main relegation candidates?
VI: This is always a difficult question. Vincent Kompany’s Burnley had the hardest start possible against Manchester City and this season will be a real test of his quality as a manager.
It’s completely different coming up from the Championship – instead of being expected to win nearly every game in order to get promoted, you have to take every point that you can get in order to reach the magic 40 point mark.
It will be a tough season for Burnley but if they make sure that their squad is as strong as possible when the transfer window closes and they stay consistent with their team selections and performances, they could take some points off the big teams and win enough to stay up. After all, they did create a couple of good chances against Manchester City before Erling Haaland took over.
How do you see the other two promoted sides Sheffield United and Luton Town doing?
VI: I think for sure that one of Sheffield and Luton will go down – Luton made it to the Premier League against all odds and are a bit of an unknown quantity so I think many people look at their squad and assume that they’ll be favourites to be relegated, but you never know.
Sheff Utd relegation odds at Bet9ja: 1.44
Last season Nottingham Forest were newly promoted and with a lot of new players who took a while to gel together, but eventually they hit a good run of form that was enough to stay up. In the same way, Leicester City started strongly but then couldn’t buy a win towards the end of the season which led to their relegation.
Usually after the first 10 or 15 games of the season you can tell who will be the teams most likely to go down, but the beauty of the Premier League and the beauty of football is that you never really know until it’s all over. This season more than ever, it will be difficult for any of the promoted sides to stay up.
Who do you think will be relegated this season? Bet on your favourites to go down at Bet9ja!
