It’s never too early to get excited about the Premier League’s 2016/17 launch,

With Pep Guardiola taking the reins, a man who has won 3 La Liga, 3 Bundesliga and 2 Champions League titles as a manager (not to mention 6 La Liga titles, 1 European Cup and 1 Olympic Gold medal as a player), Manchester City understandably top the table with a Season Points spread of 75.5-77. That compares favourably to the 66 points collected in Manuel Pellegrini’s final season at the club, and could well see City claim their first Premier League title since 2013/14. Guardiola’s already been busy, nabbing Borussia Dortmund’s Ilkay Gundogan and Celta Vigo’s Nolito; not the splashiest signings, but promising nonetheless.



Hot on Guardiola’s heels is his bitter rival Jose Mourinho, whose Manchester United head into August at a Season Points spread of 74.5-76. Like Guardiola the Special One has already raided Dortmund, nabbing Henrikh Mkhitaryan, as well as poaching Eric Bailly from Villarreal. Yet his most exciting signing was a freebie, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic rocking up to effectively end his career at Old Trafford, and, ideally, get revenge on Guardiola, a man who he referred to as a ‘spineless coward’ in his autobiography.

Just behind the Manchester pair are Arsenal and Chelsea, who both go into the new season at a Points spread of 70.5-72. For the former that is almost identical to the 71 point finish they managed in 2015/16; for the latter it’s a big improvement on the paltry 50 the then-champions ended up with. While there isn’t yet much to suggest a drastically different Gunners side (Switzerland’s Granit Xhaka the only signing), Chelsea have already seen widespread alterations. Most notably former Italy chief Antonio Conte is now at the helm, a firecracker who has a similar player/manager success rate as Guardiola. Conte has also arguably done the best bit of business of the summer so far, snaffling N’Golo Kante for a cool £30 million.

Moving down the table and in his first full season at Liverpool our traders expect Jurgen Klopp to be knocking on the title’s door, offering a Points spread of 67.5-69, just ahead of last year’s bronze medallists Tottenham, who go into August at 66.5-68. Both sides have been busy depleting Southampton’s squad; the Reds took Sadio Mane, while Spurs grabbed Victor Wanyama. Nevertheless that our Spreadex traders still expect the Saints to finish in the top 10, offering a Season Points spread of 51-52.5.



And what of our defending champions Leicester? Well, at the risk of underestimating them once again Spreadex are offering a Season Points spread of 55-56.5, a fair whack below the 81 points accrued in their historic title win. Even with Jamie Vardy (who opted to stay at Leicester rather than join Arsenal) the Foxes may struggle to recapture last year’s form, especially given the loss of Kante.

Rounding out the potential top half are West Ham and Everton, who sit at Season Points spreads of 53.5-55 and 53-54.5 respectively. Both clubs face big changes this season. For the Hammers that involves a different stadium, the side now taking up residence at the Olympic Stadium; for the Toffees it’s a new manager, Ronald Koeman leaving Southampton to replace Roberto Martinez.

Outside of those 10 sides the newly promoted clubs fare the worst: Middlesbrough are at 37.5-39, while Hull are at 35-36.5 and Burnley are at 34.5 to 36. Set to join them in the relegation battle are Watford (at 39.5-41), and maybe West Brom and Sunderland (both at 40-41.5).

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