Matters are a little bit closer in the Premier League now than they were a couple weeks ago, but Manchester City is still the odds on favorite to claim its fifth championship in team history.
ODDS TO WIN THE BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
Manchester City -118
Arsenal +230
Manchester United +650
Chelsea +2000
Liverpool +3300
Field (Any Other Team) +7300
GUNNERS COMING ON STRONG
Arsenal made a real statement to kick off October when it knocked off Manchester United 3-0 at the Emirates. Yes, the Gunners are struggling in the Champions League, where they have already been beaten by Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos, but here in the Premier League, you wouldn't know that there are any problems.
Danny Welbeck will come back to the team at some point this year, and at that point, Arsene Wenger is going to have some real choices to make. Olivier Giroud has already basically lost his spot to Theo Walcott, while Alexis Sanchez has to be a first-team choice each and every match.
Arsenal also has a really nice stretch of matches here in the near future to try to pick up some ground on Manchester City. The Gunners are at Watford, home against Everton, at Swansea, home against Tottenham and at West Brom between now and Thanksgiving, and all of those matches are going to end up being winnable.
THE CASE FOR THE FIELD
Generally speaking, there is no case for the field in soccer, knowing that the big time teams always end up winning the championship. In fact, ever since 1994-95 when Blackburn Rovers won the Premier League, the only teams who have won the championship have been Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool, the five teams listed here against the field.
However, Crystal Palace is hanging in there better than most would have figured, while both Leicester City and West Ham have hung in, too.
What really separates Crystal Palace at this point is the fact that it already has three wins on the road, the same amount as Man City and Arsenal. If the Eagles can continue to win on the road consistently, they'll hang in there at the top for quite some time.
MANCHESTER CITY STILL THE MEN TO BEAT
With 18 points in eight matches, we still think Man City is the team to beat in the Premier League, and it is deserving of being a -118 favorite, if not more. The Citizens have a two-point edge on Arsenal and Manchester United and three points over a couple other teams, but we think they should open things up here in the next few weeks.
Yes, there's a really tough match coming at Old Trafford, but once that game is done, the Citizens are basically done with these mammoth matches in 2015-16. Around that are fixtures against Bournemouth, Norwich City and Aston Villa, and those should all be worth three points with ease.
The time is going to come when Raheem Sterling starts scoring with more consistency, and when he is paired with Sergio Aguero, this is as dangerous of a duo as there is up front in the Premier League. City already knows that it has a great goaltending situation with Joe Hart, and having back Vincent Kompany is only going to help out after he missed a few games early in the year, too.
The bottom line is that Manchester City has the best team in the Premier League when it has all of its bullets in its gun. Disregard that hiccup against Tottenham at White Hart Lane and bet on the Citizens to continue to build on their EPL lead as the next few weeks continue.
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