The World Cup is over (I miss it so much!), but club football is back, and before the season kicks off, there is real value to be found in the futures markets.
The Premier League doesn't start until August 21, but there's no reason to wait until then to start betting on futures. There is already value on the board, so let's dive in. Here are six plays worth backing right now.
Premier League Best Bets
Chelsea – Top 5 Finish (-120)
Chelsea isn't playing European football this season and that is a massive rest advantage. While Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Aston Villa all navigate the Champions League, on top of a 38-game Premier League campaign, Chelsea will have fresh legs and a clean schedule every week.
Xabi Alonso arrives as the new manager and has something to prove after being unceremoniously replaced at Real Madrid before he could even complete a full season. He is hungry and his two best attacking players are equally motivated. Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro were both left off their respective national team squads for the World Cup, and that kind of slight fuels elite performers. Chelsea spent big this summer, including acquiring Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa. The pieces are in place.
At -120, back Chelsea to comfortably finish in the top five.
Brentford — Top 10 Finish (+160)
Brentford finished ninth in the Premier League last season and is set up to improve on that. No European football means Brentford will have its full focus on the Premier League and a rest advantage over most of its rivals.
Manager Keith Andrews brings continuity to a side that responded brilliantly to turnover last season, and the new additions make this squad legitimately deeper. Ibrahim Sangaré and Jaydon Anthony bring loads of quality to a team that was already pushing for a European spot before the final weeks.
A top 10 finish at +160 for a team that already finished ninth? Take it.
Brentford to Finish Higher Than Brighton (+150)
The same logic applies here, with an extra edge. Brighton lost Jan Paul van Hecke to Tottenham, Carl Rushworth to Coventry, and Danny Welbeck to Chelsea this summer — key contributors at both ends of the pitch. They qualified for European football, which sounds great until you remember what that fixture congestion does to a squad without the depth to absorb it.
Brighton finished seventh last season, just two places ahead of Brentford, but hasn't convincingly replaced the players lost. Brentford, meanwhile, added quality and has no European distraction.
At +150, back the Bees to leapfrog the Seagulls.
Manchester City — Top 2 Finish (+140)
It's a new era at the Etihad, but the standards haven’t changed. Enzo Maresca takes over with a point to prove after Chelsea showed him the door, and the owners have expectedly backed him in the transfer market because the expectation remains the same: trophies.
Manchester City finished second with 78 points last season, just seven behind Arsenal, in Pep Guardiola’s farewell campaign. Nobody in this league has made the kind of improvement that would convince me Arsenal and City won’t again be the last two standing.
At +140, the value is clear: Back City to finish in the top two.
Tottenham — Top 8 Finish (+105)
This is the most remarkable rebuild story in the Premier League this summer. De Zerbi arrived at Tottenham in March, with the club sitting in 17th place, and performed nothing short of a miracle, keeping them up in the Premier League on the final day. That survival unlocked the Spurs' treasure chest and they’ve since spent the most Tottenham has ever spent in one transfer window.
The headline arrival is midfielder Sandro Tonali for a club-record $100 million. He was joined by Mateus Fernandes for $85 million, Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton for $52 million, and Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi on free transfers. De Zerbi has also made it clear that he is not done, hinting at further attacking additions before the window closes.
Add in the no-European-football rest advantage, a full preseason under a manager with a defined system, and a top-eight at plus money seems very reasonable.
(EFL Championship): Jarrod Bowen — Championship Top Scorer (+600)
The most compelling bet on this entire list.
West Ham was relegated from the Premier League last season, ending a 14-year run in the top flight, but despite that their best player stayed. Bowen committed to the Championship with West Ham, a level of loyalty that speaks to his character and his confidence.
