With just 9 games to go between now and May’s season finale, the bookies have had their say on who they think will be relegated from the Premier League – and they’re backing Benitez to keep us up!
According to leading bookmakers Bet 365, Ladbrokes, Sky Bet and William Hill, the three sides who’ll be slipping into the Championship this summer are West Brom, Stoke and Crystal Palace.
Starting with the obvious, West Brom are as good as gone with the bookies, with Bet 365 offering Pardew’s side at 1/25 to go down – which is no surprise given Saturday’s fifth straight defeat put them 8 points adrift.
Next come Stoke at 4/6. They’ve won just once in the league since Lambert took over and with some tough fixtures and awful goal difference, they’re the second favourites to go down.
Next is Palace at 9/4. They’re on a lengthy winless run and play 3 of their next 4 against Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool, so they’ll be relying on Zaha’s return and some winnable late fixtures to keep them up.
Then there’s Huddersfield at 7/4 as fourth favourites to go down, Swansea and Southampton tied at 11/4 and then ourselves at 4/1, with the bookies seeing us as 7th favourites to go down despite our tough fixtures.
They rarely get it wrong, so let’s hope their current predictions prove to be correct. Saturday’s result against Southampton could affect those odds massively, but it’s in our hands.
