The Premier League season is roughly three months old now and, although it is still early days, we are starting to get some sense of who the title challengers will be. Betting on which side will lift the title is something a lot of supporters enjoy doing, as it adds to the buzz of watching the action unfold.
It would be fair to say that the last few seasons have not been easy ones for Manchester United – the side that dominated English football for two decades. Since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, they have gone through three managers, qualified for the Champions League only once and enjoyed a single trophy win – in the form of last season’s FA Cup.
David Moyes’ season did see them reach the quarter finals of the Champions League, but the club’s domestic form was disastrous. Louis Van Gaal improved upon that to some extent, but failed to find either consistent form or any real entertainment value for fans through his experiments with the tactics and formation.
Now the manager is Jose Mourinho, one of football’s genuine managerial giants, and this – coupled with the hugely expensive summer signings of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba – means that expectations for a title challenge are high this season.
At least that was the theory going into the 2016/17 season, and it was seemingly supported when United won their first three matches – including an injury time win over Hull that was reminiscent of the Ferguson era.
However, since losing at home to Manchester City, in a game where they were embarrassingly outplayed for much of the first half, things have unravelled.
After ten matches United are eighth in the table, eight points behind leaders City, and have dropped to 28/1 for the league – having been favourites with many pundits before the season started. The big new signings have struggled to make much of an impact, with both world record signing Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan largely anonymous so far – and United have also laboured in the Europa League.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic made a superb start to life at Old Trafford, but has faded just as quickly, and established stars such as Wayne Rooney appear to be past their best. On the surface it is far too early to write off the Red Devils for the title, but it is very hard to see them beating the likes of City, Arsenal and Liverpool – all of whom look more fluid and cohesive.
The one bright spot for United so far has been their progression to the quarter finals of the League Cup, including a revenge win over City, but this seems likely to be a frustrating season of transition for them in the league. If you don’t fancy their chances of winning the title, an alternative bet would be Soccer Safari, a five-reel World Cup themed mobile slot game. It features funny graphics of animals playing football, an exciting bonus game centred on scoring goals from dead ball situations and fine cash jackpot, making it a similar, but different way of betting on the beautiful game.
United may no longer be Premier League title favourites, but you’ll be favourite to win some cash if you play Soccer Safari.
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