Updated August 18, 2026
The Premier League returns this weekend with England's biggest clubs once again vying for supremacy in the world's richest soccer league. Here at ATS, we will provide you with everything you need to bet smart on the Premier League in the 2026/27 season, starting here with our full Premier League preview.
This is also the hub for a team-by-team Premier League preview series running through this week, including full-season outlooks, squad-change breakdowns, and a best bet for each of the 20 clubs, published alphabetically.
Before getting into individual clubs, here's the season-wide picture: the title odds, the opening weekend schedule, the single biggest storyline shaping the year, and how the major EPL betting markets work.
A record nine of the league's 20 clubs open the season under a new permanent manager, the most in Premier League history for an opening weekend. No fewer than 3 of the Premier League 'Big Six' (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Spurs) enter this season under a new permanent manager.
Only Mikel Arteta (who at 6 years 234 days at time of publishing is the longest-serving manager in English soccer), started last season in charge of the same 'Big Six' club as last season. Xabi Alonso makes his much-anticipated move to a Premier League dugout as he takes the reins at Chelsea, while Andoni Iraola (Liverpool) and Enzo Maresca (Manchester City) also take over at new clubs.
Elsewhere, Oliver Glasner takes over at Nottingham Forest after calling time on his successful tenure at Crystal Palace, with Pierre Sage taking over at Selhurst Park. Marco Rose takes over at Bournemouth after Iraola left for Liverpool, Alvaro Arbeloa takes over at Fulham, Gary O'Neil replaces Keiran McKenna at Ipswich Town and Matthias Jaissle succeeds Eddie Howe at Newcastle after his shock resignation.
That volume of managerial change is the lens for the whole season: continuity is a real market edge this year, and every club integrating a new coach carries system risk that the odds don't always price precisely.
Team | Odds | Implied Probability |
|---|---|---|
Arsenal | +125 | 44.4% |
Manchester City | +300 | 25.0% |
Liverpool | +550 | 15.4% |
Chelsea | +800 | 11.1% |
Manchester United | +850 | 10.5% |
Tottenham Hotspur | +2800 | 3.4% |
Aston Villa | +4000 | 2.4% |
Odds as of Aug. 17, 2026. Lines can move throughout the week.
The biggest theme running through this season is instability. Given the unprecendented managerial changes this off-season, our preferred futures bets generally favor either continuity or teams whose prices appear to overstate the uncertainty surrounding them.
Best price: +550
The +700 available earlier in preseason was much more attractive, but Liverpool remain the most interesting alternative to Arsenal and Manchester City.
The argument is not simply that Liverpool have a talented squad. It is that the market appears to be applying a meaningful managerial-change discount despite Andoni Iraola bringing one of the Premier League's most clearly defined systems with him. His Bournemouth sides were aggressive without the ball, pressed high and attacked quickly after regaining possession, characteristics that should translate naturally to Liverpool's personnel.
Liverpool also enter the season only two years removed from winning the league, and should have last season's big money signings Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak fit and firing after injury-plagued debut campaigns. If Iraola's transition is smoother than the market expects, +550 could disappear quickly.
ATS Pick: Liverpool to win the Premier League (+550)
Best price: +150
This is a much more interesting way to bet Coventry than simply opposing their -odds relegation price.
Coventry won the Championship after scoring 97 goals, the most of any club across England's top four divisions last season, and they also scored 29 goals from set pieces. They have strengthened the squad since promotion while retaining Frank Lampard, giving them something neither Ipswich nor many established Premier League clubs have this summer: managerial continuity.
The current market has Ipswich at around +130, Coventry at +150 and Hull at +250 to finish highest among the promoted sides. That makes Coventry particularly appealing. Ipswich are undergoing a transition under Gary O'Neil, while Hull arrive with much greater questions about whether last season's underlying performance is sustainable.
You do not need Coventry to be good enough for a comfortable mid-table finish. They simply need to outperform two teams facing considerably more uncertainty.
ATS Pick: Coventry top promoted team (+150)
Best price: +100
Backing Hull simply to be relegated at around -600 offers virtually no value. Hull to finish bottom at even money is far more interesting.
There are genuine reasons the market has separated Hull so sharply from Coventry and Ipswich. They came through the Championship playoffs despite conceding 66 goals, and their promotion followed a season in which the club had been operating under significant financial and squad-building constraints. Hull have made substantial changes this summer, but that creates its own integration problem.
The bottom-place market also avoids having to decide whether Coventry, Ipswich or another established club takes the other relegation places. Hull only have to finish below everyone else.
At -600 or shorter, Hull relegation tells us plenty about market expectation but provides little betting upside. At +100 to finish 20th, bettors are being paid a much more reasonable price to express essentially the same view.
ATS Pick: Hull City to finish bottom (+100)
Best price: -143
Arsenal's title price has become increasingly difficult to recommend after shortening towards +125, while their top-four price offers almost no meaningful return. The season-points market gives us another way in.
Arsenal are currently around -143 to reach at least 79 league points. This fits the central theme of the preview better than backing Arsenal at a very short top-four price. Mikel Arteta has been in place for more than six years while Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United are all beginning new permanent managerial eras.
That stability does not guarantee Arsenal retain the title, but it should reduce the probability of the prolonged adjustment periods that can cost contenders points early in a season. There was another encouraging sign immediately before the league campaign when Arsenal beat Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield, giving Arteta's side a convincing competitive result against one of their principal title rivals.
Rather than needing Arsenal to beat the entire field and win the league, this wager only asks an established title contender to produce another high-level season.
ATS Pick: Arsenal 79+ points (-143)
Manchester City around -350 to finish in the top four remains a good example of an efficient market.
There is too much squad quality to make opposing City attractive, but there is also enough uncertainty around the transition from Pep Guardiola to Enzo Maresca to make laying such a heavy price unappealing.
That uncertainty was visible in City's 3-0 Community Shield defeat to Arsenal, and Maresca subsequently acknowledged that City were still active in the transfer market and integrating new players into his system.
City probably do finish in the top four. The problem is that the price already assumes they will.
ATS Expert Verdict
“If you only make one futures bet this season, make it Coventry to finish as the Top Promoted Club (+150). The market is giving too much respect to Ipswich's narrative, ignoring that Coventry's underlying numbers (especially their 20 set-piece goals) offer a much more sustainable floor in the Premier League. From a bankroll perspective, I am heavily targeting stability this year in a season of unprecedented change. With nine new managers across the league creating unprecedented variance, backing established systems (like Arsenal reaching 79+ points) or squads perfectly built for their new manager's pressing triggers (like Liverpool under Iraola) is where the value lies.”
Moneyline (1X2): The standard match-result market gives bettors three options: home win, draw, or away win. That extra draw outcome is the biggest difference from most American sports. A team can dominate possession or chances and still fail to cash a moneyline ticket if the game finishes level, so price matters just as much as picking the stronger side.
Totals (Over/Under): The most common Premier League total is Over/Under 2.5 goals. Books also offer alternate totals, team totals and first-half totals. These markets are useful when you have a stronger opinion on how a game will be played than who will win it. A matchup between two aggressive pressing teams, for example, may offer more value in the goals market than in 1X2.
Asian Handicap: Handicap betting removes some of the limitations of the three-way moneyline by giving one team a virtual head start or deficit. Lines such as -0.5, +0.5 and -1 are common. Quarter-goal handicaps such as -0.25 or +0.75 split your stake across two adjacent lines, which can create more precise ways to back a team without relying on a straight moneyline.
Both Teams to Score: BTTS asks whether both sides will score at least once. It can be particularly useful when a team combines strong attacking numbers with defensive vulnerabilities. Unlike an Over 2.5 bet, a 1-1 draw is enough for BTTS Yes to cash.
Futures Markets: These cover outcomes across the full season rather than a single match. Premier League futures include the title winner, top-four finish, relegation, top-half finish, season points and top goalscorer. Because the market stays open for months, prices can move dramatically as injuries, transfers, managerial changes and results alter expectations.
Prediction Markets: Prediction markets offer another way to express a view on season-long outcomes. Instead of taking fixed sportsbook odds, traders buy and sell contracts whose prices broadly represent the market's perceived probability of an event happening. A title contract trading at 37 cents, for example, roughly reflects a 37% market probability. Current prediction-market pricing has Arsenal around the high-30% range for the title, broadly similar to their position as sportsbook favorites.
The major difference is that a prediction-market position can usually be traded before the season ends. If you buy a team at 20% and its title probability later rises to 35%, you may be able to sell the position rather than waiting for the final table. That makes prediction markets useful not only for picking winners, but also for tracking how expectations change throughout the season. Availability and regulation vary by jurisdiction.
Sportsbook Odds vs. Prediction Markets: Neither should automatically be treated as the "correct" price. Sportsbooks build margin into their odds, while prediction markets reflect what traders are willing to buy and sell at any given time. Comparing the two can be useful. If a sportsbook implies a 25% probability but a liquid prediction market is trading closer to 30%, that discrepancy is worth investigating before placing a bet.
Opening Lines vs. Closing Lines: Comparing the opening price with the closing price shows how the market's assessment changed before kickoff. A team opening at +150 and closing at +125 has been backed significantly. Consistently beating the closing price is generally a better indicator of good betting decisions than judging every wager purely by whether it won.
Arsenal are the current favorites, with Manchester City and Liverpool the nearest challengers. Sportsbook prices and model-based forecasts both place Arsenal at the top of the market, although the exact implied probability varies by platform.
It is a market where users trade contracts based on whether a specific outcome will happen, such as Arsenal winning the league or a club finishing in the top four. The contract price can be read as an approximate probability and can move throughout the season as traders react to new information.
A sportsbook gives you fixed odds when you place the wager. A prediction-market position can usually be bought and sold as its market price changes, allowing traders to exit before the outcome is settled.
Nine clubs begin the season with a new head coach, creating an unusually high level of tactical and managerial turnover across the league.
