You Bet | Will the Premier League have new title favourites after Chelsea visit Manchester City at fortress Etihad?

English Premier League leaders Chelsea passed one test last weekend with a home win over Tottenham but tonight they face an even tougher examination away to Manchester City as the top two in the title betting go head to head.

City started the season as title favourites and have retained that status despite dropping to third behind Chelsea and Liverpool, who started the campaign respectively fourth and fifth in the betting.

City are 2.65 now, followed by Chelsea at 2.75, Liverpool at 3.85 and Arsenal at 7.50. Tottenham are out to 26 after last week’s defeat, while Manchester United – second favourites at the start of the season – are 35. United surely cannot win the title now, but Tottenham are not so easy to dismiss considering they have the same number of points as they did at the same stage of last season.

It has developed into an extremely tight race, with only three points separating Chelsea from Arsenal in fourth, and whatever happens tonight it is likely to be a long time until a Premier League team becomes the kind of short-priced favourite that already exists in the other major European leagues. Real Madrid are 1.55 in Spain, Paris Saint-Germain are 1.15 in France, Bayern Munich are 1.14 in Germany and Juventus are 1.10 in Italy.

Chelsea are in pole position after extending their winning league run to seven with the 2-1 victory over Tottenham, which was impressive not least because they had to come back from a goal down.

Overall this season, teams scoring first in Premier League matches have a 67 per cent win rate and just a 12 per cent defeat rate, which puts Chelsea’s turnaround against an opponent as strong as Tottenham into perspective.