The three sides promoted from the Championship will be desperate not to slip straight back the trapdoor, while those who have become accustomed to the riches of English football’s bourgeoisie will be equally anxious not to lose their grip on the top table.
So who make up the pick of the Premier League relegation betting tips?
Huddersfield (8/13, Coral)
The Terriers will enjoy their first campaign in the English top flight since 1971/72….unfortunately, it might be their last for a while.
This is a side that played free-flowing, attacking football under the impressive leadership of David Wagner; and yet that stylish approach also led to them losing 15 Championship matches last term. Extrapolate that to the Premier League and we note that Middlesbrough went down with 20 defeats last term – that’s not a good stat for Huddersfield fans.
They’ve done the right thing in signing the players that helped them get promoted full time, so loanees Aaron Mooy and Elias Kachunga are now on board permanently while Kasey Palmer returns on loan.
But the concern for the Yorkshire outfit is that the other players they have signed, such as Tom Ince and Danny Williams, have a distinctly Championship feel to them, while little is known of Steve Mounie and Laurent Depoitre.
They will give it their all of course, just like Burnley did 12 months ago, but in some respects the Clarets’ incredible home form in the first half of the season was as much a shock as Leicester’s title win a year before. Those phenomenon don’t occur all that often, and Huddersfield look doomed as a consequence.
Burnley (6/5, Paddy Power)
Something sinister is afoot at Burnley. After securing their top-flight status in April, you might have expected the Clarets to kick on, make a few signings and perhaps aim for the giddy heights of mid-table mediocrity.
But the sale of Michael Keane, their standout player, and nine-goal Andre Gray suggest that the club is almost planning for relegation already and looking to recoup as much money as possible. It is truly staggering.
The signings they have made – Jack Cork, Ashley Westwood, Phil Bardsley and Jon Walters – do little to shake the impression that Sean Dyche is already planning for next season in the Championship.
Maybe their survival was a statistical fluke. They avoided the drop by six points despite an early season home record that read W9 D2 L3, and so assuming that regresses to a normal level then we have to say that Burnley are an excellent price with the bookies to suffer relegation.
Brighton (5/4, Betfred)
If you want to stay up you need an angle: it could be Burnley’s ‘turn your home ground into a fortress’, or it might be Swansea’s ‘we’re going to score more than you’ (they netted 45 goals last term, just nine less than Manchester United).
If you do neither, a la Middlesbrough, then a one-way ticket back to the Championship awaits.
We doubt that Brighton can achieve the latter option. They simply don’t possess Premier League quality in the final third – Glenn Murray, Sam Baldock and Tomas Hemed aren’t going to keep you up, it’s that simple.
So can the Seagulls turn the Community Stadium into a fortress? It’s possible, as their record of W17 D3 L3 on home soil last season suggests.
But again, we don’t bet on possibilities, just probables. And looking at their squad of players it is probable that Brighton will be relegated at the first time of asking.
Watford (2/1, Betway)
We’re not going to dwell on Watford for too long here, as their odds of relegation are laughably short.
The Hornets did end the 2016/q7 campaign in something of a car-crash fashion, but that’s because the players had all but given up and former boss Walter Mazzarri knew his days were numbered.
Now, with the excellent Marco Silva in charge and new players in Will Hughes, Andre Gray and Nathaniel Chalobah, plus the return of long-term absentee Roberto Peyrera, and the Hornets should be just fine.
Swansea (3/1, BetVictor)
If the Swans can keep Gylfi Sigurdsson happy and motivated, and keep Fernando Llorente and/or Tammy Abraham fit, then there is no real reason for their fans to be concerned.
After being doomed at one stage in 2016/17 they eventually stayed up by some seven points – thanks in kind to Paul Clement, who transformed the club’s flagging fortunes.
In 2017 their formline reads W9 D2 L8, and if you extrapolate that across a whole season the Welsh outfit would win 58 points – enough for a comfortable mid-table finish.
Newcastle (4/1, Coral)
For fear of sounding foolish, we’re not quite sure why Newcastle are such a long price for relegation here.
They may have won the Championship title but they hardly blew the field away, and Leicester were promoted with 102 points in 2013/14 and still nearly got relegated the next season. Winning the second-tier title means very little in the Premier League.
More worrying for the Magpies is that this is, essentially, the squad that got them relegated in the first place. Dwight Gayle scored 23 goals last term but has never cut it in the top flight before, while the likes of Jack Colback, Jonjo Shelvey and Ciaran Clark have all been found wanting at this level before – Colback and Clark having already been relegated with Sunderland and Aston Villa (not that it was their fault as individuals, of course).
With Rafa Benitez apparently unhappy with a lack of spending in the transfer window, this could be yet another rollercoaster ride for Newcastle fans. Are they as bad as Huddersfield, Brighton and Burnley? Only time will tell.
Recommended Bets
Burnley to be Relegated (6/5 with Paddy Power)
Burnley, Brighton, Huddersfield Relegation Treble (16/1 with bet365)
