Premier League Bottom Half Finish: Hammers price to boost 9/4 Acca

• West Ham at 8/111.73 a solid bet to finish Bottom Half

• Brentford, Everton and Fulham to join them

• Mike Norman has a 9/43.25 Bottom Half Acca

It's tin hat time. If there's one thing I've noticed about tipping on football then it's that most fans don't like it when you tip their club to do badly.

Tip them to win the league, or to finish in the top six, or anything positive for that matter, then fans will rarely say a thing. But tip them to struggle, whether it be a big team to finishout outside of the top four, or a lesser team to be relegated, then you need to don that tin hat because the abuse will come.

But I accept that's just the nature of football. No fan, at the start of the season when they're full of hope and optimism, wants to read that some bloke is tipping their club to have a mare.

So it's time to look away now for some fans, as I'm tipping four clubs to combine in the Betfair Sportsbook's Bottom Half Finish market at the accumulative odds of aroud 9/43.25.

Leg 1: West Ham @ 8/111.73

Stating the obvious, 10 teams will finish in the bottom half of the Premier League, 10 other teams won't.

Can anyone really see the likes of Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Newcastle or Tottenham finishing in the bottom half? A tiny case might be able to be made for one or two of these 'big seven', but it's a definite no from me.

So that just leaves 13 clubs to choose from, and given how excellent Brighton were last season under Roberto De Zerbi, and how Aston Villa were transformed under Unai Emery, then a strong case can be made to say that the bottom 10 positions will be fought out by just 11 clubs.

The best price of those 11 clubs is West Ham at 8/111.73, and they simply have to be the starting point in this relatively short price season-long wager.

The Hammers finished 14th last season, but that was largely thanks to a decent final few months. They were in and around the relegation zone for much of the campaign, and one of the reasons for that was they just couldn't find any consistency mixing European football with domestic football.

Fron the middle of October David Moyes' men didn't win more than two games in a row (all competitions) once, and after winning back-to-back Premier League games at the start of October, West Ham went the remainder of the season - basically about seven months - without winning two league games on the spin.

The good news for this bet then is that West Ham are once against playing European football this season, and we have proof that Moyes likes to field full strength line-ups in these games.

Take out Declan Rice, and you have to say that the Hammers are in no better situation this season than they were last, and that a bottom half finish looks extremely possible for the second year running.

Leg 2: Brentford @ 1/31.33

The Bees enjoyed a terrific campaign last season, eventually finishing ninth, and there's probably no obvious reason why they shouldn't finish in a similar position this term.

However, they did finish above a massively under-performing Chelsea last term, and I just don't see that happening again, and neither can I see them finishing above any of the eight club that finished above them last season.

And of course, Thomas Frank's team will be without star striker Ivan Toney until the middle of January due to suspension, and that's a massive blow. Toney scored 20 league goals last term in just 33 starts. No other Brentford player got to double figures.

Another huge factor as to why the Bees finished so high last term is that they beat Man City twice, as well as recording victories over the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Brighton. Without Toney, I just don't see them producing such an incredible string of results again this season.

Leg 3: Everton @ 1/51.20

I can only assume that Everton are priced up on reputation in this market, because for me the Toffees should be more like 1/121.08 to finish in the bottom half of the table.

At the time of writing, they've got a very similar squad - some are saying an even worse one - to the one that struggled massively last season, and with very little money to spend, it's impossible to see them cutting much ice in the Premier League this term.

Everton finished 17th last season, only avoiding relegation on the last day of the campaign, yet clubs that finished ahead of them are priced way shorter to finish in the bottom half of the table this time around. And that's clubs who are in a far better position financially than the Toffees.

Perhaps more is expected after back-to-back relegation fights, and I'm a big fan of Sean Dyche's managerial abilities, but if truth be told I'd be staggered if Everton get anywhere near the top half of the table.

Leg 4: Fulham @ 1/61.17

The reasoning is getting shorter now, and that's because the reasons why certain clubs will finish in the bottom half of the table are becoming more obvious.

Mind you, Fulham did finish 10th last season so for this leg of the bet to land we're effectively hoping they'll go backwards. Having said that, it's not too difficult to envisage them doing exactly that.

Despite Marco Silva somewhat surprisingly deciding to stay in Fulham (rather than head to Saudi), star striker Aleksandar Mitrovic looks to have gotten his wish, with the deal to take him to Al Ahli making progress last weekend.

The Cottagers were one of my tips to be relegated last term - proving that it's so easy to get things wrong in this division - but they vastly performed above my expectations. With second season syndrome a factor, I won't be surprised at all if Fulham are in a fight to avoid relegation this time around.

Read Mike's tips on the Premier League Most Assists market here.