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Premier League resumes with champs title favourites
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Leaders Arsenal are City's only real rivals in betting
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Newcastle a shorter price than Liverpool
As the English top flight prepares to return on Boxing Day, bettors are in little doubt about which team they expect to be crowned as champions at the end of the season.
Manchester City are 1.511/2 win a third successive Premier League title even though Pep Guardiola's men are currently second, five points behind Arsenal.
The Gunners are 3.8514/5 and have attracted plenty of support thanks to their excellent start to the season that has seen them win 12 of their 14 games (L1D1).
Bettors are confident that the title race is between the top two and make third-placed Newcastle, who are only two points behind City, the next shortest at [36.0].
Liverpool, who fell short of City by one point in 2021/22, are 40.039/1 as they languish in sixth.
That's a steep rise in the odds, then, once you get past Arsenal and the champions.
Bettors back City to overhaul Arsenal
With just over a third of the season complete, the biggest success stories so far have been Arsenal, Erling Haaland (where would the Blues be without the Norwegian's 18 goals in 12 Premier League starts?) and Newcastle United.
The Gunners have clicked this season under Mikel Arteta. Summer signing Gabriel Jesus has looked reborn, with five goals. He laid on chances for others, with Martin Odegaard scoring six, Gabriel Martinelli five and Bukayo Saka four.
At the back, the arrival of Oleksandr Zinchenko from Man City has helped Arsenal tighten up and they have the top flight's joint best defence (with Newcastle), conceding just 11.
And yet the Betfair Exchange market reflects bettors' confidence that City will overhaul the north Londoners between now and May.
Experience, Haaland and Jesus' injury are big factors.
City know what it takes to win the Premier League, claiming the title four times in the past five seasons under Guardiola.
Arsenal have been consistent this season but faded badly in the run-in last term, surrendering fourth place to Tottenham. With Jesus potentially out for three months, due to a knee injury he picked up at the World Cup, is their season going to hit the buffers?
Haaland was not at the World Cup and will be raring to go again when City travel to Leeds (the team he supports, allegedly) in their first match back on 28 December. Likewise Kevin de Bruyne, whose Belgium were knocked out in the Group stages, should be fairly fresh.
But nothing beats points on the board and Arsenal have earned the right not to be underestimated. They play West Ham at home on Boxing Day and, if they win that, the Gunners will be eight points clear at the top.
The market may fancy City but, with just eight points separating the top four ahead of the return, it's very much game on in the Premier League title race.