Manchester United and Sheffield United may both be forced back into the transfer market unless they’re prepared to fall short of pre-season expectations.
That’s the view of the betting experts at bookmakers.tv who have taken a look at the odds moves after the opening weekend of Premier League action.
Sheffield Utd’s season was always likely to be a battle to avoid the drop and the task was only made more difficult after the departures of Iliman Ndiaye, Sander Berge and James McAtee.
Home form is likely to be key to their eventual survival so an opening day defeat when hosting Crystal Palace will set the early alarm bells ringing, particularly as they only managed one shot on target.
The reaction of betting sites has been to cut their relegation odds from 4/6 pre-season to 8/15 now – in percentage terms, that’s an increase from 60% to 65%.
The Blades have added one new face since their loss, with Tom Davies potentially filling the gap left by Berge, but they will surely need to add some firepower if they are to prove competitive in the months ahead.
As for Man Utd, there was optimism heading into the opener after shelling out in the region of £165 million on Andre Onana, Mason Mount and Rasmus Hojlund. However they laboured throughout their Monday night encounter with Wolves, eventually coming away with all three points thanks only to the bizarre decision not to award their opponents what looked a stonewall penalty.
Man Utd’s odds to win the league were quickly pushed out from 12/1 to 16/1, with the likes of Newcastle and Chelsea now looking like rivals for a Champions League spot unless the likes of Mount and Hojlund can get up to speed quickly.