The leaves are only just beginning to go a shade of russet and gold in England but already, the majority of pundits have awarded the Premier League title to Manchester City, despite the club not even topping the table as we enter October.
This is primarily down to a surge in form in recent weeks and of course, the extraordinary ability of new signing Erling Haaland. Indeed, the Norwegian became the first player to score three successive home hat-tricks in the Premier League after a devastating display against Manchester United in early October.
In fact, it only took Haaland eight games to reach the feat, which was 40 games quicker than Michael Owen, who previously held the record having netted three hat-tricks in 48 games.
Haaland firing City to unthinkable third successive title
By now, you can probably tell that we are in uncharted and indeed eerie territory in the Premier League with every goal scoring record in the top-flight looking like it will be emphatically broken by Haaland sooner rather than later. On top of that, City have managed to win back-to-back titles in the last two seasons and are themselves wasting no time as they chase their own hat-trick of achievements.
Haaland's stats if his goalscoring continues at it's current rate…😳🔥 pic.twitter.com/4jsMhPUd0V
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 4, 2022
Ultimately, these are the reasons the club is being tipped to storm to the title and the odds reflect as much even if Arsenal currently holds a slender points advantage over the Cityzens. In fact, the bookmaker Bodog, who among many other things, provides the best experience of online betting in Canada, have priced City at staggering odds of just -450 to win the 2022/2023 season.
The evidence, as you can see, is overwhelming which begs the question, can City be stopped?
Never say never
If you’re an avid sports fan who has stood witness to more than a few sporting miracles over the years then you know that sport is, at the best of times, unpredictable. In fact, City fans will know as much given that they were involved in arguably the most spine-tingling sporting miracle ever to take place take place when they won the league in 2012 with what was the last kick of a nine month season.
— Manchester City (@ManCity) November 3, 2017
In this sense, nothing is impossible. That is, at least, the crumb of hope that fans can cling on to whilst the City juggernaut begins to demolish everything in its way.
Could the first winter World Cup derail City?
Besides the unexpected taking place, there is also a World Cup that will be played halfway through this season. This unprecedented development means the Premier League will be paused for 44 days while teams do battle in the Middle East. What this means as far as the title race goes remains to be seen but the lengthy delay opens the door for the script to be ripped up.
Essentially, the peculiar schedule this season means that it doesn’t have to be a procession to the title for City which is encouraging for rivals fans given that it is going to take something out of the ordinary to derail this team.
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