The big winners waiting patiently for Chelsea to secure the Premier League

With four of the chasing pack dropping points, it was another good weekend for Chelsea, and likewise a good weekend for the thousands of punters who have backed the Blues to land this season’s Premier League title.

Antonio Conte’s men are odds-on favourites at 4/11, and with 16 games to go, time is running out for Arsenal, Liverpool and the rest to make a move.

But that’s of no concern to Chelsea-backers, who are each awaiting a payout in four months’ time.

They may be sitting pretty at the top right now, but the odds on the title heading to Stamford Bridge have fluctuated significantly in the last nine months.

The most patient of which will be our customer who whacked a solid £300 on the Pensioners way back on June 3.

Landing pre-season odds of 13/2, the dust had barely settled on Leicester’s triumph before this punter backed the Blues.

It’s clear from the betting patterns that two key hotspots emerged this season, where bettors went in big on Chelsea.

The first of which was the six-day period at the end of September. Having failed to win any matches that month, Chelsea sat eighth in the table, eight points behind Man City.

Way back then it was Pep Guardiola who could do no wrong at City, and Conte the man under the cosh.

And our traders acted accordingly, pricing the Blues up at 20/1 for the best part of the week.

A number of punters took the opportunity to lump a tidy £10 on a Chelsea title, with each now looking forward to a £210 return for their summer holidays.

As Chelsea got their act together, so the odds came down, and throughout October a number of customers parted with their cash.

Several put aside over £20 on hoping Chelsea would come good at 11s in mid-October, with one customer slapping £100 down at the same price.

But it would be another six weeks before the big boys came in, for the second hotspot spell.

After a lull through the Autumn, we then took over £30,000 on a Chelsea league win across a fortnight.

A £2,000 punt at the end of November – at odds of 9/4 – kicked things off.

A 3-1 win over Man City, followed by the Citizens’ 4-2 hammering at Leicester, saw punters tripping over themselves to back Diego Costa and co.

Some £12,000 was staked across two bets on December 13 at odds of 4/5, while another £10k wager was placed on the following day.

And with another £10,000 slapped down on December 16, punters had well and truly gone in hard on Chelsea.

And now, five weeks on, it seems each of these customers are set for a summer payout, with Chelsea showing no sign of letting their title lead slip anytime soon.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing