Top Midlands Club: Leicester will be lucky to outfox Stoke
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We’re off to the Midlands for the latest of our series of ‘Who’ll finish higher?’ articles on provincial Premier League clubs. And this time we’re concentrating on the battle between Leicester City, Stoke City, and West Bromwich Albion.
West Brom finished top dogs last season, sitting loftily in 10th, two spots ahead of Leicester, who just nipped ahead of Stoke on goal difference.
The Foxes are favourites at 10/11 but that doesn’t represent good value when you consider how close all three teams finished last season.
We could argue it’s because they looked back to their old selves after Craig Shakespeare took over from Claudio Ranieri and Jamie Vardy and co. decided they’d like to be footballers again.
Recruitment at the King Power Stadium has also been quite impressive over the summer with Kelechi Iheanacho, Harry Maguire, and Vincente Iborra all savvy signings.
Stoke have been busy, too, with Eric Maxim Chuopo-Moting and Kurt Zouma two excellent-looking deals.
They do look a little light up top, though, which means their season could depend on whether Saido Berahino begins to fire again. Still, at 9/4 the Potters look a bit more value.
After finishing ahead of the pack in the previous campaign, it’s a little surprising to see WBA marked as outsiders here at juicy 11/4.
Look a little closer, though, and Tony Pulis’ team might not be able to repeat a best ever Premier League finish. Jay Rodriguez has been the only significant addition to the squad to date and they’ve lost club captain, Darren Fletcher, to their rivals, Stoke.
This one looks a battle between Leicester and Mark Hughes’ Stoke, frankly – and we have a sneaky suspicion the Potters might nick it.
Click here for the latest Top Midlands Clubs odds.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
