La Liga winner odds: Two-horse race likely in Spain
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La Liga winner odds and preview
Real Madrid, champions Atletico Madrid and Real Sociedad are at the top of La Liga with 17 points after eight games, but Barcelona are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of Lionel Messi.
Los Blancos lost 2-1 at Espanyol before the international break but are the 10/11 favourites in La Liga winner odds to wrest the title back from city rivals Atletico, who beat Barcelona 2-0 before the start of the World Cup qualifiers.
Hopefully the season is not just a two-horse race, but let’s look at some of the runners and riders in the race for the championship.
Real Madrid
Carlo Ancelotti had a difficult week before the international break as Real Madrid lost 2-1 at home to Sheriff Tiraspol in the Champions League which they followed with the aforementioned defeat in Barcelona.
Ancelotti will have used the time off to find out why his players’ attitude has changed having claimed the loss to Espanyol was their “worst game of the season”.
Real Madrid will need to get their minds back in focus with the first El Clasico of the season just around the corner five days after they face Shakhtar in the Champions League
Atletico Madrid
Diego Simeone’s side have made a typically solid start to the season but have scored only half the number of goals than that of Real Madrid, with only Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla having fewer in the top 10.
🏆 Thomas Lemar is the winner of @futbolmahou's #JugadorCincoEstrellas September award. pic.twitter.com/5Znn9jUzuV
— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) October 7, 2021
As usual, the reigning champions have been keeping it tight at the back, conceding just six times and their mean defence will be key to their hopes of success this season.
Atletico were 7/2 at the start of the campaign, but Barcelona’s mediocre start means they are 9/4 in La Liga winner odds.
Barcelona
Despite starting with three wins in seven games, Barca are still regarded as the third favourites at 7/1 having begun the season at 6/4 alongside Real Madrid.
🔜 Coming soon pic.twitter.com/znLEGz2E2j
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) October 11, 2021
Barca’s front line is in tatters following the departure of Messi to PSG which came after Antoine Griezmann’s shock loan move to Atletico.
Ousmane Dembele and Martin Braithwaite are out injured so boss Ronald Koeman, whose future at Camp Nou is up in the air, has been forced to rely on Memphis Depay as a sole striker having deployed second-half substitute Gerard Pique as a forward in the 1-1 draw with Granada much to the anger of the fans.
Best of the rest
Sevilla went into the break just three points off the top with a game in hand and their pre-season odds have been cut from 20/1 to 16/1 after an encouraging start to the campaign.
They have struggled for goals but on the plus side they have conceded a joint-lowest three goals and have a nice run of fixtures coming up in the next four weeks, so they could be higher than fourth by the time they face Real Madrid at the end of November.
Sociedad started the season with a 4-2 defeat by Barcelona but are unbeaten since then and are well placed after eight games.
The Basques were 50/1 before a ball was kicked but have since been cut to 33/1 in La Liga winner odds for a second title in 56 years.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication
