It’s a question I ask because I think it’s a fair one.
Now not for a minute do I study the outright SBOTOP Premier League betting odds and think anything is decided in September.
However, this time I am convinced that two of the three newly promoted sides are set for few Premier League highlights and a rather briefer stay in the top flight.
To stay in the Premier League you have to either cause a shock or two or make sure you win the mini league of the half a dozen or so clubs around you.
That hasn’t changed but, for the first time in a while this season, that may apply more than ever as the gap between the top clubs and the rest becomes so vast, they often may as well be in different divisions.
In fact, I wonder if all three promoted clubs could go straight back down. That has not happened since 1998 (Barnsley, Bolton and Crystal Palace). The exception I suspect will be Burnley, even though they currently occupy the bottom spot.
It is Luton and Sheffield United who I feel will be heading straight back.
This past weekend was a case in point.
As Ivan Speck of the Times wrote on Monday: ‘Luton Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sheffield United, Everton, Bournemouth and Burnley will collect points against other sides on the way but, even as things stand now, how they perform against each other could well be decisive in who disappears through the trap door’.
Luton’s mini league began with a draw against Wolves – a match the Hatters should have won – and will continue in their best two fixtures against Everton and Burnley.
My suspicion is they do not, quite understandably, have sufficient quality.
On Saturday, they swarmed all over Wolves in the opening 25 minutes, creating but failing to convert chances.
With momentum waning, they were gifted a numerical superiority when Wolves were reduced to 10 men. They could still only get a point.
That was more than Sheffield United managed and, based on their humiliation at home to Newcastle, they could return to the Championship imminently.
A chronic mismatch, the Blades’ heaviest defeat in the Premier League supposedly leaves huge question marks against the future of manager Paul Heckingbottom, despite the fine job he has done at the club.
He even had to field questions about whether his position was under threat before the game with former manager Chris Wilder linked to replace him.
Yes, Heckingbottom’s players delivered their worst performance of his reign and he labelled their efforts during a second half capitulation as ‘unacceptable’.
But it should be pointed out, he was not responsible for the capitulation of some of his charges once they crossed the white line. And history shows that even a reverse on this scale does not mean you are doomed for the drop.
I suppose the big story in the Premier League though is about a club which won’t go down, even though it is struggling in the lower reaches of the table, after spending money like it has gone out of fashion.
Even Manchester City’s mega-spending, and the Roman Abramovich era, were never quite on the scale that Chelsea have embarked on in a little over a year.
New boss Mauricio Pochettino may feel he is operating with one hand behind his back because of a huge injury list and he has also inherited a squad which, with a few exceptions, has not played together.
Even considering that though, there is little excuse when such wealth has been provided, particularly in such a short space of time – believe it or not, the Clearlake Capital-Todd Boehly partnership has spent more than an eye watering £1 billion.
The west Londoners have now failed to score in any of their last three games and have drawn blanks in 13 of their top flight matches in 2023 – more than any other side.
It is the most times they have failed to score in a single year since 1995 and there is plenty of time to surpass that record of 14.
It cannot continue.
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