Fixtures mean Chelsea will be in title race into New Year at least

We’re a quarter of the way through the new Premier League season, and things are starting to take shape.

Teams at the top and teams are the bottom are starting to show their true colours, and while there are plenty of twists and turns to come, a picture is emerging. Where do Chelsea stand in all this? Are they as upwardly mobile as they look, or set for a harsh slump back down to where we expected?

A Chelsea fan might choose to us their betmgm bonus to back the Blues to win the title, and you’d get a serious return: most bookies see the Blues as about 20/1 outsiders to lift the trophy.

But say you were to make that bet now, with a view to cashing out later in the season, assuming Enzo Maresca’s side pick up some good results and narrow the odds significantly, allowing you to cash out for a profit without having to sweat through the bet until May. What are Chelsea’s chances of being closer than 20/1 come the New Year?

There are a few factors to take into account: injuries, form, fitness and the general sense that things are coming together under Maresca, and we can assume the team will continue to improve.

But most of important of all are the fixtures, and there are some very positive signs on that front. So far our season has been pretty evenly divided between our games against the likely top 6 – which we’ve failed to win any of – and our games against the rest of the league, which we’ve got a great record in.

Will that bifurcation continue, or can Maresca find the extra gear his side need to turn close draws against the likes of Arsenal and Man U into wins?

As optimists, we really believe they can. Our league fixtures before the New Year see us take on Leicester, Aston Villa, Southampton, Tottenham, Brentford, Fulham and Ipswich.

The toughest games in there are against Spurs (who are very up and down right now) and Villa, who seem heavily distracted and fatigued by their Champions League games.

Leicester, Southampton and Ipswich should be beatable if we keep up our early season form, while Everton, Brentford and Fulham are somewhere in the middle

It’s certainly not impossible that we win the majority of those games, and perhaps even go undefeated in that run. Without question that would slash our title odds hugely, and put you in a great chance for profit if you’d backed us.