Man City and Liverpool are Premier League top dogs

The Premier League prides itself on being the most competitive elite title race in Europe, or at least it did until Manchester City ripped up the record books to hit a century of points last season.

City were first and the rest nowhere as Manchester United nominally chased home their neighbours who may as well have been in a different postcode with a 19-point chasm separating Pep Guardiola's greats from floundering field.

The result is that we have odds-on ante-post Premier League title favourites for only the fourth time this century and the first since Chelsea went off at 4-9 in 2006-07. That supposed Blues cruise turned into anything but as Chelsea lost out to Manchester United, who sealed the first of three consecutive championships.