It's less than a week until the start of EPL season and it's time to make a couple of bets to make the season even more interesting and for sure profitable. We take the line of a popular bookmaker bet365 and highlight two risk-free options.

Huddersfield to relegate

Odds: 2.1

Huddersfield Town avoided relegation in EPL last season by a mere chance. David Wagner's team played terribly in the second part of the tournament last season and could have returned to Championship already in May. The Terriers had absolutely the worst attack in the second half of the 2017/18 season.

They scored the least (11 goals) and made least shots from the box (103). The team failed to create anything dangerous in front of the opponents' net, and graphs of big chances and expected goals (xG) illustrate these trends quite clearly.

Huddersfield cannot compete at EPL level and do not know what to do in the attacking third. During the whole season the team had the worst results in the league in the aspects shown in the diagrams, but in the second half those problems were revealed more vividly. One could suppose that bad attack is compensated by great defending, but here there's nothing special as well. According to the stats Huddersfield has nothing outstanding in comparison with other bottom-table teams.

In order to remain in the EPL the Terriers were to work hard in transfer market. Instead they were quite timid. They signed permanently defenders Terence Kongolo and Florent Hadergjonaj but they already played for Huddersfield on loan. Young Adama Diakhaby and Ramadan Sobhi were signed to reinforce attack, but the former will have just his first EPL season, and the latter was not a firm starter in relegated Stoke City. While Tom Ince, the player with the most shots in the team, has left.

Only Cardiff City has a squad cheaper than Huddersfield, and everything looks like this time David Wagner team are doing down. Bookmakers give 2+ odds for this, an clear value bet.

West Ham will finish in top-10

Odds: 2.1

There are too many signs West Ham will have a great season to miss this bet.

First of all, Manuel Pellegrini, a brilliant creator of best non-top teams, joined the club. His Villarreal played in European competitions every season and even finished 2nd once in La Liga. His Malaga played in the Champions League and was in Spanish top-6 for two seasons in a row. In 10 years at mid-table teams he has never had a bad season. What is more, the Chilean knows EPL well and even won it with Man City. It seems like West Ham have found an ideal coach to qualify for UEFA competitions.

Secondly, galactic transfers were made for an EPL club outside of top-6. €95m was spent to make West Ham the 8th team in the league for total squad value. This is important that all transfers were aimed at solving problems of the last season. Issa Diop was signed from Toulouse for €25m to strengthen centre of defence previously ridden by injuries. Goalkeeping issues were solved with a transfer of experienced and reliable Łukasz Fabiański. A game of swapping places in the attack (only Marko Arnautović played on a regular basis last season) will be stopped with transfers of Felipe Anderson, a most sought-after player in Europe, and Andriy Yarmolenko. Quality passer Jack Wilshere will add variety to midfield. 

Pellegrini can build great teams and the club gave him great squad to work with. Probability of Hammers' finish below top-10 approaches zero.

Don't forget about a value bet on Liverpool to win the title. In the previous post I collected many reasons why the Reds will be at least equal competitors for Man City, and in this situation 4,5+ odds on Jürgen Klopp's side is a true present. But be quick, as the odds are going down!