By Tomi Rantanen

Another upset in the books?

The long wait is finally over and the Premier League opening day is here! We kick-off the season with an interesting matchup between previous season’s no.4 and 5, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. While the home team has made quite a lot of changes in the squad, acquiring Morgan Schneiderlin, Memphis Depay and Bastian Schweinsteiger to name a few, the Spurs have been surprisingly quiet so far. They did upgrade shaky centre-half Vlad Chiriches with Toby Aiderweilerd and added backup full-back Kieran Trippier, but for many Spurs’ followers Pochettinos moves were simply not enough.

Reminder: For every Premier League match, AccuScore has Premier League Betting Picks and updated Odds

The oddsmakers have Manchester United as heavy favorites to win the opening match, with 59.7% probability and odds of 1.64 (-156). There’s enormous pressure to succeed from the start and not repeat last season’s disaster, a home defeat to Swansea. Some issues are brewing at United, with Madrid-bound goalkeeper David De Gea benched due to the transfer speculation and rumored lack of motivation. The newly acquired backup keeper Sergio Romero might get the call to make an instant debut or Van Gaal could turn to Sam Johnstone, potential but inexperienced England youth-team regular. With this in mind and a couple of changes in the lineup, Spurs might have a chance of upset.

In AccuScore simulations Manchester United are still clear favorites to get off to a flying start and beat the Spurs at home. However, the odds are so heavily stacked against the visitors that according to simulations there’s good value in draw or Spurs win: