{"id":120165,"date":"2026-08-24T15:40:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.betway.com\/?p=120165"},"modified":"2026-08-24T15:56:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:56:46","slug":"soccer-picks-chelsea-looks-to-avoid-upset-trend-in-epl-week-1-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.betway.com\/ca\/soccer\/soccer-picks-chelsea-looks-to-avoid-upset-trend-in-epl-week-1-finale\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer Picks: Chelsea Looks to Avoid Upset Trend in EPL Week 1 Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":117701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[780],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"acf":{"brief_description":"Manchester United, Tottenham and Aston Villa stumble as a chaotic opening weekend leaves bettors plenty to digest","auto_update_sportal365":true,"property_type":["","run_ads","","","",""],"main_image":117702,"authors":false,"custom_author":"Mark Keast","type":"news","properties":{"ads_enabled":true,"adult_content":false,"important":false,"live":false},"live_url":"","type_of_redirect":"permanent","body":[{"acf_fc_layout":"editor_block","content":"<p>Week 1 of the English Premier League schedule wraps up today with Chelsea on the road taking on Fulham at Craven Cottage in London, starting at 3 p.m. EST.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\">For sports bettors, it&#8217;s been a wild weekend on the EPL front \u2013 upsets, up-and-down matches, some established clubs looking unprepared for the new season.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\">Arsenal, the defending champions, did what they were supposed to do on Friday, beating promoted Coventry City handily, 3-0.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\">Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard all scored, so everything went according to script.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\">Then on Saturday came the upsets, none bigger than Hull City beating Manchester United 2-0. Brentford beat Tottenham 3-0, another upset, while Leeds travelled to Nottingham Forest and won 1-0.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\">Also on Saturday, Everton beat Crystal Palace, 2-0, and Ipswich beat Sunderland 2-1.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\">On Sunday, Aston Villa fell 4-0 to Brighton, with Brighton scoring all four before half-time \u2013 a massive warning bell for bettors about Aston Villa.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\">Manchester City barely escaped an upset in their game \u2013 a 2-1 victory over Bournemouth, which led the game until City equalized late, then won in stoppage time on a goal by Josko Gvardiol. Liverpool needed a marker in the 99th minute by Dominik Szoboszlai to escape with a 2-2 draw at Newcastle.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\">All in all, not a good weekend on the betting front if you backed traditional powers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\"><strong>In <\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" class=\"editor-link\" href=\"https:\/\/betway.com\/g\/en\/sports\/cat\/soccer\"><u><strong>soccer betting<\/strong><\/u><\/a><strong> on Betway today, Chelsea is the -118 favourite, with Fulham at +280, and the draw at +260.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\">Pretty even matchup today; the Premier League debuts for Xabi Alonso as Chelsea manager and Alvaro Arbeloa as Fulham manager. Both clubs finished with 52 points last season.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\"><strong>I am taking Chelsea moneyline today<\/strong>. At -118, the price is reasonable for the favourite, especially against a Fulham side adjusting to a new manager and replacing key pieces after the departures of Harry Wilson and Raul Jimenez. Chelsea has the deeper squad and more attacking quality.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\">Over 2.5 total goals is priced at -134 (over 3.5 is +187), and is <strong>another strong lean<\/strong>. For bettors looking for a bigger payout, Chelsea to win and both teams to score (yes) at +260 is another intriguing option if you expect Fulham to score at home.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\">There are also some interesting alternatives if you see a close Chelsea victory. A one-goal winning margin is +137, compared with +320 for Chelsea to win by two. Both teams to score (yes) is priced at -150.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: start;\">Chelsea\u2019s Cole Palmer is the main player prop focus here, so go <strong>anytime goalscorer at +162<\/strong>.<\/p>\n"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.betway.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.betway.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.betway.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.betway.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.betway.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120166,"href":"https:\/\/blog.betway.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120165\/revisions\/120166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.betway.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.betway.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.betway.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.betway.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}