Premier League Sack Race 2018-19

Is it that time already? Sack, resign, depart by mutual consent - it all comes under the Sack Race. A disastrous opening run could see any one of a dozen managers seeing the exit door. Look at De Boer last season. I like the look of Hughes at 12s, although Saints have a relatively monster-free first five fixtures of Burnley, Everton, Leicester, Palace and Brighton. Their first monster game comes away at Anfield in match 6.

Let's have a look at 5/1 shot Rafa. And, oh dear, it's a possibly tough old 5 game intro for Newcastle, with Spurs (Cardiff) Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal all on the menu.

Favourite Puel will face Liverpool and Man Utd (the opening game this Friday night) in his first 5 outings. If new signing Ghezzal can go someway towards making up for the loss of Mahrez then Vardy may get the service he needs. It's hard to say with Leicester. We know the Board can be ruthless (Raneiri/Craig Shakespeare) but the Foxes were very poor towards the end of last season and didn't show us very much at all in the way of at least playing for pride/passion. 

Cardiff have three so-so opening games but then face Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City consecutively. You get the feeling that the fans love Warnock (about the only ones who do) but will Tan and Choo's loyalty stretch as the season goes on? They're odds on for relegation, but more importantly I'm looking forward to Warnock squaring up for "Guardiola - Part II" and "Nuno Espírito Santo - The Sequel" Let's see how many more feathers he can ruffle.

I'll take Hughes at 12/1.