Burnley vs. Manchester City - Premier League Soccer Betting Odds

As is generally tradition, one of the recently promoted teams, Burnley, will host the opening match of the new English Premier League season on August 12th.

This year, the boys at Turf Moor will play host to defending champion Manchester City to kick off the campaign. As you probably could have guessed, Manchester City are enormous moneyline favorites here on all soccer betting sites.

Burnley vs. Manchester City - Premier League Football Betting Odds - Friday, August 11th

Burnley utterly dominated the Championship to earn their promotion, and Manchester City won the Premier League for the third year on the bounce. Can Burnley start us off with a shock, or will it be more of the same from Pep Guardiola’s City? All odds provided by Sports Interaction.

This is a very interesting spot for Burnley. Obviously, you don’t want the first game of your first campaign back in the Premier League to come against the defending champions, but the Clarets have an ace up their sleeve in manager Vincent Kompany, who captained City for years and is a legend at the club.

His intimate knowledge of his former manager, Pep Guardiola, could be a big plus for him as he looks to duke it out tactically with his old gaffer. While the idea of a win here for Burnley seems ridiculous, Kompany’s inside knowledge of Manchester City could very well give Burnley the inspiration to steal a point at Turf Moor.

Kompany is not going to let his boys simply sit back and get pummeled. They’re going to play their style of football, which is high pressing and high octane. The high press is something that Liverpool has used for years to stifle City, so if done correctly, Burnley should be able to get City keeper Ederson to give them an easy chance at some point in the match.

For Burnley, you can bet on the draw here at +479 odds and have a realistic shot at winning that bet. Kompany’s team is well-drilled and opportunistic and they only missed out on scoring at home once last year. For that reason, we also absolutely love the value on both teams to score at -118 odds here.

When it comes to Manchester City, there’s not much to say because of how short those -324 odds are. You could go with a handicap bet, but with this being the first match of the season and all, the result is a little bit more unpredictable than it might be. City losing this match would be an utter shock, but Pep Guardiola’s team dropping a couple points at Turf Moor is a real possibility.

Pep’s team is obviously the stronger one, but the squad has had a pretty good amount of turnover during this transfer window. They’re looking rather thin at fullback and they also shipped out two of their most prominent attackers last season in winger Riyadh Mahrez and attacking midfielder Ilkay Gundogan. Their identity for this new season is still being formed, so Burnley is getting them at a seemingly opportune time.

Anytime Goalscorer Odds Table

Erling Haaland has been on a surprisingly barren run recently. Haaland didn’t score in any of the team’s three preseason games, including the Community Shield during which he was pocketed by Arsenal center back William Saliba for much of the game, a rare sight.

Haaland didn’t score in Man City’s final five games of last season either, so it’s been a while since the Norwegian has netted one for his club. While the -208 odds are a little too chalky for us, it’s a pretty darn safe bet that he’ll score in this game, as we can see Kevin De Bruyne being intentional about getting his superstar striker in positions to get his groove back.

We’re not expecting either side to get a clean sheet here either, so a bet on one of Burnley’s top goalscorers could be the best value on the board here. Zeki Amdouni is the team’s shiny new signing, but it might be too tall a task for him to score in his Premier League debut. Jay Rodriguez, who netted 10 for the Clarets last season, and Wout Weghorst are both better options at +400 and +500, respectively.

Another good shout to find the back of the net is Jack Grealish, who should be seeing a lot more playing time this year after the departures of Mahrez and Gundogan. Grealish has been a more potent finisher away from home for City, and he scored the last two times he went to Turf Moor back when he was still a member of Aston Villa. At +360 odds, he’s probably offering the most value of City’s usual suspects at the top of the pitch.