After Real Madrid capitalised on what was the beginning of the end for Quique Setién’s Barcelona, Los Blancos claimed their 34th Spanish league title to bring the curtain down on another entertaining season in La Liga.
Now with pre-season and preparations underway for some of the biggest teams to do battle in Spain’s top tier, we look at the latest odds from Bet365 to see which sides are favourites for the La Liga crown.
The defending champions are the clear favourites early on to retain their title heading into the new season, after a formidable end to their domestic campaign to overthrow Barcelona. Zinedine Zidane’s men had work to do with Barca keeping them adrift by a couple of points throughout the season.
However, Madrid ended up going on a ten-game winning run, soon after an El Classico win, that saw them take over the Catalan giants at the top of the table towards the end of the campaign. A draw in their last league match away to Leganes, their eleventh game unbeaten in the league, saw them finish off five points clear above Barca in the final standings.
Two defeats in Europe at the hands of Manchester City suggest Zidane’s side still needs some improvement to return to the old dominant juggernaut that Madrid have been in previous years. However, there are still plenty of gifted athletes and experienced heads that can guide them to a title defence next year.
The current turmoil at Barcelona, and the uncertainty that they find themselves in going into the beginning of Ronald Koeman’s reign, also gives Los Blancos the favourite 10/11 price.
It has been a disastrous past few months for Barcelona, with cracks on and off the field being magnified for all to see.
The way in which they surrendered the league title last season, despite being in the driving seat to retain their crown for large parts of the campaign, produced question marks for the Nou Camp hierarchy. That black cloud hanging over them escalated even further, with the European annihilation and humiliating 8-2 score line defeat against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, which raised issues questioning the quality of the aging side, the recruitment in recent years, and the over reliance on Lionel Messi to rescue them in matches. The culmination of it all was for Quique Setien to lose his job in charge after just seven months at the helm. Club legend Eric Abidal also lost his job as director of football, signifying a need for change at Barcelona.
As a new season approaches, it’ll be interesting to see how new head coach Ronald Koeman fairs. It remains to be seen if the former Everton boss can get his former team back on the right track which is why the odds are 5/4 for Koeman to guide Barcelona to La Liga success next season.
Often seen as the best of the rest in La Liga, could it be time for Atletico to surprise the big two and win their first league title since 2014?
Diego Simeone’s side were a tough team to beat in the previous season, losing only four league games with only Real Madrid losing less (three). It was ultimately the dropping of points through drawing matches that let Atletico down, drawing sixteen times – nobody in the league drew more. This left Atleti twelve points adrift of second-placed Barca at the end of last season.
Simeone’s men go into the new season on the back of a decent run in the Champions League, where they beat Liverpool home and away before narrowly losing out to RB Leipzig in the quarter-final.
With Barca going into the season under new management and Real not seemingly back at their absolute best, 2020/21 could be a perfect year for Atletico to sneak through and get their hands on another league title.
Sevilla had a great season last campaign in which they drew level on points with Atletico and came fourth in the league, qualifying for the Champions League whilst reaching the Europa League final. Julen Lopetegui’s side even finished the league with the same amount of losses as Barcelona as well as having more wins than Atletico Madrid.
Former Real Madrid boss Lopetegui is continuing to improve Sevilla, after an impressive season that ended with his side going 15 games unbeaten in their last 15 league games. Add to that another remarkable Europa League campaign in which they have knocked out the likes of Roma and Manchester United to face Inter Milan in the final.
With some talented players at their disposal and picking up some great results, could Sevilla surprise the big boys and win their first league title since 1946?
A high price for Valencia would be a fair price in most seasons, but the 100/1 looks even more justified with the crisis the club find themselves in now.
Things have started to worsen recently for Valencia, with money troubles resorting the club to selling captain Dani Parejo and fan favourite Francis Coquelin to league rivals Villareal. Even the sale of star man Ferran Torres to Man City was for a cut price.
There will not even be revenue for qualifying in a Champions League place, with Valencia finishing in a disappointing ninth place this past season. It leaves newly appointed head coach Javi Gracia with a mountain to climb to get Valencia fans back on board. No European football could possibly be more of a help than a hinder, allowing his side to focus on league action, but after losing some of their best players a place in the top four looks unlikely - nevermind the league title.
The Yellow Submarine are another team in La Liga that could surprise a few, with Unai Emery recently being appointed as head coach going into the new season.
Former Arsenal and PSG boss Emery will be hoping he can improve on the fifth placed finish achieved by Villareal last season. They’ve gone the right way about it too, in terms of transfers – already bringing in established Valencia captain Parejo and his teammate Coquelin.
Villareal have some superb players at their disposal, like Paco Alcacer, Gerard Moreno, Alberto Moreno, and young talent Takefusa Kubo who is on loan from Real Madrid. With an experienced manager like Emery at the helm, who knows how well they’ll do. A title charge does seem a bit too far out of reach, however.
By Jordan Edmonds