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It is always a greater risk betting on the first Saturday of the season. There is no guide to who gets out of the starting blocks quickly or whether this will be a high scoring season but there are a few interesting bets.

The games to avoid are probably Hull against Fulham which has draw written on it or maybe Fulham will have the firepower. People have been writing them off as potential relegation candidates but I am a fan of Roy Hodgson. Onj the other hand I wouldn’t mind betting this could be Hull’s only win for a long time.  It is a hard call at West Ham where Wigan who finished strongly last year are not going to play the kind of football the east Londoners like. It is a tough call to see if either Spurs or Liverpool can win away in the north east at Middlesbrough and Sunderland respectively, Maybe, maybe not.

The first four games alphabetically look home wins:

Arsenal should beat newly promoted West Brom, perhaps not without a scare or two

Aston Villa should be too strong for Mark Hughes Manchester City who will have £18 million Brazilian striker Jo upfront, but £18million is not enough to buy a place in the Olympic team and with ructions backstage cannot be a help. Some smart money says Hughes will be a shoe in at the first Premiership side in enough trouble to sack their manager. That’s Newcastle then.

Bolton should take care of newly promoted Stoke who can start their freefall back to the Championship.

And Everton will not allow Paul Ince’s Blackburn much space.

£10 on those four pays £83.

Compare that to the obvious banker that Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United are all at home and all win - £10 would pay £19.

There is a free £10 bet for new members at BetClick - win and you keep the money, lose and, well, you don’t. They pay it.

City of Manchester Stadium. It is a pretty bog standard photograph but it took £18 million to set up. Mark Hughes the new Manchester City boss, unveils his first signing, Jo, properly called Joao Alves de Assis Silva. The 6ft 3in forward scored 44 goals in 77 games for CSKA Moscow.  He is 21 but helped CSKA win four trophies in three years.

He revealed that Spanish team Valencia were also interested in him.

The record move dwarfs  the £13m the club spent to sign Nicolas Anelka from Paris Saint-Germain in 2002. Jo is advised by Kia Joorabchian, who was involved in Carlos Tevez’s move to West Ham in August 2006 and later the switch to Manchester United.

“He’s a big guy, in stature and ability, so I think everybody will enjoy watching him play,” Hughes said. “A lot has been said about him and there was an expectation on him coming out of Brazil, so with the success he’s had, I think it’s a real coup that we’ve been able to bring him to the club.”

There will be no gang of four this year, despite the pundits saying the title is a done deal. All the omens and labrador bones point in other directions. If United lose Ronaldo that is 42 goals off their goal difference which would put them mid table. Even if they get someone in to replace the Portugese, they are unlikely to score so prolifically and if Ronaldo stays nor will he.

Chelsea may take a year off under Felipe Scolari and just focus on the Champions League - but it is a good team and a couple of exceptional wingers could get them off to a flyer but probably Scolari will take his time.  Only Arsene Wenger really knows what his team can do and possibly his visit to the Spain v Italy match last night was a scouting trip to look at David Villa. A straight swap for the African Player of the Year Adebayor going to Milan must be tempting. Meanwhile one wonders how many times Rafa Benitez can mix up his jigsaw puzzle before he gets it right. Or maybe the answer to the conundrum abhout England’s finest player Steven Gerrard is that no one can play with him? Villa would be an obvious Anfield target too. Surely at least one of these teams and maybe more will start dropping points to the teams underneath them.

But behind the familiar miscreants are shaping new forces. Juande Ramos’s Tottenham look interesting as does new signing Mondric who must make an impact. Harry Redknapp is not out of the mix either. Goals win titles and he picked up Jermaine Defoe last year and paired possibly with Peter Crouch and one other they will notch up the points. Aston Villa under Martin O’Neill are tight and organised and only one or two players short of calibre, even if they lose Gareth Barry to Liverpool. Mark Hughes has an interesting proposition at Manchester City, especially if he gets both Jo and Ronaldinho up front- and can get both to play. Everton too are capable and only a couple of signings short of worrying the bigger teams. Anyone of those five might challenge. All seem to have the money and maybe this year the top four will take more points off each other, or even the top eight will scrap it out.

There might also be a case that West Brom make a flying start to the season, again nibbling points off the upper echelons. West Ham will have a better team than last year if their injured team stays fit.  The magician Roy Keane could also start to make his mark if he can pick up a couple of good players. Newcastle look wobbly, as do Middlesbrough but with Hull and Stoke looking like return-to-senders, that leaves just one relegation slot for the teams that escaped last year to avoid.

None of which points to another season of big four domination.

Check the odds out here for the first Saturday, August 16