Making the step up in class to the Premier League is always a difficult task for the newly promoted clubs and it should therefore come as no surprise that Crystal Palace (1.56), Hull City (1.72) and Cardiff City (2.78) are the three favoured teams to go down.
The value in the market however can be found in the fact that you have to go all the way back to the 1997/98 season to find an instance when all three newly promoted teams were relegated in their first season back in the Premier League.
That year saw Barnsley, Bolton and Crystal Palace go down, and while you have to say Palace, alongside Hull, look most likely to go down again, they aren’t particularly attractive looking bets given their less than even money odds and the fact that they have experienced managers in the shape of Ian Holloway and Steve Bruce respectively who will be fighting tooth and nail to achieve that coveted 17th spot in the league.
Cardiff are a team that have been knocking on the door of the Premier League for a number of seasons now and coming up as champions you have to feel now is their time to establish themselves at the top table. In Malky Mackay they have a young manager looking to establish his credentials in the top flight and there's just a sense at the club that things will only get better from here.
With Paolo Di Canio at the helm, Sunderland’s fortunes could go one of two ways – either the enigmatic Italian will galvanise the Mackems into a backs-to-the-wall, no-one-likes-us, top-half outfit or they will plummet into in-fighting, anarchic, relegation struggling mediocrity.
Despite a whole host of transfer activity over the summer, the fact is that Sunderland suffered a dismal run of form at the end of last season with just 11 points from their last 15 games. Granted, a lot of that must be put down to the Martin O’Neill regime, but changing a losing mentality at a club is no mean feat.
The Italian has tried to mend this with a number of summer signings, which is a gamble in itself if those players – mostly from other European leagues – fail to adapt quickly to the Premier League.
And with Di Canio’s temperament so likely to alienate the dressing-room if things go against him, the odds of 5.9 for them to go down look very generous indeed.
Summary - Back Sunderland to be relegated at 5.9 (1 point)
Premier League betting preview - Part One - Race for the title: http://goo.gl/VyEfCz
Premier League betting preview – Part Three – Top half security: http://goo.gl/mahBWC
You can follow Evan on twitter @ev_bartlett
NB - Odds correct as of 8th August