How Bookmakers Rated Liverpool's Title Defence — and What They Missed

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Liverpool had finished ten points clear of Arsenal to claim a record-equalling twentieth English title, sealed with four matches still to play. For the title market specifically, that price was defensible.

A club priced at 150/1 stops being discussed as a team having a poor season and starts being discussed as a team in decline, and the market's verdict became the season's framing. A market that travelled from 2/1 to 150/1 on the same group of players inside six months is not offering certainty about anything.

Liverpool are third favourites at roughly 11/2 — a price that plainly reflects the quality in the squad rather than where they finished. Two prices, 2/1 and 150/1, described essentially the same footballers four months apart.