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The top four race looks really open this season and Chelsea have a real advantage by not being in Europe. 

Chelsea are not as far away from the Champions League spots as their 10th placed finish last year would suggest.

The Blues pretty much tanked their season after Enzo Maresca left the club and were around the top three positions while he was still in his role. 

Chelsea have signed Morgan Rogers as well as Marco Palestra already this summer and are heavily linked with a move for Maxence Lacroix at the time of writing. 

These additions add to the likes of Emegha and Quenda who had already secured moves to the West London side.

These signings signal a shift from Chelsea’s previous obsession with only securing young talent. Most of these players are also very tall and physical, an aspect that Chelsea desperately fell short for last year. 

Xabi Alonso is clearly a very capable manager having won the league title with Bayer Leverkusen and maintaining a 71% win percentage as Real Madrid boss.

He’s coming into an environment where the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City, the two powerhouses of the last 10 years, have new managers - a terrain which could be perfect for Alonso to finally make this Chelsea side competitive in the Premier League with only one game per week.

Stockport faced heartbreak in the League One Play-Off Final at the end of last season as they were beaten 4-1 by Bolton at Wembley. 

That was the second consecutive season in which Stockport have finished third and gone out in the playoffs, which tells me that they are a club that are doing a lot of things right at this level and should have a decent stab at getting out of League One at the third time of asking.

Stockport really didn’t do much wrong when you look at their underlying numbers from last season, they ranked within the top 5 sides for most key metrics and also had one of the league’s top scorers in Kyle Wootton.

Stockport were a similar price to register a Top 6 finish last year and I think the market is underestimating their chances again as a side that now understands League One quite well. Stockport are priced at 5.50 to earn promotion this year, which is a price also worth looking at. 

Barnet are definitely a side worth keeping an eye on this year after finishing eighth at the first time of asking after winning promotion to the EFL.

They finished just two points below a spot in the playoffs last year and notably had the second best away record of any side in the division. It was their inconsistent home form which saw them fall short of a Top 7 finish.

Barnet are third favourites to be promoted from League Two this term, only sitting behind Salford City and Bristol Rovers. We’ve got some insurance by backing them for a Top 7 finish even if they slightly underperform from pre-season expectations.

The Championship extending the number of playoff spots down to eighth is a really significant change this season and Wrexham could easily benefit.

Phil Parkinson’s side finished seventh last season, just two points away from Hull who eventually earned promotion to the Premier League via the playoffs. 

That finish would be enough this year for Wrexham to have a chance of promotion and I think we’ll see the Welsh side battling in the top half of the Championship again this term.

Wrexham have a really deep squad with a wealth of Championship and EFL experience that can aid them in a push for the playoffs this year. 

I think there’s a decent price on this when considering that the likes of Norwich, Sheffield United and Birmingham are shorter than Wrexham to secure a Top 8 Finish - I’d back Wrexham to be just as competitive as those sides.

Celtic kick off the defence of their title against Dundee at home, a side that they’ve already beaten twice this year - scoring 2+ goals in both matches.

Only Hearts (49) picked up more points at home than Celtic (46) in the Scottish Premiership last season, with Martin O’Neil’s side scoring 43 goals across their 19 games (2.26 per game). 

Dundee really struggled on the road in the top flight last term, winning just two of their 19 away games - conceding 33 goals across these matches (1.73 per game). 

FCSB have won their opening two games of the Romanian domestic season without conceding a goal.

They’re looking to get back to the levels they set in the 24/25 campaign, where they emerged as league champions, which was followed by a disappointing season where the demands of Europe saw them finish mid-table.

They won’t have that to worry about this term having already exited the qualifying process for the Conference League which should allow them to return to the dominant force they were a few seasons ago.

Farul Constanta have lost their only away game of the campaign so far, and only won three of their 15 games on the road last term - losing nine of these matches.

Kasper Hogh joined Celtic from Bodo Glimt last week following a successful spell with the Norwegian club in which he netted 53 goals across 102 appearances.

He’s scored 20+ goals across all competitions in each of the last two seasons, so he should be a valuable asset in front of goal for Martin O’Neil’s side.

Hogh will no doubt score a decent amount of goals for Celtic with the level of service he will get in the side, but I wouldn’t describe him as clinical - he often requires a few chances to score and that should see him cover this shot on target line.

Hogh averaged 3.52 shots per 90 in the Eliteserien last season, improving on his average of 2.49 shots per 90 the season prior. This rate could even increase in the SPFL given the dominance that Celtic have in the division.

Ethan Hamilton picked up more yellow cards than any other Dundee player in the Scottish Premiership last term (9) and will spend a lot of time without the ball here.

Celtic averaged 65.5% possession in the SPFL last term, so we can expect them to control the game and be the dominant side in the midfield battle which should tempt Hamilton into making some challenges.

Hamilton also committed more fouls than any other Dundee player last season (47 - 1.43 per 90) and will be up against the likes of Engels (0.90 fouls won per 90) and Reo Hatate (0.88 fouls won per 90). 

Celtic have already beaten Dundee twice this year - scoring 2+ goals in both matches.

Only Hearts (49) picked up more points at home than Celtic (46) in the Scottish Premiership last season, with Martin O’Neil’s side scoring 43 goals across their 19 games (2.26 per game). 

Dundee really struggled on the road in the top flight last term, winning just two of their 19 away games - conceding 33 goals across these matches (1.73 per game). 

We can expect Celtic to rack up the corner count pretty often in the Scottish Premiership this season, seeing as they averaged 6.63 corners per game last term - a tally only bettered by Rangers (6.68 corners per game). 

Only Hibernian (217) and Livingston (220) conceded more corners in the Scottish top flight last season than Dundee (212 - 5.58 per game). 

Dundee conceded six corners on their last league visit to Celtic Park and are likely to be vulnerable to a high corner count again here given that they are expected to sit quite deep and invite pressure.

Nijmegen were one of the stories of the season across Europe last year as they earned a third placed finish in the Eredivisie, giving them a shot at Champions League football in the upcoming campaign.

Nijmegen are one of the most entertaining sides I’ve ever seen, so this is a very generous price for them to find the back of the net here. Only PSV (101) scored more goals than Nijmegen (77 - 2.26 per game) in the Eredivisie last term.

Their attacking style should give them chances to cause Olympiakos problems - with the Greek side only keeping three clean sheets across their last 10 matches. 

Nijmegen have scored in all four of their friendlies in the build up to this game and have scored in each of their last 32 matches more widely - including games against Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord.

You do get mismatches at this stage of Champions League qualifying and this looks to be a clear example of one with Dinamo Zagreb being as short as 1.11 to win here.

There’s slightly more value in backing the home side to score twice, as they have done in each of their last two games - including a 3-2 win over Thun to set up this tie.

Dinamo Zagreb won 14 of their 18 home matches domestically last term, scoring 49 goals across these games (2.72 per game).