Andoni Iraola led Bournemouth to their highest ever finish last campaign with the Cherries finishing 12th, just 1 point away from Crystal Palace in 10th position.

He’s developed his Bournemouth side even further, their success comes from an intense press which is suited to the style and speed of the Premier League. They currently sit in 7th on 30 points, above the likes of Aston Villa, Brighton, Manchester United and Tottenham.

Bournemouth have already shown they can go toe to toe with some of the best sides in the league as evidenced by their impressive home victories over Manchester City and Arsenal a few months ago. They currently sit six points clear of the bottom half of the table and are unbeaten in their last 7 Premier League games.

It did look as though the removal of Erol Bulut had rid Cardiff of their relegation concerns, but the Bluebirds have eventually slid back into the relegation places, and there isn’t a great deal of evidence supporting them to escape.

Before the weekend, they were 23rd for goals scored and 20th for goals conceded. Performance wise it is not much better, Cardiff are 22nd for xGF across the first 23 matches, and 18th for xGA. So Cardiff deserve to be in the relegation fight, and so it is then a case of looking at their rivals.

Plymouth look poor, and are deserving favourites to finish bottom. Oxford have a lower budget, but just comfortably defeated Cardiff on Boxing Day, and have a new manager to solidify them defensively. Portsmouth have shown improved performances, especially at home, Hull have appointed a new manager who looks competent, whilst Stoke look poor and in disarray, but always have a certain level of spending power that Cardiff can’t match.

For Cardiff to be a big slice of odds against in this market looks a generous price.

Stockport are a club not to step in front of right now. As recently as 2019 they were playing in National League North, and fast-forward 5 years and Dave Challinor’s side are challenging towards the top of League One. It was a 13-game unbeaten run, which included a sequence of 8 straight victories, which secured them the League Two title last year. This is a team that clearly knows how to get over the line when the crutch time comes towards the end of a season.

County certainly do not look out of place at this level. Like most, they’ve had their bad days but that is to be expected playing in a higher league. The club have had their injury issues as well, and it appears quite likely they will look to strengthen their roster in the January transfer window.

Losing Louie Barry in the New Year is a big blow, but such is the quality of their recruitment they can be relied upon to secure an adequate replacement. Isaac Olaofe and Kyle Wootton are already on the books anyway, but the key will be filling that Barry shaped hole.

Salford are already on the fringes of the play-off positions and have found something pretty special recently.

They have only conceded once in their last six league matches, and have added goals to that as well, winning 2-0, 3-0, 2-0, 3-0 and 1-0 in recent matches. Indeed, it is the defensive work that provides the foundation for this selection. Only one goal conceded away from having the meanest defence in League Two, and with an xGA number within the top eight as well, there is a solid foundation to build upon.

Whilst this may turn out to be a particularly strong hot streak, there is a lot of momentum to Salford right now and this big price may not be available for much longer if this continues.