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THE self-styled ‘most exciting league in the world’ returns this weekend, overloaded with hype and replete with enough flamboyance to satisfy a troupe of drag queens. The 2016-17 Premier League season means new managers, a fresh influx of foreign players, tattooed referees and garish away kits. Welcome to England’s top flight.

West Brom, who kick off on Saturday with a winnable duel at Crystal Palace, are now the Midlands’ only Premier League representatives – and they’re sixth favourites (13/5, William Hill) to be relegated this season.

According to the match stats team at bettingexpert.com, the pair’s last half dozen contests have yielded 19 goals, a record which explains the appeal of Paddy Power’s 5/4 odds for the fixture to produce more than 2.5 goals. Albion have won three and drawn one of those six matches, yet they can be backed at 7/2 at online bookie Matchbook to emerge victorious at 90 minutes.

Bookies often base some of their early season match odds on the outcome of recent contests between two teams, a process punters can emulate easily enough, but they would need long memories to recall the last time Rotherham locked horns with Aston Villa.

The pair last met in the old Third Division in 1971-72 when Villa recorded a 2-0 win and the likelihood of that scoreline being repeated this weekend is considered a 13/2 shot by Ladbrokes. 188bet install them as 8/11 favourites to secure maximum points, while the draw is offered at 14/5 by Skybet, odds likely to appeal to those who agree that August’s league fixtures tend to be closer than at other times of the season.

Unusually, only one of the last six league fixtures between Leeds and Blues have ended in a home victory, a confidence-boosting statistic City should bear in mind when travelling to Elland Road on Saturday. They still head north as Bwin’s 5/2 underdogs though and while Betway’s 13/2 odds, posted against a 1-1 outcome have proved popular, Marathonbet’s price of more than 8/1 (81/10) against Blues registering a 1-0 victory cannot be ignored.

Recent duels between Wolves and Reading have been close, the last four ending either all-square or settled by a single goal and there’s little to suggest that trend will come to a juddering halt at Molineux on Saturday.

Wolves, not surprisingly, open as 6/5 favourites (Winner.com), with the stalemate offered at 12/5 by bet365.

In what is likely to be another close encounter, Marathonbet’s 5/7 for the duel to yield fewer than 2.5 holds obvious appeal.

Odds supplied by www. smartbets.com, the customisable odds comparison site