Early Payout Offered on Chelsea by PaddyPower in 2005

Paddy Power 2005 Early Payout Chelsea

Paddy Power are well known for their early payouts and other marketing stunts, but this one was wild even by their standards.

After just seven games in the 2005/06 Premier League campaign, the Irish bookie went all in and paid out on the the Blues to win the thing.

The previous season, Chelsea took the title by an impressive 12 points with just a single loss and 15 goals conceded in the whole campaign. With Jose Mourinho still at the helm in the finest form of his career so far, there was no reason to believe they could not do so again.

In their first 7 games they had not only gone unbeaten but won every single fixture, and they didn’t let up after Paddy Power announced their crazy early payout. They took 10 points out of 12 from their next four games thanks to a draw against Everton at Goodison Park, before suffering their first loss at the hands of Manchester United.

Paddy Power were unlikely to have been worried though, because their form was fantastic, and they were running away with the league at astounding pace.

Even though there were still 31 games to play, Paddy Power spokespeople said:

“Chelsea are clear of the pack and not looking like they will be caught. Accordingly, Paddy Power have declared the title race over…”

And they were right.

Chelsea Win Delights the Bookie

Chelsea Win 2005/06 Premier League

Twyford, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Surprisingly, it was Charlton who were the main challengers for the title at the time the early payout was announced, albeit 7 points behind Chelsea in the top spot. Manchester United had endured a difficult start to the season and were lagging behind in 6th place, while the rest of the top 5 behind Chelsea and Charlton were the likes of Bolton, Tottenham, and West Ham.

No one really expected Charlton to keep up the form they had been showing to that point, and sure enough they lost 9 of their next 13 matches, sinking down the table and eventually finishing 13th.

The likes of United, Liverpool and Arsenal got their acts together as the season went on, but they stood now chance of catching up to the Blues.

After their first loss of the season, to Manchester United in November, Chelsea went the next 10 games without dropping a single point, extending their lead to an astounding 16 points, with the Red Devils next in line but not exactly nipping at their heels.

Chelsea experienced a dip in form just after mid-season, but they had already amassed such a large lead that it would be impossible for United to catch them.

They got a lot closer than anyone thought though.

The gap closed to 7 points at one stage, but Chelsea finished up as champions with a healthy 9 point lead, despite losing their final two games, and were never in any danger of losing grip of 1st place.

Chelsea had been in top spot on the table since week 3 of the season, and they stayed there until the end.