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arsenal, arsene wenger, brendan rodgers, chelsea, community shield, everton, jose mourinho, liverpool, Louis Van Gaal, manchester city, manchester united, manuel pellegrini, mauricio pochettino, Premier League 2014/15, roberto martinez, Tottenham Hotspur
Good morning, all! Despite my saying there’d be a blog a week, it’s taken a while for me to get to this one. My last blog was on August 1st so…yeah. I was going to write an article debating the overall competitiveness of the Community Shield and to what extend it should be considered a competitive or friendly fixture, but maybe I’ll work that into my articles to come.
Anyway, the Premier League season finally kicks off today. Even though this summer had a World Cup and the transfer market has been particularly interesting this year, it always feels like we go too long without any football and when the season kicks off again the sense of relief is beyond comprehension. As someone who absolutely hates cricket and isn’t really a ‘summer’ person, I never enjoy the off-season.
Instead of doing what I did last season and try to predict all the scores for today’s games, I’m going to take a look at the season ahead and state my predictions on who will be where at the end. Please note that this is based on the squads of right now, and my opinion may change by the end of the transfer window depending on who does what.
Today I will cover…
The Top Four
Okay, this is the one everyone’s most interested in. For me, there are two teams who are almost certainly going to finish in the top four – Chelsea and Manchester City.
Chelsea were, for the most part, excellent last season (if not exactly pretty) against the big teams (6 points from City and Liverpool, 4 from Arsenal), but were let down in games against team who one would say they should beat by being unable to break down opposition who put eleven men behind the ball and played for a draw. Naturally, the other big sides will look at those results and find it amusing that Jose Mourinho and his men find out what it’s like when their favoured strategy is used against them. However, this summer Chelsea have gone and added two players who would really make a difference in games like that – playmaker Cesc Fabregas and clinical striker Diego Costa. They also added Filipe Luis, a very good left back, to the squad. While some may argue that Costa’s been bought on the back of one excellent season and may also need time to adapt, on paper Chelsea’s summer business has been fantastic. They’ve bought who they needed to buy, and barring some kind of tactical disaster they’ll finish comfortably in the top four.
Manchester City’s summer business has been quite quiet compared to most clubs, but they’ve strengthened the depth of their defence with the signings of Bacary Sagna and Elaquiem Mangala, and their squad is now at the point when their ‘B’ team could realistically at least challenge for the top four. I feel they’re still relying on the excellent but injury-prone duo of Sergio Aguero and David Silva, as well as the ageing Yaya Touré who may well begin to feel age starting to catch up to him at some point this season (he’s practically irreplaceable, but if they’re going to challenge on all four fronts they have to worry he could miss some important games or risk injury). Even so, with a squad like this, there’s no excuse for Manuel Pellegrini if they don’t finish in the top four or challenge for the title until the end.
That leaves us with five teams who will be aiming to challenge for the title or at least a Champions League finish – Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Everton and Tottenham.
I see Arsenal as the next most likely team to seriously challenge for the title and claim a top four place, although I think that compared to Chelsea and City they are certainly the outsiders for the title itself, but conversely you could argue that the Gunners might feel better being the dark horses. The signing of Alexis Sanchez adds extra pace to the squad that was desperately missed when they slipped from their title challenge last season, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey (all of whose absences left blatant holes the squad last season) also add that pacey dimension. They’ve also replaced departing members of the squad with excellent new signings, but sorely need a centre-half and a top-quality defensive midfielder (ideally someone who can fill in both roles) before the transfer window closes. They’ll need it if they’re to properly compete in all four competitions. Still, with another trophy (a minor one, yes, but still a trophy) under their belts with a Community Shield victory, they should be heading into the season in good spirits. Just win your opening match for once, Gunners!
The remaining Champions League position is a tricky one to call. Liverpool have added lots of depth to the squad, but the majority of their signings are ones that could just as easily prove to be flops or take time to adapt to Premier League football, and they haven’t brought in any world class talent to replace Luis Suarez. I don’t think Daniel Sturridge is a particularly great or influential player on his own, rather someone who really thrives off having a world class partner like Suarez. But he doesn’t have that this time around and I don’t think he’ll be very effective. Steven Gerrard is ridiculously overrated in the ‘Pirlo’ role, and will probably be ineffective now that he’s getting older. It’s also Liverpool’s first season in the Champions League in years, and Brendan Rodger’s first ever season managing a Champions League team. As a manager with limited European experience anyway, he might find this tough going, but maybe if he does he’ll stop talking nonsense…nah, that’ll never happen. The bloke’s too obnoxious.
Much has been made over Louis Van Gaal’s appointment as Manchester United manager, and the media can’t stop creaming themselves over him. However, I advise caution to United fans. Despite an impressive pre-season, pre-season does not win you anything official. It means nothing unless you take that form into the season proper. I have an itching feeling that it may take a couple of months for the team to become accustomed to Van Gaal’s system and style of play, something that Van Gaal himself has warned of. That being said, they couldn’t have asked for an easier run in during the opening months of the season, and last season Liverpool showed us what a benefit that not being in Europe can be. I don’t think they’ll challenge for the title over the course of the whole season, but they’re my favourites to clinch 4th. They need a couple more purchases before the transfer window closes though, particularly a centre-half.
Everton and Tottenham I think are the biggest outsiders here. Neither are likely to challenge for the title, and at present have more or less the same squads as last season while the other big clubs have all strengthened to varying extents. It remains to be seen whether or not Mauricio Pochettino (he actually spoke English in his press conference yesterday!) will have a bigger impact on Spurs than Tim Sherwood, but even if he does it’s difficult to see how he could get them into the top four unless one or two of the big clubs have an unprecedented awful season. Both clubs are also competing in the Europa League, and last season we saw what a negative impact it had on Spurs’ league form. I think these two will clinch the final two Europa League positions relatively comfortably.
My prediction – 1st: Chelsea, 2nd: Manchester City, 3rd: Arsenal, 4th: Manchester United, 5th: Liverpool, 6th: Spurs, 7th: Everton
And that’s it for today! In the next few days (maybe even tomorrow!) I’ll take a look at who will be relegated!
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