Re: Premiership is back
It’s that time of year again, and yes Soccer is back. Now let’s look back two months ago, we can recall the dramatic CL Final between Liverpool and AC Milan. Liverpool fans will never forget that night, from Liverpool’s three goals in six minutes to Jerzy Dudek’s miraculous penalty saves; it was a night for all fans of the EPL.
Well what can we expect this season? For the first time in a long time neither Arsenal nor Manchester United going into the season are the defending champions. Thanks to one of London’s new resident Roman Abramovich. Again the title race consist of three teams, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Chelsea, some might include Liverpool but I still question whether their Spanish armada can keep up in the EPL. At this point in time Chelsea remains the firm favorite to retain the league, nothing suggests that Chelsea are a weaker team and adding some much needed depth to an already star studded squad makes them that much harder to beat. The addition of Asier Del Horno, Shaun Wright-Phillips and the return of an inform Hernan Crespo can only make Chelsea much better then last season. The highly regarded Michael Essien also seems destined to be wearing blue this season. Of course with so many players there will be conflicts, star players like William Gallas, Robert Huth, and Wayne Bridge will most likely be on the bench. In midfield Chelsea have 4 wingers that deserve to start that means the likes of Joe Cole and Damien Duff will be on the bench. If Essien comes there is no way he will sit, that means that either Makelele will sit or Mourinho will have to play a 5 man midfield with one striker up front. Either way Mourinho will have a difficult time in keeping all his players happy. With Chelsea strengthening up what has the other two teams done to keep up? The answer is not much at least not right now as there is still about a month left until the transfer window closes.
Arsenal suffers the biggest lost with their captain going to Juventus and what did Wenger do? He added a young quality player from Die Bundesliga in Aliaksandr Hleb and missed out on the Brazilian beast Julio Baptista. Whether Wenger saw Baptista as a striker or as the Viera replacement will probably not be known. Arsenal fans will hope that their youth will step up; last season saw the emergence of some great young talents in Arsenal’s ranks in Fransesc Fabregas, Mathieu Flamini, Robin Van Persie and Phillip Senderos. Wenger will be hoping that they can help fill the void left by Patrick Viera. Right now though it looks like Arsenal are weaker then last season, they lost Viera, they haven’t gotten a new keeper yet but are close to signing the Uruguayan International Sebastien Viera and their defense doesn’t look too sharp as Sol Campbell looks to be done. Don’t count them out yet because I am sure Wenger has something up his sleeve.
Finally Manchester United, a team just recently bought by the American Tycoon Malcolm Glazer, with a debt of more then 300 million pounds you would think the club would be in major trouble. Maybe not as Glazer has promised a big transfer kitty, but where is the money many fans ask? So far SAF has spent 1 million pound on a Goalkeeping prospect Ben Foster, 2 million on Edwin Van Der Sar and 4 million on Korean sensation Park Ji Sung(Gotta watch that kid!!!) and they have sold Phil Neville to Everton for 3 million pounds thus they spent 4 million this year. Maybe Glazer is lying and there is no transfer kitty. However Manchester United is still a strong team, their starting XI can match almost anyone in the Soccer World, last year they scored a miserable 57 goals while only conceding 26 take this into consideration in 99 they scored around 80 while conceding 45, I guess the term defense wins championship doesn’t apply here. However expect Ruud Van Nistelrooy to be back this year and expect him to score 20+ goals. With a more mature Rooney and Ronaldo expect both to have breakout seasons. Maybe the new three R’s of world football are Rooney, Ronaldo and Ruud. Up front is not a problem but midfield certainly is for ManUtd, with an aging midfield core SAF is yet to make any significant signings, Scholes, Giggs, and Keane are yet to be replace. So the Ballack, Essien rumors come in, but that’s as far they get they are just rumors nothing more and most ManUtd fans like me were hoping that at least one of them comes true. However with the emergence of players from the youth system such as Italian sensation Giuseppe Rossi, England’s Kieran Richardson and David Jones, people wonder if SAF will go back to the youth like he did with the class of 92’. Expect ManUtd to make a serious title push this season even if they don’t bring in a world class CM.
Outside the top three, the rest of the EPL is getting stronger, There is Liverpool who has added some great depth and with a year of EPL experience under Rafael Benitez and his Spanish Armada expect them to push for the number 3 spot. Tottenham is my dark horse; this is a team that always seems to underachieve given their financial status. This year they look stronger then ever, they are solid in all positions, at the back they have Ledley King, Michael Dawson, Reto Ziegler, Paul Stalteri, in midfield they have some better depth then most teams, the likes of Michael Carrick, Edgar Davids, Wayne Routledge, Andy Reid and up front, Defoe, Keane, Mido, Kanoute. Newcastle also look to do better then last season where they finished 14th, but adding some great talent in Emre Belozoglu and Scott Parker will make Newcastle much better. There defense will also be much better because of Jean Alain Boumsong and Australian captain Craig Moore, all they are lacking is options upfront where they just lost Patrick Kluivert. Despite Everton’s 4th place last season it doesn’t look like they will even reach the stage round of the CL as they face a very good Villareal side that spanked Barcelona 3-0 last season, at the same time they haven’t been able to attract many good players, the only good player they got was Per Koldrup, I don’t expect them to have the season like they have but in the long run will be a much better team. Other teams like Middlesbrough, Bolton, and Birmingham City will probably round out the top 10 teams.
Some up and coming talents to watch out this season would be Wright-Phillips not Shaun but Bradley, this kid has shined in preseason games and expect him to be at a bigger club soon. Another interesting player is Portsmouth Collins Mbesuma, he could potentially replace Aiyebeni Yakubu who now plays for Middlesbrough and will help Portsmouth battle relegation. I think this season will see Scott Parker prove himself again like he did with Charlton and I think Belozoglu Emre will be solid. Of all the teenagers I think this will be the year that Cesc Fabregas prove his worth, with the departure of Viera he will have a more important role in the squad.
Notable mentions: Stephen Kelly(Tottenham), Quincy Owusu Abeyie(Arsenal), Jermaine Pennant(Birmingham), Darren Ambrose(Charlton), Asier Del Horno(Chelsea), Per Kroldrup(Everton), Collins John(Fulham), Park Ji Sung(ManUtd), Charles N’Zogbia(Newcastle), Diomansy Kamara(West Brom) Al Habsi(Bolton).
Somehow I think the Hammers will manage to stay up, I don’t know why but they seem to develop some nice talent, Lampard, Defoe, Ferdinand, Joe Cole. Of course Sunderland, and Wigan are my guess to go down and I will say Portsmouth as well.
All in all it will be an interesting season, the EPL is a lot stronger then before, and I highly doubt we will see a season where Chelsea only loses one game as all teams will be gunning for them. As for European competitions, Chelsea looks fit to take on the best of Europe the rest have a chance to pull a Liverpool so you never know. So I’ll be sitting here waiting for next Saturday(Aug. 13th) when the Official opening of the EPL 05/06 season opens.