So here we are a dew days from the kick off and many things about this upcoming season have yet to become clear. Why? Simply put there's a lot of business still to be done by all the top clubs. Despite that I thought I'd said I'd make a prediction for the season so I may as well nail my colours to the mast now, not that it'll be that accurate. So lets start with the top 4 shall we? TOP 4 FINISHERS IN ORDER: 1. Manchester City. I think Mancini is not too happy at all about reinforcements this time round but they simply have to be made favorites right now. They have the most complete squad in terms of hart to kompany to yaya to silva and aguero. They've two players in every position. They have everything in place to start as well as last year but to sustain it better perhasp given the experience gained. The CL is a big unknown for me here. if they do better they might struggle in the latter stages of the league campaign. I'd put them right now on 90points. 2. Manchester Utd. I think they have to have a couple of question marks after last year where they had so many injuries yet kept winning. So far they have only brought in one man Kagawa and he has to adapt to the premier league. The key things that in my mind that stops them form being my pick are: a) goalkeeper compared to city b) jones, smalling, ferdinand and vidic while all fine players have all shown injuries consistently in the past two years. c) centre midfield. You have to ask is scholes and really put in the full year and if cleverly is up to it after his injury. But all in all with nani rooney and valencia and a drive to win i think they will be in the mix at the end. I don't see them slipping down. 3. Chelsea. I think they MAY do well under a Di Matteo as he lets the senior players like terry rule the roost I think they seriously lack squad depth right now as they are unbalanced. They've bought and awful lot of quality in the same area but when you look at their defensive cover or even in midfield you have to wonder... Again 2 great cups in a legendary season last year but if they get close to city and utd i guess i'll be a little surprised, not shocked just surprised. I don't buy the whole aging squad thing. Its only when they are officially past it that comes into play 4. Arsenal. We still don't know much about arsenal and if RVP is going or not but they have added 3 new players to the side, I still don't see their players being up for a full season especially when it comes to the sharp end. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the sale of RVP BUT NOT when it comes to the rather obviously and well talked on issues they have at the back. I don't think they are great in goal still nor at the back in reserve especially. I think ramsey may surprise a few this year though. BEST OF THE REST: 5. Itâs fairly obvious really that spurs and newcastle fall into the best of the rest category from last year and Liverpool will try fight it out to get 5th and 6th. Spurs are an enigma. They sacked their manager either for tax or for buying nelson and saha or for talking about winning it then falling apart, who knows... the spurs fans desperately want us to think levy does all the buying.... well who knows.. but AVB is really giving it to modric right now so one has to wonder about player morale. They have brought in two really good young players though. Newcastle have a good side in the first 11 but will they be as consistent and pick up as much at home? who knows? Liverpool fans are scratching their heads as to how on earth they won so little at home and still blame posts and cross bars when it was really a lack of work rate and sustaining a performance for more than 20mins. some new players some departures and a whole new regime in place. If i had to bet i'd put my money on spurs right now, again its only preseason and after 5 games we might all say LFC for 4th but now i'm going to go 5th spurs, 6th lfc, 7th newcastle. Sorry fellow reds but we have to put a lot of unknowns together and one game v gomel can't change that. a) We need to see how effective we are in front of goal and if we can get bodies in there when needed. b) I need to see for one if we actually play for 90mins and keep it two touch and work hard. I'm not convinced we can just change our ways after searching for this for years. c) finally I need to see how our central midfield plays as we were so poor here last year, lucas needs to prove he won't break down, allen needs to come in and shelvey needs to continue is work. We've got players but how will it work? THE CUPS: I'll barely stick my neck out and say that the top 6 will share the cups as well, I predicted utd v lfc in the carling cup last year but palace sprung a huge surpise to deny me and i rightly predicted an FA cuap for chelsea This year i will back Utd for the carling cup as ferguson REALLY wants that record of ours and he consistently picks teams in it. The FA cup, I think i will back city as they seem to want to win it all. RELEGATION: This one is should be easy.. i thought last year all three promoted sides would go back down and added wigan and blackurn to them... in the end it was totally different! I am going to stick with my thinking though... I think i'll name 5 teams and lean towards newly promoted sides. My five to struggle are: Wigan, Reading, southampton and two controversial picks at stoke and Fulham. I think some are really not getting better but the first three are my picks to go down as of now. EUROPE a) CL I am going to predict that Real madrid and barcelona will be the top sides joined by bayern and maybe one english or italian side. too much depends on the draws in later rounds. All english sides should come through their groups this time round but there is a big chance we may only get one into the QF stages. b) europa I fancy a semi finalist from england this time given the 3 sides LFC, SPurs and newcastle... there is no way avb will be as bad as redknapp was in treating this competition so I think we'll see sides go far unitl spanish teams are met. If i had to pick I'd pick spurs again for a semi slot.
4th for Liverpool will be tough, however I can't seperate us from Spurs or Arsenal. Arsenal could be weakened considerably should they lose Van Persie. Spurs have replaced an imbecile(Redknapp) with a moron(AVB). Sorry I don't rate him. Spurs are going to be worse side having lost Modric, not that he's a goal-machine or anything, 6 goals in two seasons proves that. But he's good at controlling games. They've also lost Adebayor because Manchester City refuse to pay 75% of his wages should they have sold him to Spurs. As for the top 3, any of them could finish top..then again any of them could finish 3rd. Its far too early to determine which one of Manchester City, Manchester United or Chelsea will be champions. All three are very good sides, however all three have glaring weaknesses. Chelsea's weakness is they can and may underperform in the league, they also have a £50 million statue up front and no longer have Didier Drogba to bail them out. They also have the disruptive influence of John ''Mr Chelsea'' Terry who 3/4s of the time is full of piss and wind. Manchester United have a number of weaknesses, ie their goal-keeper, when he turns sideways he disappears, the lack of a recognised right-back, Rafael is average at best. They have to use a 37 and a 38 year old in midfield and there is also Phil Jones, who for a big lad is incredibly clumsy. As for Manchester City. Some may say there title win was a fluke, they may not replicate what they did. Roberto Mancini's man management skils are incredibly poor. So thats why I cannot predict who will finish between 1st and 3rd..yet. All three can win it..all 3 can finish 3rd.
you are of course right but i think its fun to make a prediction now then look back and see how right or wrong you get it. it pin the colours to the mast as it were.
1. Manchester United [C] [CL] 2. Manchester City [CL] 3. Chelsea [CL] 4. Liverpool [CL] --------------------------- 5. Arsenal [EL] 6. Everton [EL] --------------------------- 7. Tottenham Hotspur 8. Fulham 9. Queens Park Rangers 10. Newcastle United 11. Aston Villa 12. Southampton 13. Sunderland 14. Reading 15. West Ham United 16. Stoke City 17. Wigan Athletic --------------------------- 18. West Bromwich Albion [R] 19. Norwich City [R] 20. Swansea City [R]
I think its fair to say United and City will be top 2. Probably united winning with the goals Van persie will give them. Other than these two I don't think there's any especially good teams. Chelsea were rubbish in the league last year and I honestly dont they'll be that much better this year. Spurs wont be as good under AVB. They've lost their best midfielder and dont have any strikers and Arsenal have lost the man who carried them for the last 2 years. Cant see Spurs getting top 4 and i predict 3rd and 4th will be two from Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.
That is a balanced post compared to the rubbish I've been reading. I've read rubbish like ''Arsenal will finish top four cos they always do'' and ''Spurs will do well because AVB won 3 trophies in Portugal''. Have they suddenly forgotten that he managed in the premiership last season and got sacked?
I think we can realistically look at 6th as a good season, 5th would be overacheiving. I think the FA Cup will be ours aswell.
1. City 2. Salford 3. Chavs 4. Goons or Spuds 5th or 6th for us. Don't know who'll go down but I'll be happy if its Fat Sams West Ham. If they sack the cock sucker then I'll let them stay up
I predicted: 1 Man City 2 Chelsea 3 Man Utd 4 Arsenal 5 Tottenham 6 Liverpool 7 Newcastle But I'm now thinking Chelsea and Man Utd will be the other way around. Not sure about how RVP leaving will effect Arsenal as Tottenham look like losing Modric and we aren't quite there IMO.
