The start to the English Premier League is just some few days away and with the transfer activities that has gone down so far, this is arguably the most anticipated season of all time.
Newfanzone.com previews the season ahead by picking The Potential Title challengers and The Probable Relegation Battlers.
POTENTIAL TITLE CHALLENGERS
Leicester City
PLAYER(s) IN: Musa,Mendy,Kaputska,Zieler,Rubio,Hernandez.
PLAYER(s) OUT: Kante,Schwarzer,Konchesky,Kramaric,Dodoo,Hammond,Choudhury,Cain, Panayiotou.
The surprise winners of the league last season, come into this campaign with fans and pundits setting different expectations for the Foxes. Though many have said they cannot repeat such feat this season and even the coach Claudio Rianeri, has set a 40points target for his side.
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Striker Jamie Vardy have shown commitment by agreeing a new contract with the team though Ngolo Kante has left for Chelsea which is the only player they lost from their starting eleven of last season.There are rumors of the likely departure of star winger Riyad Mahrez who finished last season as the PFA player of the year.
Rianeri has brought in Nampalys Mendy to replace Kante and Nigerian Ahmed Musa also joined from Russia. The team pattern of fighting for every ball is still in their DNA and they would want to defend their title to the best of their abilities.
LIKELY POSITION: 6th
Manchester United
PLAYER(s) IN : Bailly,Ibrahimovic,Mkhitaryan,Pogba.
PLAYER(s) OUT: Reid,ValdesPowell,Dunne,Rothwell,Fletcher.
Manchester United looks like bookies favorite to win the English league title with the kind of acquisition they’ve made so far. After LVG left the club following a strings of poor performances in the league and in Europe,United have brought in Jose Mourinho who they feel will return them to winning ways.
Mourinho has already hit the ground running both off and on the pitch with the community shield in the bag and also the signing of big names to the club such as Zlatan,Pogba and Mkhitaryan. The signing of these three guys coupled with that of Ivorian Eric Bailly, will surely add depth to the Manchester United team that already boast of players like Rooney, De Gea, Martial and Smalling.
The new players are proven winners and they will help Manchester United in reclaiming the title. Furthermore,Jose Mourinho has a point to prove to doubters that he hasn’t lost the magic touch after a bad season with Chelsea in the 2015/2016 campaign.
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LIKELY POSITION : 1st
Manchester City
PLAYER(s) IN: Gundogan,Nolito,Sane,Stones,Zinchenko,Jesus,Moreno.
PLAYER(s) OUT: Demichelis,Fofana,Mooy.
Manchester City, like their neighbors, also brought in a new manager and a winner in Pep Guardiola who would tinker the team after relieving Chilean, Manuel Pellegrini of his job.
City is a team short of confidence at the moment since the core of the title winning team under Mancini and Pellegrini are still with the citizens.
Guardiola coming in will surely have improved the psychology of the players, as most of them would need to prove to the new manager that they’ve still got what it takes, to win yet another title.
The big problem for the new manager will be the defence line of the Citizens which does not inspire confidence at all. Kompany is hardly fit, Otamendi and Mangala who were bought for big money, are largely inconsistent.
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He just signed young English centre back John Stones and hopefully the lad is concentrated and will provide needed shield for goalkeeper Joe Hart.
llkay Gundogan looks like the player Guardiola wants to build the team as well as imbibe his “Tiki Taka” style of play on and if the young German should stay fit for the rest of the season,coupled with the support of Silva,De Bruyne,Aguero and Toure,it seems Pep might be having the winners medal come May.
LIKELY POSITION: 2nd
Liverpool
PLAYER(s) IN: Matip,Karius,Mane,Wijnaldum,Klavan,Manniger.
PLAYER(s) OUT: Allen,Skrtel,Toure,Ibe,Bogdan,Smith,Rossiter,Ward,Enrique,Yesil,Canos.
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This would be Jurgen Klopp first full season in charge of the Reds and there would be no excuse if the German doesn’t perform well this campaign.
Klopp has bought good players for some decent fee but the Reds have not seem to overcome their Achilles heel of being inconsistent if the results during pre-season is anything to go by. A forward trio of Mane,Coutinho and Lallana behind Firminho/Sturridge should trouble any defence in the league but Klopp would hope this guys are injury free as well as consistent.
Expectations does not seem to be high at Anfield and the fans should be contented with a top four spot which will see them get back into the UEFA champions league.
LIKELY POSITION : 7th
Tottenham Hotspur
PLAYER(s) IN: Wanyama,Janssen.
PLAYER(s) OUT: Fazio,Pritchard,Ward,Lesinak.
Spurs were disappointing towards the end of last season losing point scandalously after they surmounted a decent enough title challenge to eventual winners Leicester. Pochettino’s team were even more disappointed finishing below their eternal rivals Arsenal.
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This season,they seem to have gotten players in areas they need them and not just going on a spending spree. Pochettino would still count on the brilliance of Alli,Kane,Lamela, Erikson to unlock any tight defence and the Belgians Toby and Verthogen to be as shrewd as they were last season so as not to conceed lots of goals.
LIKELY POSITION : 5th
Chelsea
PLAYER(s) IN: Batshuayi,Kante.
PLAYER(s) OUT: Salah,Ake,Baker,Abraham,Kalas,Boga,Kiwomya,Palmer.
After an unsuccessful defence of their title last season, Chelsea will look to mount another challenge for the premier league title this season.
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The Londoners have made their intent known by getting former Juventus Gaffer Anthonio Conte. The Italian who also had a good spell with the Italian team at the Euros knows what is expected of him as he would hope his players get into wining ways quickly so that the fate that befell them last campaign under Jose Mourinho won’t show itself again.
Kante would bring more steel to their midfield and will also provide a good enough cover for the blues ageing back line which looks suspect going into the new season. They would hope Costa’s mind is settled in London because Batshuayi still needs a little bit of fine tuning to his game and the burden of scoring goals may be too much for the young Belgian.
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A typical Conte side is disciplined defensively. Hopefully, he’ll either work on his leaky defence,or bring in a new defender as Chelsea have been consistently linked to defenders in the transfer window especially Kalidou Koulibaly of Napoli. A bad season for Hazard this campaign,many would come out to say maybe he isn’t world class after all, so the Belgian needs to bring his A game to the table and if he does, Chelsea might as well be taken serious for the title this season.
LIKELY POSITION – 3rd
Arsenal
PLAYER(s) IN: Xhaka,Asano,Holding.
PLAYER(s) OUT: Arteta,Flamini,Rosicky,Szczesny,Hayden,Wellington,Toral,Crowley.
Arsenal would be cursing their luck on how they let the title slip away from them whilst they were on top of the table in January and two points behind eventual Champions Leicester, on the 14th of February.
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The Gunners have had a quite impressive pre-season where they’ve scored 17 goals in 4 games without their main striker Giroud and creator in chief Ozil.
Wenger could go into the first game against Liverpool without his first choice centre back pairing and he is keen on getting a defender before the end of the transfer window.Arsenal also needs a World class striker that’ll take the goalscoring burden off Oliver Giroud but it seems highly unlikely at the moment.
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Arsenal have to depend on Ozil,Alexis and Giroud for goals this season and hope new signing Xhaka, would provide enough cover as they mount yet another title challenge this season.
LIKELY POSITION : 4th.
PROBABLE RELEGATION BATTLERS.
Swansea City
PLAYER(s) IN: Llorente,Fer,Reid,Birighetti,Hoorn,Byers.
PLAYER(s) OUT: Ayew,Gomis,Eder,Paloschi,Bartley,Grimes,Shephard,Hedges.
Francesco Guidolin’s side looks depleted even before the start of the premier league season. The Swans started last season on a good note till a dip in form saw them fight for their lives as they avoided relegation.
The loss of big name players like Ayew, Gomis and with the recent news regarding the exit of captain Ashley Williams, it looks like the Welsh club would struggle when the league kicks off.
Guidolin has brought it Spaniard Fernando Llorente and it’s left to be seen if the former Bilbao man would be good enough to save the Swans.
LIKELY POSITION: 17
WestBrom
PLAYER(s) IN: Philips.
PLAYER(s) OUT: Anichebe, Sessegnon, Lindegaard.
The baggies have not seem to spend big in this summer transfer window. One of the things Tony pulis is expected to sort out is the future of their striker Saido Berahino who is bent on leaving the club.
They’ve still got a big name in Venezuelan, Rondon to bail them out when in trouble but it is left to be seen if it would be enough to keep the baggies in the league.
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Pulis knows how to grind results for his team especially if they are threatened with relegation but then again this season looks to be a very tricky one and if one is not careful,you may lose sight of your rivals before you know it.
LIKELY POSITION:16
Sunderland
PLAYER(s) IN: Djilobodji
PLAYER(s) OUT: Graham,Fletcher,Brown,Mandron,Giaccherini,Verghini,Matthews,Buckley.
The black cats had a last minute resurgence under the Big Sam last season to avoid relegation.
Sunderland have lost their coach to the English national team but they’ve gotten David Moyes whose last spell with Spanish side Real Sociedad, was woeful.
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The Scott will bring his EPL experience to the black cats having worked with Everton and Manchester united in a managerial capacity. The black cats in recent years have shown that they belong to the lower half of the table and are not new to a relegation dog fight.
LIKELY POSITION: 18th
Burnley
PLAYER(s) IN : Dunne,Gudmundsson,Pope,Flanagan.
PLAYER(s) OUT: Barton,Gilks,Taylor,Duff,Ginnelly.
Sean Dyche is back in the EPL after a disappointing debut with the Clarets two seasons back. Credit to Dyches’ men though,they played a good brand of football and caused problem with their forward line led by Danny Ings.
Burnley won the championship, which got them automatic promotion to the premier league, but it still seems to early for the Clarets as they don’t have enough depth and experience to stand the firepower of the big boys.
LIKELY POSITION: 19th
Hull City
PLAYER(s) IN: Mansion
PLAYER(s) OUT: Diame,Taylor,Aluko.
The tigers got back the premier league via the money spinning play-off final.Hull,does not look prepared for the upcoming season as they are without a manger in August.
Hull City have still got bulk of the players that were with them before they got relegated from the premier league.The likes of El Mohammady,Huddlestone,Livermoore,Abel Hernandez and Curtis Davies need to bring their experience to bare if they want to survive relegation this season.
LIKELY POSITION: 20th
You can make predictions indicating your top 4 teams and the 3 teams that will be relegated by sending your tweet to @Newfanzone on twitter.
Demola Adejuwon.
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