The season starts later today at 2:45 pm when Leicester City visit the Emirates to face Arsenal. So with the season just around the corner here are predictions for the English Premier League season coming up.
Arsenal will gamble with Ozil and Sanchez and win.
Arsenal’s two top players are in the last year of their contracts, which lead many to believe they were for sale since the players might leave on a free transfer next summer. Both players are unwilling to sign extensions after Arsenal didn’t earn a place in the Champions League this season. The Gunners as of now have said they will not sell both players and will let them run out their contracts, with the belief that if they get champions league for next season they will resign with the club.
This is a huge gamble because if the team loses both players next summer they will face a huge hole in the squad with no money to try to replace them. If Sanchez and Ozil both leave then Arsenal will probably fall from the level of the teams trying to win titles, a level that will be very hard to achieve without receiving money for selling them. World class players are hard to come by and losing two for free can be detrimental.
Yet, if Arsenal do finish in the top four this season than the move will be seen as brilliant. As Arsenal got to keep their best players and never take a step back and can continue building a squad around them. This year will be a make or break season for Arsenal, it will set up the years to come. If they reach top four then Arsenal will continue to be the Gunners of recent years but if they don’t they will probably take a huge step back that will take years to recover. This is all a gamble Arsene Wenger is doing but it is not the first time the club just put all its faith in the manager.
Ultimately Arsenal does look in a prime position to get back into the top four since they have added to the squad and been able to keep their best players. Something not all clubs in England have been able to do.
Liverpool have a drop-off
Liverpool is in the middle of the biggest transfer sagas of the summer with Barcelona after Phillipe Coutinho. Yet, while many are clambering for the player to stay it won’t make a difference. Liverpool’s problem last year was the depth of the squad, they went undefeated against the other teams in the top six but still managed to finish fourth. This shows that Liverpool’s problem is beating the teams they are supposed to beat not the top class opponents.
Many expected Liverpool to bring in many players to set up the squad with a bigger depth and as of now, they have only three additions with the potential of losing their best player. The problem will also be highlighted by the fact that Liverpool are in the Champions League and that brings more fixtures into the schedule. So if the squad remains the same it is easy to predict that the team will produce similar results. If they struggled last season this year will bring even more matches for the team to juggle. The second issue is the top teams they have had success against have gotten better and it would be hard to assume they will find the same success against the top side as they did last season.
This season will show if Jurgen Klopp can manage a full premier league season and build a squad that can be consistent day in and day out. Liverpool will have to be more consistent and step up the level of play of the team if they want to find the same success they had last season. There are still three weeks left in the transfer window so the depth issue might be resolved a couple fixtures into the season.
Spurs and Man City will pass Chelsea
Chelsea this summer has looked like they have taken a step back which is in direct opposite of Man City and Tottenham. Man City has spent over 200 million and finally look to have a squad more built with Pep Guardiola’s style. Tottenham have been able to keep their great young core that keeps improving year by year.
Spurs last year already scored more and allowed fewer goals than Chelsea and with three weeks left you’d expect the team to add a little bit more to the squad. Man city will come back with a healthy Gabriel Jesus plus a complete overhaul of the defence that allowed 39 goals last season. On the other hand, Chelsea is losing players and not really gaining much. While their defense is still intact and the addition of Antonio Rudiger will help, the problem this year will be the goals. Since Diego Costa is out the door Chelsea doesn’t really have a striker that can net 20 goals in a season. Spurs have Kane, City have Aguero and Chelsea doesn’t have a player that can counter them.
Unless they add another forward player in the three weeks left in the window, Chelsea will have a tough time being able to score goals at the level needed to win the championship. So while Chelsea is trending downward, Man City and Spurs have looked amazing in the preseason and are the two clubs who have seemed to separate themselves from the rest. It goes to show how Chelsea has suffered this transfer window where they needed the year as favorites and are now falling behind Spurs and City.
United will contend but will ultimately fall short
Manchester United has done a lot this summer to improve the squad with many believing that it will be enough to win the title. The red devils fixed a lot of the problems in their squad they brought in Victor Lindelof to fix their issue of not having a good centre back in the air. They got Lukaku to get a world class striker that can score goals and move defenders since Zlatan Ibrahimovic was let go. Their latest move might have been the most important, Matic brings a good defensive midfield that can win the ball back and give Pogba and Mata space in front to be able to create plays.
United are starting to look like an elite team again like it used to be during the Ferguson years. Yet, the talent gap may still be too big for them to catch up in just one summer. While so much talent has been added at United, they will still be needing goals and unless the wingers they have (Rashford, Lingard) break out and start scoring like they never had.
Every single one of the top teams last year had two guys that could score more than 15. Costa and Hazard for Chelsea, Kane and Ali in Spurs, Aguero and Jesus at Man City. That is something United are still missing and if they don’t find that second scorer alongside Lukaku it will be difficult for them to have the fire power to win the title. Manchester United only scored 54 goals last season, which is 31 fewer goals than the champions Chelsea. Adding to the fact is that of those 54 goals 17 were from Zlatan who will not be there next season. So while adding Lukaku gives the side goals they will need someone to step up along side him if United want to win it all.
Burnley will struggle
Burnley finished 16th last year summing up the magical number of 40 points to stay in the league. They played fantastic at home, winning 10 games and drawing there while only losing six matches. This is an incredible home record for a team in the relegation battle. In direct contrast, they were one of the worst teams in the road gaining points only five matches and losing 14. They collected 33 of their 40 points at home something that will be very difficult for them to repeat this season.
What will add difficulty to Burnley aspiration of staying up is the transfer window they are having. They have sold their best defender in Micheal Keane to Everton, gotten rid of one of their minute’s leader George Boyd and on Saturday they sold their second leading scorer from last year in Andre Gray to the only team they finished above in the table. Burnley scored 39 goals last year, that is the worst mark among all the teams returning from last year.
On the other end, Burnley hasn’t really added to the squad. They brought in a Jonathan Walters from Stoke who only score 4 goals last year and Jack Cork who will come in to fill in the role Boyd left. If Burnley wants to stay up they will have to find a goalscorer in the three weeks left in the transfer window. They can’t expect their home form from last year to show up again so unless they improve at scoring away from Turf Moor they are bound to end up relegated.
You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Jose Ruiz!