Premiership Champions Predictions
Can Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal or another side topple Man Utd?
Aug 14, 2007
Manchester United’s summer of consolidation
The cornerstone of Manchester United’s 2006/07 success was their impressive attacking displays spearheaded by Wayne Rooney, player of the season Cristiano Ronaldo and a resurgent Paul Scholes.
It may have come as a surprise to some, then, that the Red Devil’s spent the majority of the off-season recruiting further forwards Nani, Anderson and Tevez. All three of these signings are, however, world class young players with huge potential who can not only provide cover for aging linchpins such as Scholes and Ryan Giggs, but also add further options to create a devastatingly balanced attack.
Despite this strengthening of their strike force, if United have a weakness it may lie in their addition of only one defensive minded player, Owen Hargreaves; although the England international’s ability to play in a number of different positions make him a potentially excellent capture.
Chelsea hope for greater consistency
Champion’s for the two previous years, Chelsea, finished last season six points behind United and with a poorer goal difference. This time their attempts to claim back their crown will be dependent on whether they can achieve greater consistency at both ends of the field.
Defensively, blue was definitely the colour for Chelsea last season following the string of depressing events that befell the team. The worst of these, the serious head injury sustained by goalkeeper Petr Cech and the ongoing fitness problems suffered by captain John Terry, left them short of reinforcements at the back. Forced on numerous occasions to move players out of position to fill holes left by absentees, they will definitely be hoping for much better luck and defensive stability this time round.
At the opposite end of the pitch, almost the whole of the side’s goal-getting responsibilities last campaign were shouldered by Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard. In an attempt to address this problem Chelsea used the transfer window to sign Claudio Pizarro and Florent Malouda. Their introduction, coupled with improvements from Kalou, Wright-Phillips and Shevchenko, could be enough to propel the Blues’ back to the summit.
Liverpool and Arsenal take different paths
The other two top four sides, Liverpool and Arsenal, appear to be polls apart in their summer decision making.
Whilst the Gunners allowed big names Henry and Ljungberg to leave and apparently continue to struggle to match the spending of the teams above them, manager, Arsene Wenger, has almost total job security.
In contrast Red’s coach Rafael Benitez is now on the hot seat after finally being granted his wish for substantial transfer funds, some of which he used towards the Premiership’s most expensive summer signing, Fernando Torres.
Despite their differences the one thing both the Merseysiders and North Londoners have in common is that they currently seem more uncertain than their rivals of their best starting elevens and this is something they will need to sort out straight away to have any chance of making enrodes into the gap to the top.
Tottenham Hotspur and other possible contenders
As Arsenal tears were falling mainly on the plane carrying Thierry Henry away to see if he could reign in Spain, Tottenham were spending the summer splashing out buckets of money, including £16.5m on Charlton’s Darren Bent, to make themselves possibly the best equipped side to challenge the top clubs.
Despite their new signings, the distraction of Europe for Tottenham, and the other English UEFA Cup qualifiers, may mean that it will in fact be teams who can concentrate solely on the Premiership, like Portsmouth and West Ham with their heavy investment and experienced managers, that will run the big four the closest.
