With the start of the Premier League season less than two weeks ago, I thought it was time to check on the five title rivals that Arsenal have. Those rivals are Chelsea, Manchester United, Spurs, Man City and Liverpool.
Chelsea have had a quiet summer with Cole, Ballack and Belletti leaving and only Benayoun coming in so far. Ancelotti has said that Chelsea will add two new players before the end of the transfer window, and who those players are might well decide whether Chelsea can repeat as champions.
But Chelsea looks to me like a team that is a year older and not necessarily better than they were a year ago. If anything they have taken a step backwards.
Manchester United have also been pretty quiet in the transfer market adding Smalling and Hernandez. Neither of them will make the difference this season on whether Man United can reclaim the title.
The key were United is Rooney. Rooney had a terrific year last season with 33 goals, but really disappointed in the World Cup. Either last season was a career year for Rooney and he will score less goals this season, or he will be determined to show everyone that the World Cup was fluke and put up better numbers than last year. I think the former is more likely and than Man U get less points this season than last year.
Spurs came in fourth this season and will get to play in the Champions League for the first time. I don’t believe that Spurs have a big enough squad to play in Europe and challenge for the title and I expect them to fall out of the top four this season.
Man City have spent a lot of money and they are the team that most worries me (outside of United and Chelsea). Mancini will continue to tighten City’s defence and they have signed some of the best forwards in the world. With almost four weeks in the transfer window, who knows who else City will bring in.
Last season Man City finished 8 points behind Arsenal and 19 points behind Chelsea. But they also drew 13 games compared to 6 for Arsenal and 5 for Chelsea. If Man City can turn 8 of these draws in wins, that is another 16 points and puts them right in the title race. With the money they have spent, I have to think that is possible.
Liverpool had a terrible season last year. Early injuries to Torres and Gerrard killed Liverpool’s title chances by early October. But the previous season Liverpool came in second as both Torres and Gerrard were healthy.
Torres still has injury issues, but Gerrard and Joe Cole are fit and I believe that we see the Liverpool of 2008 this year and not the Liverpool of 2009. Which means a top four position for Liverpool.
So summing up Arsenal’s rivals, I think that Chelsea, Man Utd and Spurs will take a step back from last season’s performance while Man City and Liverpool will improve.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
cheskis team aint that old an will stil be up there challenging, ben is class and will be missed by pool greatly. plus with 2 new players i think its slightly naive to suggest they wont be as good cos they lost joke injured cole, belle and ballack. ben is more than a replacement for cole who rarely played and 34yr old belletti. ballack lost his place along time ago.plus essien back.
i agree with ur man u point tho, rooney has to match last season or the other players will have to step up. i think lil pea has been brought in to take a lil weight off rooneys shoulders as berbs hasnt lived up to his potential. i reckon berbs has had a good talking to tho an wil be a different player.
spot on with spurs. they’l be knackerd. and demoralised.
pool really rely on ste an nandos and will be hoping for that 2008 form, any injuries tho and they wont make it. even with both of them fit they’l struggle. why?
xavi alonso thats why! he pulled the strings, pool aint got that any more, they had 4 top class players after xavi left, now bens gone. that leaves 3. ste, nando an kuyt the pressure is on. oh and joke cole aint no xavi.
spot on wit man city kind of, on paper they have a good squad, will they be a team on the pitch after a couple results go bad? theres alot of egos in there and its a squad that seems to attract negative personalities. all said tho they scare me a little. i predict arsenal 1st if the right signings come in, of course im bias but attacking wise we probably have the best. if we sort the defence. should be a done deal. chelski 2nd, they were the best last year and nothing has changed except for adding another quality player. the bones may begin to creek come april tho. we can hope at least. man u 3rd, no man city 3rd, no man… dammit it’l be close between those 2! then pool, villa, spurs an everton will fight it out for fifth.
Before the last season end, Ancelotti, annouce that they will introduce 6-7 player from their squad like kalkutta. So to say their club getting older maybe to soon.
Don’t underestimate the signing of javier hernandez at united. He’s a top player. He can keep them scoring when rooney is out of the side, so I would say he could have a say on their title chances, unfortunately.
Man City are worrying me for the first time. It’s hard to gauge wat they can achieve, but theres no doubt they are stronger than last season.
If we are not going to sign one more decent defender at least and a GK must, we will not be playing CL next season for sure.
We have only two CB now. Djore is nothing and injured always. We can’t count him as a regular player. So we need two CB for competing for title. And at least one for competing for next season CL birth.
And Arsenal is going to play without a GK this season i say.
Wenger always playing for CL birth. But i think this time that also difficult. Because MC and Spurs can break first four.
MU will never fall, because they are really a football club. not a business club like arsenal.
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