A New Season, But will it be the same old stuff?

Chelsea and Manchester United played out the traditional curtain raiser for the season 2010-11. Red Devils lifted the FA Community Shield with ease by slotting 3 goals past the hibernating Chelsea defence.

Since the world cup, some teams have been busy looking for managers, some teams have been busy retaining their most valuable players and fighting off tipp-tappy media and some teams have been finding it difficult to sell players whilst all teams have built upon their squads and had decent pre-season camping outside of UK.

Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas have committed atleast one more year of their professional lives to their respective clubs by quoting "for the love of the fans." But in reality, did they have a second option? NO. So with 5 days to kick off the new season, I wonder we have to ask the question "Will it be the same old stuff?"

Aston Villa havent been able to add significantly to their squad, but are on verge of losing James Milner who was their best player last season but could'nt run half a mile on the pitch in South Africa. Since many of their players did not play world cup, they will be having fresh legs early in the season and may be leading the tables as well.

Tottenham Spurs have an experienced manager who knows how to deal with pressure and with attraction of playing in Europe for the first time will at some stage be in a dilemma of sorts on which cup to concentrate.

Roy Hodgson's first job at Anfield will be to lift the spirits up in the team and especially their captain who had a forgetful winter in Africa. Liverpool may actually do well this season as compared to last, but they are in desperate need of a good first team striker to partner Torres & Ngog!

Chelsea have lost their key midfielders in Ballack and J Cole. In fact they have also lost Belleti and Deco. To me it seems they will be short in midfield as the season progresses and will get beaten more often than they ever have been in their winning seasons.

Man City have enough money to start a league of their own, but because of the new FA rule of 25 man squad, Mancini's going to have to trim a few quality players in order to satisfy greed of those few who joined very recently from well to do clubs.

Arsenal are the only team who have'nt lost a game in pre-season. However, with that said it wasnt the best pre-season as lots of goals were conceded, some early and some late. A good goal keeper signing has become very much a pre-requisite for this season. As far as a center back is concerned, I think Wenger should sign an experienced defender who has atleast 250+ games on his CV in their domestic leagues. Any European experience will be an added advantage.

Certainly the Man Utd fans think its their birth right to win every title cometh every new season. They have made decent purchases buying Hernandez and Smalling. Unfortunately for them, Hargreaves has again got injured but they still seem to have enough firepower in them to launch an attack to get back the title they lost by a mere point. But ofcourse they will have SAF, Fergie Time and Own Goal as tools that will assist them to be on track whenever they are in spot of bother.

Clubs like Newcastle United, Everton, and Bolton to finish in top half of the table. Blackpool, Wolves and West Brom will be relegated again and one of those will set a record for lowest points.

Though Arsenal are my favorites and I would like them to win the PL, I think it would be only wise I tip Man United to win another title this season. (This to please my friends, but God knows my predictions are always wrong :D)

Here are my predictions for the looooooooooooooong season!


1) Manchester United
2) Arsenal
3) Manchester City
4) Chelsea
5) Liverpool
6) Tottenham Spurs
7) Aston Villa
8) Everton
9) Newcastle United
10) Bolton Wanderers
11) Stoke City
12) Fulham
13) Sunderland
14) Birmingham
15) Wigan Athletic
16) West Ham United
17) Blackburn Rovers
18) West Brom
19) Wolves
20) Blackpool

Whaddya think?