A new season of the Barclays Premier League kicks off on Saturday with more teams than ever believing that this could be their year to mount a push for the title.
Nobody has spent more money than Manchester City, for whom nothing less than a genuine championship challenge will do for the owners. They begin with a difficult trip to Tottenham, the side who pipped them to the precious 4th place last season in dramatic circumstances. On paper, City arguably now have the strongest squad in the league, bolstered even further by the big money signings of Yaya Toure, Aleksandar Kolarov, Mario Balotelli, Jerome Boateng, David Silva and probably James Milner. The questions this year, as last year, will be whether the strongest 11 can firstly be found, then gel into a winning unit. Too often last year under Mark Hughes, neither were answered, and it cost the Welshman his job. It took Chelsea two years of the Abramovich era to win the league, so the City owners will expect a lot better than last year's 5th.
Liverpool begin with fresh optimism following the arrivals of Roy Hodgson as manager, and Joe Cole, who will be determined to show Chelsea what they are missing. Add to that the signings of Milan Jovanovic and Christian Poulsen and the squad already looks stronger. The question mark still remains over Fernando Torres' fitness, and the team's ability to cope without him. Jovanovic will need to hit the ground running and far more is needed from David Ngog. One would expect a much improved showing than the disastrous 7th place, some 23 points behind Chelsea, but the championship still looks far further away than their fans can bring themselves to accept.
Arsenal's long wait for the title has produced the same observations year after year. One of them still has not been solved, namely their failure to sign a top class keeper, but they are looking at Mark Schwarzer, who has reportedly handed in a transfer request at Fulham. They have a new centre back in Laurent Koscielny, while getting rid of the dead wood at the back. On the flipside, some may say the outgoings leave them short of cover, but Koscielny and Thomas Vermaelen have the makings of a defensive partnership to rival the best in the country. The club has won its battle - for now - to keep Cesc Fabregas and he, and Robin van Persie, will be instrumental if they both stay fit, which has been a frustrating challenge in the past. Marouane Chamakh is a shrewd investment and his goals will ensure that the Gunners will go very close to ending their six year wait.
Manchester United are looking to youth to win them back the title. Sir Alex Ferguson has been told before he couldn't win anything with kids, but he proved them wrong then and he will be desperate to do it again to win the club a record 19th English league championship. Chris Smalling's signing raised a few eyebrows following his mediocre start to his Fulham career, but he has got a real chance to establish himself in the side while Rio Ferdinand recovers from injury. Javier Hernandez scored his first competitive goal in the Community Shield and looks a real handful. He and Wayne Rooney could be a very dangerous pair. As well as the new arrivals, the likes of Jonny Evans, Fabio and Rafael da Silva and Antonio Valencia will look to put pressure on the likes of Ferdinand and the legendary trio of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, who may all be playing their last seasons for the club. It may be a transisional period, but write United off at your peril.
The bookies favourites are of course Chelsea. They swept all before them a year ago, scoring a record 103 goals en route to their third title in six years. The squad was written off as too old last year, and although there are still a number of players the wrong side of 30, you cannot dispute the danger and pure class of players such as Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba. The signing of Ramires from Benfica has given them the youth that they haven't had in recent times, and he will look to have the same influence as Deco and Michael Ballack, who have both moved on free transfers. The club's recent success was built on a solid defence, and this year will be no different. John Terry will have to put his troubles behind him and put in a big season, and Alex will be his partner again following the departure of Ricardo Carvalho. They have a comfortable first few fixtures, starting with West Bromwich Albion and a good start will cement their position as the team to beat.
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