That’s good - as all you have done thus far is discuss Arsenal.
May I say I’m very glad The Biter is gone?
ETA: Also, I hope to see Liverpool prove (albeit prove without finishing above Arsenal) that they didn’t need him.
See, Jules?
They’re all against us!
Well, only in the sense that Liverpool is not Arsenal.
Otherwise, I wish Liverpool no specific harm.
Of course you can! Much better!
Suarez, like John Terry, is the sort of revolting thug that brings football fans together!
That’s for sure!
I’m another Arsenal supporter, and excited for the upcoming campaign. It will be interesting to see how far the shackles really are off the spending now that the loan debt is under control and new sponsorship money is coming in.
For the league as a whole, I see a bit of a disappointing year ahead for Liverpool. Spurs showed last year that its not so easy replacing your best player. And adding in European competition will make their squad depth more of an issue than last year.
I think its down to City and Chelsea again this season, with perhaps Arsenal sniffing around for a bit longer than usual (a guy can hope…). ManU challenging for a CL spot (Van Gaal always does well the first few seasons before the players revolt).
Tend to agree with your analysis Jas09 - City and Chelsea.
Not sure Arsenal have strengthened defensively and that will hurt them over the season but, depressingly, you would not bet against them for top four again.
Really have no idea if Man Utd will struggle again or not, traditionally van Gaal’s sides have started slowly and if they are say 6th around Xmas I suspect the British press and the glory hunters may just start to get to him. If I had to lay a bet I would go for 5th.
Spurs, Liverpool and Everton will be there or thereabouts again but somewhere between 4th and 7th (again). I think Liverpool will suffer a similar season to Spurs last year and struggle to adjust to life without the Biter.
Outside top two I am hopefully for a very open season!
Favourite team outside the main contenders in the ELP? Crystal Palace - I think Tony Pulis has proved many critics wrong that he is incapable of playing nice football and keeping a team up.
To go down? Leicester, Swansea and one of QPR, Southampton or West Ham (especially if they sack Allardyce).
I’m in denial.
Yes, defensive strength remains a bit of a concern, especially with a persistent injury for Koscielny that he picked up at the World Cup, still aggravating him. Chambers looks great, and so do Gibbs and Debuchy. It’s that central defense that looks iffy. There are rumors of some solid central defenders Arsenal are looking to sign before the deadline. We shall see.
Of course I disagree about the “depressingly” part! Other than I’m sick of finishing third or fourth.
Sounds about right. I think they will play tough and when they lose, lose by a close margin. I’d prefer to seem them bomb out, but what can you do?
Everton, almost a contender, as usual.
I’m sure you’re right about Liverpool missing The Biter, but I also think they might adapt more quickly than Spurs did after losing Bale.
I haven’t said much about the relegation battle, mainly because it’s less predictable than the usual top several, and less interesting to me.
It’s very common for a recently promoted team to find themselves unable to hang in the top flight and bow out after one season. Burnley, Leicester: it’s hard to see them staying in, but you never know.
I actually think Swansea, QPR, Southampton, and West Ham will escape relegation, and West Brom might be on the way out.
My second English team are Wolverhampton, for odd reasons mainly relating to their having been the team of choice for my favorite English composer, Sir Edward Elgar, and that he composed chants for them, still sung by the fans. They’ve had a rough couple seasons, after crashing out of the top flight and ultimately ending up in League One. But they’re back in the Championship, looking to repair previous faults. Best of luck to the Wolves!
I think West Brom is a good call for relegation. Another one of mine is Burnley, I don’t think they have the financial muscle to stay up (even though I thought the same thing of Palace last year). Haven’t decided on the third yet but Southampton is slowly shoring up the squad, spending its selling cash prudently and reportedly still in the running for Van Gaal reject Chicharito. I’m far from objective when it comes to the Saints but I think they’ll stay up, too.
I hope Koeman can coach as well as his predecessor. Tottenham got a good one in Pochettino.
Chelsea seem to like wingers or winger style forwards. Not out and out CF’s like Torres.
It was never clear to me that this was Chelsea’s fault or Torres’s. A bit of both?
I’ll be spending even more time than usual watching the premier League this year, because i’m going to see if i can quit the NFL. Despite the love i’ve developed for American football during my 14 years in the US, i’ve lost patience with the NFL as an organization and no longer wish to support them or their product. I may not be able to do it, but i’m going to try, and that will leave more time for following the EPL.
I’m a Liverpool fan, and while i’m very glad that they got rid of the Biter, that’s a really big set of shoes to fill up front. I’ll be very happy if they manage a finish in the top four. I really don’t think they can take the title.
Despite the fact that i’m a Liverpool fan, i’d be quite happy to see Everton do well. I really like Roberto Martinez, and better Everton than one of the Manchester teams, or Chelsea or Arsenal. Fuck those guys.
Unfortunately, Chelsea look like the team to beat. God kills a puppy every time Chelsea wins a game, and John Terry has one of the most punchable faces in sports. Manchester United are like the Yankees of English football; they buy everyone in sight, and are supported largely by hangers-on and people who decided to start following the game last week. Manchester City fans are sort of like Red Sox fans; they spent so long in the shadow of their more illustrious, bigger-spending rivals that they still think of themselves as plucky underdogs, and whine about the big spenders, even while they’re buying up players with money sucked out of exploited immigrant workers in Abu Dhabi. Arsenal could have a decent season, especially if they can avoid the injury troubles of last year, but if they don’t, you can be sure that Arsene Wenger will spend most of the season complaining about the officiating in that soft-and-yet-somehow-oh-so-whiny voice of his.
Can’t wait for the season to start. 
Chelsea’s mostly. At Liverpool, he could call up the like of Gerrad, Alonso and Mascherano to support him from midfield. Chelsea midfield has no one of that calibre, all players are trying to score rather than support the striker.
As it is, he has done well for Spain in the meantime, won Golden Boots at both Euro 2012 and Confed 2013. But then again, he has had Iniesta, , Alonso and Busquets in support.
mhendo, the hardest thing to give up was RedZone, the crack cocaine of the NFL. Individual games, while difficult to avoid (there’s just so damn many of them televised), are fairly easy to switch away from during the two and a half hours of commercial breaks and the miniature lawsuits that have to be resolved.
Ultimately, it was the authoritarian structure, the excessive commercialization and the morality play (alignment with the military and “patriotism”) that drove me away. I have no intention of looking back.
On to better things. Or maybe worse. Ronald Koeman just spent 12 million pounds of Southampton’s cash stash on Shane Long. Shane Long. My god.
Sorry, but you’ve lost me now. You said that Chelsea prefer strikers like Drogba or Duff, but as I said Duff was never a striker for Chelsea, he always played out wide.
In his three years at Chelsea Duff never led the line or was the most forward player, he always played wide behind a striker like Crespo, Hasslebaink, Gudjohnsen or even the aforementioned Didier Drogba.
By the way, I would consider Drogba to be as out and out a striker as you will ever see, the complete striker in fact.
I said “winger or winger style forwards”. Not that Duff was a forward, although I can see how you might think that from my earlier posts My point was that Duff was an attacking winger, a playmaker and Chelsea have in the Abramovich era preferred that to playing 2 forwards.
The Biter’s punishment has been reduced, slightly. He can now train with Barça teammates and play friendlies for Uruguay. The competitive match ban was upheld.
Crystal Palace and Tony Pulis just parted ways. Guess we’ll find out how much of their surprise 11th place finish last year was due to the players or to the coach…
Arsenal’s my first team, but Palace and Sunderland were the underdogs I liked rooting for last year (the first I was able to watch the Premier League on a regular basis). We’ll see how Palace do without Pulis. They really haven’t lost anyone from last year’s squad, but they certainly haven’t strengthened their squad much