With the start of the 2015/16 season a few hours away,it will be interesting to know which team will push for the Title,which will struggle and of course which will Suprise us by been the revelation of the season just like Southampton did in the outgoing EPL Season.
Newfanzone.com previews the season ahead by picking The Potential Title Challengers and The Probable Relegation Battlers.
TITLE CHALLENGERS
ARSENAL
PLAYER(s) IN: Cech,Dragomir
PLAYER (s) OUT: Szczesny,Akpom,Sanogo, Gnabry,Podolski.
Arsenal look to be in the form of their life going into this season as they have had an 100% Pre-season record. The Gunners have the compliment of their full squad with only Wilshire,Rosicky and Welbeck out with various injuries.
Arsene Wenger seem to have found the winning formula with wins against Defending champions Chelsea in the Community shield,coupled with wins over Lyon and German Super Cup champions Wolfsburg in the Emirates cup.
No doubt the French man will hope they start the season with a bang as they already lost the title to Chelsea before December after a poor start to last season where they had 2 wins in 7 games.
The signing of Cech has further made them solid defensively and if they can get a poacher like Benzema, coupled with the form of Coquelin,Ramsey,Carzorla, Ozil and Alexis the Gunners looks odds on favorite for the Title this season. Key thing is consistency and injury to key players if that is settled it seems the cup might remain in London but this time it will be at the Red side.
LIKELY POSITION: 1st
CHELSEA
PLAYER(s) IN: Falcao, Kennedy,Begovic.
PLAYER(s) OUT: Luis,Cech,Drogba,
The Defending champions have had a Pre-season to forget with no wins under 90mins of football and the defeat to their London rivals Arsenal in the Community Shield.
Jose Mourinho still has a strong team that can push for the title this season, but they have to hope Costa niggling hamstring does not force the striker to miss most of their games because in Falcao and Remy Chelsea might not have that striker that could get them 20 league goals this season.
Captain, John Terry has already acknowledge how tough defending their title will be this season but never bet against the Blues. In Hazard, Fabregas,Matic,Willian,Ramires they have one of the best Midfield in the world coupled with their disciplined defence line they will definitely push for the title.
LIKELY POSITION: 2nd
LIVERPOOL
PLAYER(s) IN: Benteke,Firminho,Clyne,Milner,Ings,Bogdan,Gomez,Allan.
PLAYER(s) OUT: Gerrard, Lambert, Jones,Wisdom,Johnson,Sterling,Coates.
Liverpool will want to forget all about last season’s campaign as it was a disappointing one in terms of transfers and also results in the pitch.
Brendan Rodgers have still gone ahead to make more signings this season but this time he has added good quality to his side.
With Gerrard no longer at Anfield the mantle of leadership rests upon young Jordan Henderson and it will be interesting to see how he leads the team as they will try to make an impression this season.
The loss of Sterling shouldn’t be a worry because in Firminho and Benteke they have proven goalscorers especially the Belgian who doesn’t need time to adapt to the demands of the EPL.
Their Achilles heel would be their defence as Rodgers has not signed any centre defensive backup so far in the transfer window. In Lovren, Sakho, Skrtel and Toure they have relatively good defenders
who on their day can repel the deadliest of attack forces. Rogers first seven away fixtures are pretty difficult and if the former Swansea manager does not set the ball rolling he might be the first manager to be axed after all he spent during the summer.
LIKELY POSITION: 5th
MANCHESTER CITY
PLAYER(s) IN: Sterling, Delph, Roberts
PLAYER(s) OUT: Dzeko, Jovetic, Milner,Richards,Sinclair.
Manchester city have surprisingly not done much in the market this season with only Sterling the big money signing they’ve made.
Pellegrini’s team had a decent Pre-season tour but they are no push overs when it comes to the title race. Players like Dzeko and Milner are gone but with Bony they have a good enough cover for star striker and last season top goal scorer Kun Aguero.
Sterling will definitely give City more penetration on the attack and the £49m pounds signing will have to hit the ground running immediately the season starts.
Manchester city stuttered at some point last season due to errors of their back line marshaled by Kompany and the dip in form of Yaya Toure. Pellegrini will hope these guys are fully fit and consistent as well as Aguero and the Spanish wizard Silva then they will definitely have a chance of winning the league title.
LIKELY POSITION: 3rd
MANCHESTER UNITED
PLAYER(s) IN: Depay, Schweinstiger, Schnierderlin, Romero,Darmian
PLAYER(s) OUT: Di Maria, Rafael,Van Persie.
Manchester United have made good signings so far this season mixing experience with youth.
Van Gaal has a bit of issues this season with De Gea trying to force his way out of Old Trafford, how he handles that is left to be seen.
United has failed to sign a Centre back so far despite being linked to Otamendi and Ramos which means they might have to rely on Smalling,Rojo,Jones and McNair who were not too impressive last season.
All eyes will be on Dutchman Memphis Depay who was recently given the No.7 jersey and touted to be the saviour of Manchester United this EPL campaign.
If there is anything United have this season is depth in squad especially in the midfield position but they need to add extra bodies forward with Rooney and Chicharito the recognized strikers.
For United to really challenge for the EPL title this season they need a goal machine and a rock defensively.
LIKELY POSITION: 4th.
RELEGATION BATTLERS
ASTON VILLA
PLAYER (s) IN : Gueye,Gestede,Ayew,Sinclair, Bunn,Amavi,Richards.
PLAYER (s) OUT: Benteke, Delph.
Aston Villa will likely stutter this season after allowing two key players leave this summer but they’ve spent well and shrewdly at that with players like Ayew and Gueye moving over to the Villians.
Tim Sherwood will hope his team gels quickly so as not to avoid the drop and Carles Gil and Jack Grealish continue from where they left off last season.
LIKELY POSITION: 17th
SUNDERLAND
PLAYER(s) IN : Mvilla,Kaboul,Lens,Alvarez,Coates,Matthews.
Sunderland escaped being relegated last season narrowly and they might not be lucky this campaign even though they’ve managed to retain Dick Advocat who was their Messiah last season.
Coates was massive for them last season In the defence and they hope they rake in points especially from their rivals in order to beat the drop once again.
LIKELY POSITION: 18th
BOURNEMOUTH
PLAYER (s) IN: Atsu,Gradel,Ming’s,Distin,King,Fedirichi,Boruc.
New boys Bournemouth aim will be to remain in the league next season. They had fantastic displays and scored loads of goals in the championship last season but this is the premiership. They’ve made good signings but it does not look like they would remain in the premiership after this season.
LIKELY POSITION: 19th
NORWICH
PLAYER (s) IN: Mulumbu,Dorrans,Brady,Kean,Wisdom
It good to see Carrow road host premier league games this season. The last time the Canaries played in the EPL they were a very tough side to beat with Players like Snodgrass, Morrison, Holt and Pilkington not forgetting Manger Paul Lambert.
This is a new Norwich side,the signings the Canaries have made thus far may not be able to push them from the drop zone.
LIKELY POSITION: 20th
You can make predictions indicating your top 4 teams and the 3 teams that will be relegated by sending your tweet to @Newfanzone and @Demydemo on twitter. The Newfanzone comes up every Saturday in City 105.1Fm from 2pm.
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