The greatest and most exciting league in the world will be kicking off this coming weekend and as always it will have its own twists, turns, lows and highs. How do you think it will pan out? Will Manchester United be crowned champions for the fourth time in a row without a certain Portuguese maestro or will we be seeing a new champion at the end of the season? Who will be toppled off the top-four porch as Manchester City have made a determined spending spree and look to gatecrash it? The other interesting part of the table will be the relegation battle — who is your money on? Here are my picks for this coming season, I might not be right but time will tell.

Champions — Manchester United
Surely Cristiano Ronaldo’s goals will be missed but then there is quality all over the pitch and they will be challenging for the league title again. In Dimitar Berbatov they have one of the classiest strikers in world football and on his day he can destroy any team with free will. In Wayne Rooney they have a man who can explode them towards the title or even implode them to disaster but still a talented team throughout the pitch. All the past three titles have been built on a solid defensive foundation and in Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic they have one of the best defensive pairings in the world. The league will be staying at the Theatre of Dreams.

Champions League — Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City
We would expect Liverpool and Chelsea to finish in the Champions League spots but some people might be shocked that I omitted Arsenal. Arsenal are lightweight this season, they’ve lost Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor, two very experienced players and I feel they just won’t have it in them this season. Manchester City will be up there with the signings they made this season. They’ve invested and did it very well, their only Achilles’ heel is their defence. They’ll be strong contenders for a top-four position if they sort that out before the end of the transfer period.

Relegation — Wolves, Hull City, Portsmouth
Portsmouth might have pulled the great escape a few seasons back with Harry Redknapp in charge but he is not there any more and coupled with the fact that they’ve sold all their star performers in the past two months, it’s going to be a very long season for them. Hull City pulled a great escape last season after riding high in the first half of the season but they looked tired and out of ideas in the second half so they are my big bet to go down this time — last year they were more of an unknown bunch but not any more. They have also been struggling to sign and attract players since the transfer window opened. Wolves have Mick McCarthy as manager, remember the disastrous run he had in the Premier League with Sunderland in the 2005/06 season before he was fired? Just like with Sunderland a few years back they were promoted automatically and as champions, signed a bunch of unknowns from the lower leagues and that was it for them. History looks like it’ll be repeating itself.

Surprise package — Sunderland
In Steve Bruce, Sunderland have one of the most underrated yet effective and shrewd managers in the Premier League. He has managed to unearth talent at Birmingham and Wigan Athletic. He did a very good job at Wigan. They surprised a lot of teams when they finished an impressive 11^th. Sunderland will surprise us too if they get consistent. In Darren Bent they have signed a striker who flourishes at small teams, he scored 16+ goals at Charlton.

Golden boot — Didier Drogba or Fernando Torres
I couldn’t choose one because anything can happen in soccer — like injuries. But one of the above strikers will be up there with their goals come the end of the season. When Drogba is on form he is very unplayable and can turn any game on its head. He is also a player who plays for the coach if he likes him, so far its look good with Carlo Ancelotti. He also just signed a new contract with Chelsea, it means he is happy there and wants to stay for a very long time. People thought Torres would spend the first season adjusting to life in the Premier League but he hit the ground running, he took to it like a fish to water. Last season he was troubled by injuries but if he stays injury free he will be a golden boot winner.

Best signing — Carlo Ancelotti
If he gets Chelsea playing the kind of attacking football Roman Abramovich wants then he will be the Premier League’s best signing. His Milan side used to play an interesting and attacking 4-1-2-2-1. He should also get the best out of Drogba, bring back Lampard to his best and make him score 20+ goals a season, then he might be celebrating all the way to the title.

Panic signing — Alberto Aquilani
Liverpool tend to spend a lot of money on footballers who aren’t the best in their positions — 20 million pounds for Alberto Aquilani, who was Roma’s 3^rd or 4^th midfielder is just paying over the odds. I guess Roma must have been happy when Liverpool came in with such a ridiculous offer. Maybe he will surprise me and fill the void left by Xabi Alonso very, very well, we will have to wait and see.

I am looking forward to the new season, are you? We’ll see how it shapes out without Cristiano Ronaldo who has been arguably its biggest star in the past two to three seasons. Who will be the new shining light of the EPL? Time will tell.

• City still on course for title

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 8:44 am and is filed under World Soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.