Who will win the Premier League?

by Adam - August 15th, 2009. Filed under: Premier League.

The question that is on everybody’s lips at the moment is who will win the coveted title of English Champions. Manchester United have won it for the past three seasons and are hoping for a record breaking fourth consecutive title. The main threat to Manchester United will come in the usual shape of the ‘Big Four’, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal, plus possibly this year’s big spenders and United’s rivals, Manchester City. Manchester City have spent nearly £100m this year securing the services of some big name players such as Gareth Barry from Aston Villa, Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor from Arsenal and Carlos Tevez who turned down the opportunity to stay at Old Trafford.

Many pundits are tipping the blues, Chelsea to win the title this time around. Reason being unlike the other members of the ‘Big Four’ they not lost any players where as Arsenal have lost Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor, Liverpool have lost Xabi Alonso and Manchester United have lost Carlos Tevez and world player of the year, Cristiano Ronaldo. Although they have all gone some length to replacing them they were all key figures for their teams. Chelsea have also strengthened their squad slightly, signing Russian Zuri Zhirkov from CSKA Moscow for 18m and two young English players in Ross Turnbull on a free transfer and Daniel Sturridge from Manchester City.

Liverpool came so close last year and were arguably the better team over the year but were let down by so many home draws against the ‘lesser sides’. It was by far the closest that Liverpool had come to winning the league since 1990 and maybe they will be able to better it this year. They have lost a key midfield player in Xabi Alonso who went to money bags Madrid and signed Alberto Aquilani from AS Roma for 20m, unfortunately he will no be featuring for the first two months of the season because of an ankle injury. They will be hoping that they could better what they achieved last year but they could be ruing the missed opportunities, however with the talasmanic Steven Gerrard and constant goal threat Fernando Torres they have a good shot at it.

Arsenal have not won a major trophy in the last four years and have finished 4th in the Premier League for three out of the last four seasons. However they had a good run in the Champions League last year eventually bowing out to the beaten finalists Manchester United at the semi-final stage. Arsenal have a young squad captained by Cesc Fabregas who is only 22 himself.  They have been dogged by injuries in the past few seasons to key players such as Rosiscky, Walcott and Eduardo and Samir Nasri had broken his leg now too, they will be hoping for better luck in the injury department that’s for sure . Under manager Arsense Wenger they are certain to be playing fantastic looking football but whether they will be able to go the distance with Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United will have to be seen.

The reason why many people don’t think Manchester United are going to win the Premier League this year is because of the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo for a record 80m to Real Madrid, Ronaldo was a pivotal figure in Manchester United’s recent success and was almost unstoppable in the 2007/2008 campaign banging in a massive 42 goals over the year.

Will Manchester United cope without him?

Will Manchester United cope without him?

Although Sir Alex received a world record transfer sum for Ronaldo only 19m has been reinvested. Sir Alex has signed Ecudorian Luis Antonio Valencia from Wigan for approximately 16m, Valencia is a much more convential winger who passes defenders, gets to the byline and wips in a cross. The shock of the summer was possibly Manchester United signing Michael Owen on a free transfer after a horrid time at Newcastle where he was hampered by injuries but still managed 39 goals in 80 games in four seasons. There is a slight risk to it but if anyone can get Owen firing like he did in his Liverpool days then Sir Alex can and  Manchester United would have done a shrude bit of business. Will they be able to retain the Premier League title for the 4th year running?

As for me, I believe that although Liverpool had a fantastic season last year United never really looked that good and they missed a real opportunity to win the title. I am going to go with Manchester United to win the Premier League for 4th year in a row with Chelsea a close second and Liverpool third. I do feel Arsenal will manage to hold on to 4th place but only just with Manchester City right on their tail.

I’m sure that we will see an extremely close title race and as ever a very entertaining season of football.

Please comments on who you think will win the Premier League.

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