Joined: May '09
Location: Denmark
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 191
Personally I think it will be a battle with Chelsea and Liverpool this year. Manchester United could be a dark horse, but loosing Cristiano Ronaldo is a big blow and it will take time before the can reach the levels of the past two seasons. Manchester Citys big spending signings needs to gel first and honestly I don't hope they will even make fourth place even though I fear they will.
Arsenal and as usually Tottenham will be this seasons underachievers..... West Ham could be the half season surprise of the year......
Chelsea are strong and with Carlo Ancelotti new in Premier League there could be some hurdles (especially around the christmas schedule), but the largest squad and many midfield alternatives creates tons of depht and power. They could use another striker, but otherwise their squad is complete.
Liverpool has lost Xabi Alonso and Arbeloa - both losses the team can easily survive. New signing Alberto Aquilani is a gambling. Italian players rarely adapt easy in PL and vice versa the other way. It should be mentioned though that Aquilani is probably the best italian player to have joined an english club since Gianfranco Zola. It remains to be seen what he can do. The strenght of Liverpool is that they alway play like a team and work their butts 100% off. They may not match Chelsea on paper and maybe not even the Man U without Ronaldo, but I believe there hunger and teameffort can compensate for that.
Man U has enjoyed so much succes the past seasons that the players are probably dried a bit out regarding to motivation. Therefore together with the loss of Ronaldo and lack of highprofile signings so far I only see them getting third place.
What do you other pokerplaying football enthusiast think?
