With three weeks to go until the Premier League kicks off here at Playing got 90 we’ve collated the views of all our Premier League experts to predicted the season ahead. Who will be victorious in May? Who will qualify for the Champions League? And finally, who will face dammed relegation?
Kevin Kelly (Editor):
The 2015/16 Premier League looks set to be a classic, with a host of new stars ready to light up the league. On the back of a truly terrible 2014/15 campaign this season will surely impress, yet with the likes of Roberto Firmino and Bastian Schweinsteiger arriving, fans will rightly be excited.
Chelsea will likely retain the title, with a steady, quality-heavy squad and by far the best manager. The Champions league qualifiers will remain the same: Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United all falling short of Chelsea along the way. The three promoted teams are rarely all relegated, and Watford especially seem the best bet to stay up, with the other two in Norwich and Bournemouth going back down, along with Leicester City.
Ryan Wrenn (tactics expert):
If there is one major obstacle in Chelsea’s path this coming Premier League season, it’s a suddenly confident Arsene Wenger. Thus far this offseason the Frenchman’s remained quiet, content perhaps in the knowledge that Arsenal was by far the best team in the Premier League for the second half of the 2014/15 season. The title race will come down to the two London clubs, and it would not at all be surprising if Arsenal claim their first EPL trophy since the Invincibles season in 2004.
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The two Manchester clubs should easily fill out the remaining Champions League spots. Liverpool and Tottenham will continue some fairly aggressive, youth-oriented rebuilding projects and likely earn yet more Europa League ‘glory’ for their efforts.
The main entertainment last season was the race for midtable and that should continue. Stoke City, Southampton and Swansea should continue to improve over last season’s surprising form, and might even mix it up closer to the top of the table.
Relegation is harder to predict. Either Newcastle or Sunderland – or both – could again find themselves fighting for survival along with the recently promoted teams.
Lee Kilby (EPL Expert):
Louis Van Gaal has been Manchester United manager for a year, and the team already looks drastically different from Sir Alex Ferguson’s team. It is possible that there could be only one player in the starting 11 this coming season who played in Ferguson’s team years ago – Rooney. Van Gaal is one year into a three year contract, and his objective is to win the Premier League.
Arsenal had a good season, Sanchez was by far their best player and they have bought Petr Cech, a top keeper they needed. However, they need a world-class striker and a top central defender to compete for the title. They will get into the Champions League. Man City need several changes in defence and midfield. They have already bought Raheem Sterling from Liverpool and I believe they will get the last Champions League place just above Liverpool.
For relegation, I see Leicester going down. They had a great end to the season, but Nigel Pearson has now left and Claudio Ranieri has come in, a manager who is past his best and hasn’t achieved anything noteworthy since winning the UEFA Super Cup in 2004. I also think Watford and Norwich will go straight back down to the Championship. They have strong enough squads to compete with Premier League teams.
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Azeem Siqqiqui (European football expert):
As of now, clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool have been fairly active in the transfer market, but I still believe this year the title race will be eventually between Chelsea and Arsenal, with Chelsea being the favourite to win the title once again.
City, United and Liverpool will fight for the remaining two spots for the Champions League, where I believe Liverpool will fall short once again.
As in the relegation battle, the natural favourites are the teams who just got promoted, that includes the likes of Watford, Bournemouth and Norwich, along with Sunderland and Leicester will be the other clubs who will likely to be in the race till the end.
However, I believe that Sunderland will once again prove their quality and remain in the Premier League, along with Norwich as the other 3 sides will be relegated come the end of the season.