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Premier League 2014/15


banana

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For me City and Chelsea are the two real contenders, with nothing much between them.

City haven’t lost anyone of note, have signed an improvement on Pantillimon, and have finally signed a partner for Kompany. They could do with Aguero staying fit for the whole season this time around, and will be hoping Jovetic can have an impact.

Chelsea probably have the strongest squad in the league, although not the most balanced. What they intend doing if Costa gets injured I have no idea? The options they have in midfield though are ridiculous, and they have two excellent goalkeepers. In Mourinho they have a manager who has been over the course before as well, although his “little horse” analogy won’t work this season and serious questions will be asked of him if he fails to win the league.

Arsenal might make more of a sustained challenge, but you have to feel they will once again fall short due to their lack of title winning experience. They have some good, pacey attacking options, and at least one meltdown a season is guaranteed making them one of the most attractive teams to keep an eye on.

United will obviously improve on last season, and should return to the top 4. They won’t win the league with that defence though. I’m very interested on seeing how Van Gaal’s “project” develops.

The only way is down for Liverpool I think. They’ve lost their best player and replaced him with quantity rather than quality. It is all very reminiscent of Tottenham last summer, with a hint of Dalglish, signing average players who have looked good at lesser teams.

Tottenham will continue to be a huge irrelevance and Levy will probably sack Pochettino to allow his shiny face to hog some of the limelight as per.

As usual there is a strong case for so many teams to be relegation candidates. Most will also change manager and go through several players between now and the end of the season, making it very hard to pick who will go down.

1 Chelsea

2 City

3 Arsenal

4 United

18 Aston Villa

19 West Brom

20 Burnley

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For me City and Chelsea are the two real contenders, with nothing much between them.

City haven’t lost anyone of note, have signed an improvement on Pantillimon, and have finally signed a partner for Kompany. They could do with Aguero staying fit for the whole season this time around, and will be hoping Jovetic can have an impact.

Chelsea probably have the strongest squad in the league, although not the most balanced. What they intend doing if Costa gets injured I have no idea? The options they have in midfield though are ridiculous, and they have two excellent goalkeepers. In Mourinho they have a manager who has been over the course before as well, although his “little horse” analogy won’t work this season and serious questions will be asked of him if he fails to win the league.

Arsenal might make more of a sustained challenge, but you have to feel they will once again fall short due to their lack of title winning experience. They have some good, pacey attacking options, and at least one meltdown a season is guaranteed making them one of the most attractive teams to keep an eye on.

United will obviously improve on last season, and should return to the top 4. They won’t win the league with that defence though. I’m very interested on seeing how Van Gaal’s “project” develops.

The only way is down for Liverpool I think. They’ve lost their best player and replaced him with quantity rather than quality. It is all very reminiscent of Tottenham last summer, with a hint of Dalglish, signing average players who have looked good at lesser teams.

Tottenham will continue to be a huge irrelevance and Levy will probably sack Pochettino to allow his shiny face to hog some of the limelight as per.

As usual there is a strong case for so many teams to be relegation candidates. Most will also change manager and go through several players between now and the end of the season, making it very hard to pick who will go down.

1 Chelsea

2 City

3 Arsenal

4 United

18 Aston Villa

19 West Brom

20 Burnley

99% this. Swap Aston Villa for Crystal Palace in the "dropzone" and we have a deal.

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The only way is down for Liverpool I think. Theyve lost their best player and replaced him with quantity rather than quality. It is all very reminiscent of Tottenham last summer, with a hint of Dalglish, signing average players who have looked good at lesser teams.

The Lalana one has got a hint of the Stewart Downings about it but I'm excited by who he's brought and lots with youth on their side. Liverpool have been a top 4 side for 18 months now Rodgers really seems to know what he's doing.

They've had a good pre-season and on the evidence of last Sunday they are raring to go again. It's going to be very interesting to see how Sterling does this season because he is improving all the time.

Tough start with Southampton at followed by Man City and Spurs away but a chance to make an early impression again.

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I reckon Liverpool will take a step back this season, fourth wouldn't be a disaster. Long-term, the future is still bright for them as they'll not have to worry about FFP due to their global fanbase.

I don't feel Man U are ready to challenge yet and I'd be more surprised to see them finish near Chelsea and/or Man City than I would to see them finish below Tottenham and/or Everton again.

I'm not seeing the Arsenal love-in this season either. Sanchez will make them more incisive going forward, but I'm still not convinced their defence and defensive midfield is good enough to prevent another bottle job. For those saying winning the cup is a turning point, they were left with the task of beating Wigan and Hull and still very nearly fucked it up on both occasions. They'll be top four, but nowhere near winning the league, as ever.

I really hope I'm wrong on my prediction that Chelsea will win the league. I can't think of a scummier club in the UK.

We'll be shite, as usual.

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Lallana is, he's achieved very little in his career outwith one purple patch last season, hes 26 now ffs. Nowhere near good enough for a team chasing the top four

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Adam Lallana was pretty good for Southampton the season before as well, albeit not as good as he became. His second season in the league though, so it makes sense he'd improve. I think he's capable of being a brilliant player at Liverpool, and the comparison to Downing is idiotic, given that he spent several seasons in the league with varying success.

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Adam Lallana was pretty good for Southampton the season before as well, albeit not as good as he became. His second season in the league though, so it makes sense he'd improve. I think he's capable of being a brilliant player at Liverpool, and the comparison to Downing is idiotic, given that he spent several seasons in the league with varying success.

Your over doing it saying it's an idiotic comparison. I hope he's a roaring success but I'm not convinced. Downing had a cracking season at Villa before Liverpool signed him turned out it was his peak. Feel it could be the same with Lallana. Hope he kicks on though.

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I wasn't directly comparing anyone. They are similar signings, in so far as they were top performers in a middling club. That is were the comparison comes in. FWIW I think Lambert and Lallana are far better than Downing and Carroll. I don't think either are players that title chasers would sign though. They also have no CL experience. I do understand why Lambert was worth a punt at the price though. Much like Adam was for Dalglish.

Liverpool came within a baw hair of winning the league. The only possible improvement is to win it which I don't think they will. I also think that with the additional distraction of the CL, and without a world class centre forward they will come up short. Fourth place and the last 16/QF of the CL would still be a good return. I think that's the very most you can expect from them though.

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Your over doing it saying it's an idiotic comparison. I hope he's a roaring success but I'm not convinced. Downing had a cracking season at Villa before Liverpool signed him turned out it was his peak. Feel it could be the same with Lallana. Hope he kicks on though.

That's why I said varying success. Could be good one season and shit the next. The same thing happened with Liverpool.

Lallana is more unproven at the higher level than anything else, and there's nothing to suggest he won't do well so far.

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That's why I said varying success. Could be good one season and shit the next. The same thing happened with Liverpool.

Lallana is more unproven at the higher level than anything else, and there's nothing to suggest he won't do well so far.

Other than that, like Downing, he has yet to prove himself at a big club pushing for honours and coping with everything that goes with it. I'm sure it's fair to say that was the season (2010-11) with Villa and being a regular in the England side was the one that suggested Downing could perhaps make the step up.

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Can't see beyond Man City or Chelsea winning it. Arsenal should be third and although I think Liverpool will be better than Man United, the fact they have the champions league to think about this season means Man United might sneak into 4th. I think Everton will beat Spurs into sixth.

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Downing did well for us the season before he left but we were still rubbing our hands with glee thinking we'd got £20 million for him. Mind you, part of that was we were all convinced N'Zogbia would be an excellent replacement at half the price, which hasn't quite worked out as well as we'd hoped.

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