1. Manchester City

2. Manchester United

3. Chelsea

4. Arsenal

5. Liverpool

6. Tottenham

7. Everton

8. Newcastle United

9. Fulham

10. Sunderland

11. Aston Villa

12. Stoke

13. West Ham United

14. QPR

15. Swansea

16. Southampton

17. Norwich

18. West Brom

19. Wigan

20. Reading

 

I'll start at the top - despite Chelsea's signings I can't see them beating Manchester City, or even Manchester United for that matter. The Man City squad have the experience of a title now which will help them form capitulating like they did last season. Tevez looks like he will be with them too. Who knows whether they will make another signing before the window closes, but like most of the clubs bar Chelsea they appear to be adopting FFP rules. Manchester United will be stronger than last year for sure, but they still have several weak spots. Their reliance on Scholes will be their downfall, and I really don't rate Cleverly at all. Kagawa is a fantastic signing for them though. Vidic back will be excellent for them aswell, but he won't be enough to stop Man City's dominance.

 

Chelsea have signed Hazard and Oscar. Two brilliant young players, but they also lost Drogba in the summer. If they stick to the same tactics they used last season they will falter. The Old Guard need to be fazed out, although gradually, not like AVB did. If they play the same tactics they did last year they will struggle, and be found out. They need to be dominating teams, not playing long ball tactics. Torres cannot play the same role Drogba did. Arsenal have signed Podolski and Giourd, but neither are as good as RVP, who I don't think will be there come September 1st. They still haven't buffed up their midfield which they need to.

 

Tottenham will be going through a transition period. They lack a striker unless they can strike some deal with Man City for Adebayor. King is an absolutely massive loss for them, and Modric won't be there come the end of the transfer window. Like Liverpool, I feel they might have to take one step back before they can go forward. I'm incredibly worried about Liverpool at the moment. Be pleased if we sign Allen, but not enough fire power at the business end of the field. Still time to go yet, but the goals can't be left to Suarez and Borini. Too much pressure.

 

Newcastle will not have a good a season as last year. Everton will continue to be Everton. Fulham will look threatening, but whether they manage to keep hold of Dempsey remains to be seen. West Ham are going boom or bust, and I fully expect them to do the former rather than the latter.

 

Way too close to call at the bottom again. I think the promoted clubs from last season will be ok again. Tipping Wigan to finally go down, as someone will probably come in for Martinez mid season, and they've lost a couple of key players from last year. Not sure about West Brom. They've got a rookie manager, who could go either way. I'm not convinced Steve Clarke can be anymore than an assistant/great coach, but we shall see.

 

Leaving my predictions until we actually sign some players, because right now with the squad we've got we'll be getting relegated having scored a grand total of 5 goals. Urghhh.

01. Manchester City

02. Chelsea

03. Manchester United

04. Arsenal

 

05. Tottenham

06. Liverpool

07. Newcastle United

08. Everton

09. Sunderland

10. Aston Villa

 

11. Fulham

12. Qpr

13. West Ham United

14. Swansea

15. Stoke

16. West Brom

17. Southampton

 

18. Wigan

19. Norwich

20. Reading

Edited August 7, 201212 yr by LeeWallaceee

1. Manchester City

2. Chelsea

3. Manchester United

4. Arsenal

5. Tottenham

6. Newcastle United

7. Fulham

8. Liverpool

9. Everton

10. Stoke

11. QPR

12. Sunderland

13. Aston Villa

14. West Ham United

15. West Brom

16. Swansea

17. Wigan

18. Southampton

19. Norwich

20. Reading

 

So yeah last year I said "City will not win the title while Mancini is in charge" and I was very wrong about and hopefully I'm wrong in thinking they will retain the title despite the lack of more big name attacking players to sit on the bench for most season. Chelsea have certainly made done some good business in the close season and I agree with Josh with saying that they'll need to change their style now Drogba is gone (he always was a big game player, they'll certainly miss him) but I think De Matteo realises this and I think will certainly benefit Torres quite a lot (if all else fails they really should give Juan Mata a Steven Gerrard mask, that'll help him)

 

Even if we do get Moura and RVP on top of Kagawa and Powell I'm not so confident about United this season. The main problem for me is not about the midfield that does need some major work, more depth and less reliance on Giggs and Scholes and is instead our defence as I really don't think Smalling and Jones are really quite at the level of filling in for Rio and Vidic just yet and I find it quite odd that we are linked with left backs rather than right backs as Rafael is our only natural right back and tbh I don't think he's good enough! Evra hasn't been as good lately, yes but playing Smalling or Jones at right back always frustrates me. Luckilly I do like De Gea a lot and I think he'll get better next season. If we do get RVP (I doubt it) then maybe I might be more optimistic[/endofentireparagraphaboutunited]

 

Every new season I always see people underestimate Arsenal but for the first time I think most people will think they'll make the top four, even without RVP they do look better than Spurs, Newcastle and Liverpool if I'm honest. Spurs could go either way, I like AVB but I think and hope that sacking Redknapp for no reason bites them in the arse and I think they're on their way down rather than up the table. I didn't expect Newcastle to hold onto their players so the fact that they have makes me think they'll at least finish higher than Liverpool. I've put Fulham so high as I think that Fulham have taken the 'best of the rest' title from Bolton now (well maybe that goes to Newcastle come to think of it unless you consider them part of the teams up there now) and Martin Jol has a decent squad even without Pogbregniak (yes spelt completely wrong I know)

 

I really hope Liverpool stick with Rodgers and give him time as Kenny Dalglish has just made their squad even worse with his obsession with buying overpiced English players without thinking where about how they'll fit in the team! It'll be at least a couple of seasons before you can turn that side into Champions League contenders again. If I see the headline "QPR injury crisis" I'll eat my hat as they have signed everyone (mostly old biddies) so their squad is now massive and I fully expect them to do better than last season. The teams from West Ham below could be in any order tbh. There won't be a team like Wolves this season that'll be bottom by a distance but Reading will tail off towards the end of the season and will be first team to go. I really want Norwich to do better as I like Chris Hughton but I think second season syndrome will hit them harder than Swansea.

 

Top Goalscorers: 1. Aguero 2. Torres 3. Rooney

 

Championship:

 

P - Bolton, Middlesbrough, Brighton

R - Peterborough, Millwall, Barnsley

 

League One:

 

P - Colchester, Coventry, Sheff Utd

R - Portsmouth (if they even survive the season) , Shrewsbury, Walsall, Bury

 

League Two:

 

P - Exeter, Cheltenham, Fleetwood, Oxford

R - Torquay, Barnet (hope not as I walk past their training ground that'll soon be their new ground quite a bit these days)

 

So yeah I'm bored at an unusually quiet Monday at work so I thought I'd a tl;dr analysis and some lower division stuff, hope it actually makes some sense.

I'll try and do my predictions before the first day. Fantasy League is up again, code is 207743-165951

Nicky, Liverpool will definitely stick with Rodgers. They can't afford not to. They've given him (almost) full control. I don't think we'll do as bad as you're predicting as this year our two best players won't be out for long periods if they avoid injury/suspension! Going to be interesting, but very much a work in progress.

13. West Ham United

14. Swansea

15. Stoke

16. West Ham United

How does that work? :unsure:

How does that work? :unsure:

 

Oh dear, thanks for that buddy! Missed out Southampton!

So Eden Hazard had a horrid debut! Think Chelsea are going to get bossed in midfield. Lampard-Essien-Mikel is not strong enough. Not sure how Oscar will do.

Oscar-Mata-Essien-Ramires looks slightly more promising, although they're still very much a work in progress. And badly need a right back.

Oscar-Mata-Essien-Ramires looks slightly more promising, although they're still very much a work in progress. And badly need a right back.

 

Except there's no way Di Matteo won't play Lampard. He's guaranteed first choice.

Except there's no way Di Matteo won't play Lampard. He's guaranteed first choice.

 

I think you're right at least for the first part of the season but you never know what's going to happen - an injury beyond a couple of weeks always gives someone else a chance to shine.

The Championship is as tough to predict as ever, fairly easy to make a decent promotion case for at least 14-16 teams and the rest could easily finish well outside of relegation.

 

Going to go for:

 

Promoted: Bolton, Leicester, Middlesborough

Play-offs: Blackpool, Wolves, Cardiff

Top 10: Forest, Birmingham, Sheffield Weds, Leeds

Mid-table: Derby, Hull, Blackburn, Brighton, Burnley, Bristol City, Huddersfield

Dogfight: Peterborough, Palace, Ipswich, Charlton

Relegated: Watford, Millwall, Barnsley

Premier League

 

1) Man City - still think they're too strong for Man Utd and will make another signing or two. Mancini's 3 at the back approach may turn out to be a masterstroke.

2) Man Utd - won't be much in it, but don't think the signings they made are what they needed. Can't really see Rooney and RVP getting near last years standards.

3) Arsenal - great business this summer, particularly if Sahin does replace Song.

4) Chelsea - RDM isn't that great, can't see them top 3, particularly with added fixture congestion.

5) Liverpool - think Rodgers is a great appointment and they'll be vastly improved but too far behind top 4 to catch up in one season.

6) Everton - strongest squad in years, particularly if Rodwell money is invested.

7) Spurs - based on current squad, very much in transition, Modric loss will affect them badly, only one striker, keepers AVB doesn't really want.

8) Newcastle - last season was superb and good additions again, but think they'll take Europe seriously which will hinder league progress.

 

After the top 8 it's ridiculously hard to predict anything, it's so close and you can make an excellent case for any team staying up comfortably. I could pick them out of a hat twice to order them and I doubt I'd be able to disagree with either version.

 

9) Fulham

10) Swansea

11) Villa

12) Sunderand

13) Stoke

14) QPR

15) Southampton

16) West Ham

17) West Brom

18) Norwich

19) Wigan - I honestly don't think they will be relegated, it's just impossible to pick which three teams that will finish below them

20) Reading

I still don't want to predict how we'll end up, we're so far from being properly prepared it's embarrassing. Sunderland AFC is the kid who crammed all of his revision into the one night before an important exam which he knows he's going to fail anyway.

 

When I was utterly underwhelmed by the start of the season last week I thought "well, it's a week to go, maybe we'll make that one signing that gets everyone buzzing, and i'll be stoked on Friday night before Arsenal!" but no. I want to be excited and I want the adrenaline to be rushing, but i'm not and it isn't. Urgh.

 

Anyway:

01 Manchester United (seriously, how many times have we seen them bounce back after losing their title? it'll happen again imo, but it'll be close)

02 Manchester City

03 Arsenal

04 Chelsea

-------------------------

05 Spurs

06 Newcastle

07 Everton

-------------------------

08 Liverpool

09 Fulham

10 Stoke

 

14 Sunderland

 

17 Wigan

-------------------------

18 Southampton

19 Norwich

20 Reading

 

Yeah, 14th. I don't think we'll be anywhere near the top half if truth be told.

Manchester United are just too weak in midfield. What are they going to play? 4-4-2? 4-3-3? Why they haven't invested in a half decent central midfielder is beyond me. Two old men, one injury prone average Englishman, someone who desperately needs to lose weight, and Carrick. Have a feeling Kagawa and Rooney might be shunted into a central midfield position. Manchester City are just too strong, I think their front players are better than Manchester United's on paper. Aguero/Tevez/Balotelli will get more goals than Rooney/RVP/Welbeck

1. Manchester City

2. Manchester United

3. Chelsea

4. Arsenal

 

5. Liverpool

6. Tottenham

7. Everton

8. Fulham

9. Newcastle United

10. Aston Villa

 

11. Stoke

12. QPR

13. Sunderland

14. West Ham United

15. Southampton

16. Swansea

17. Norwich

 

18. Reading

19. Wigan

20. West Brom

01 Manchester City

02 Manchester United

03 Chelsea

04 Arsenal

 

05 Tottenham

06 Liverpool

07 Everton

08 Newcastle

09 Fulham

10 Stoke

 

11 Sunderland

12 QPR

13 West Ham

14 West Brom

15 Norwich

16 Wigan

17 Reading

 

18 Aston Villa

19 Swansea

20 Southampton

 

 

There were about ten teams I wanted to put between 15 and 19 and NONE I wanted at 10 and 11. Odd season.

The bottom 12 really is ridiculous. It's so close between them all. I put Fulham and Swansea 9th and 10th because they were the only two of them I thought definitely wouldn't go down, I hope today is something of an omen!

Being a bit of a cheat here, but I wanted to wait until the transfer window was closed

 

1. Man City

2. Man United

3. Chelsea

4. Arsenal

5. Tottenham

6. Everton

7. Newcastle

8. Swansea

9. Liverpool

10. Sunderland

11. Fulham

12. West Ham

13. West Brom

14. QPR

15. Wigan

16. Stoke

17. Southampton

18. Norwich

19. Reading

20. Aston Villa