Howdy? A quick post today. Lots of work to catch up on!
All the teams have played their first matches. Sure, it is too early to big Arsenal up or write Liverpool off, but one thought lingered on till today.
I feel that more teams are more capable of taking points of each other on a regular basis this season
If you plotted the strength of each team on a scatter plot, I suspect that more teams towards the top may be bunched together than ever before. Here is why.
ManUSA, are weaker this season than they were previously. You cant lose 2 people of the quality of Ronaldo and Tevez and expect to be as strong. Sure, Rooney will play better through the middle and Nani and Anderson might have improved and Valencia and Owen are decent players. But none of that is going to bring 20 EPL goals this season! Liverpool are also noticeably weaker for Alonso’s absence. Aquilani might replace him in the long run, but he will need time to get over his injury and settle to the pace of the EPL. Chelski have probably improved over last season, with a fit Essien and a motivated Drogba giving them a slight edge, but Anelka is bound to lose his way (he cannot play with Drogba and he scored was the top scorer last season) and they will lose Essien and Drogba for the ANC. I feel Arsenal have improved from last season. I won’t go over why again, but we are better (offensively and defensively) and if we beat Celtic and qualify for the CL proper, we will surely add in another player or two. So the top 4 are a lot closer, with the slip up in standards of ManUSA and Pool and the step up by Arsenal bunching all 4 together.
Below this group, Man City will be a threat – and anyone who tells you other wise is delusional. They can beat any of the Big 4 on their day. The Scum have bought well and will surely ruffle a few feathers at Shit Heart Lane. Aston Villa and Everton will recover after their opening day debacles and be there or thereabouts. As I have tipped in my predictions section, West Ham are my surprise team of the season. Zola has worked well with a limited budget on his team and they are bound to cause a few shocks. Finally Wigan and Sunderland, if the evidence of Day 1 is any indication, will not be pushovers either. This means that below the top 4 you have 6 teams who could hold their own against any other team on any given day.
What this probably means is EPL might be won this season by a record low number of points.
This is good news for the Arsenal. Because of their youth, their teams are bound to be less consistent than the others and we are sure to lose a few matches we should win. By the same token, we will surely win a few matches we are expected to lose. So if the other teams in the top 10 can help us by nicking the occasional point or 3 from all our title contenders, it will ensure we are in the mix when the business end of the season arrives in April/May.
No news of any worth to report. Some Celtic related crystal ball gazing tomorrow!
Vox Populi