PREMIER LEAGUE PREVIEW: An Overview of the League

We sit just three days away from the opening fixture of the Premier League season, meaning fans will go on a wild ride for ten months until a winner is crowned. The hope will be that the title race is less cut and dry than it was last season when Manchester City ran away with things and tallied 100 points and losing just twice in the league (to 2nd and 4th place Manchester United and Liverpool, respectively). First, a brief overview of the key talking points. Then, some predictions for the league. This is your comprehensive league preview. Let's dive in!

Top Six Turmoil:
After a somewhat steady past two years in terms of Champions League qualification with City, Tottenham, and Liverpool making it with ease, United qualifying first via Europa League success then league success, Chelsea making once missing once, and Arsenal missing twice, it seems that a whole different dynamic could shape the league from the status quo to something more unpredictable. Chelsea and Arsenal both bring in new managers and new talent. Unai Emery with Arsenal has signed three players in Lucas Torreira, Bernd Leno, and Sokratis Papastathopoulos who all should walk into the starting eleven and immediately improve it. Likewise, Chelsea's Maurizio Sarri brought in his old friend Jorginho with him from Napoli and the expectation is that he will immediately start as well, and likely be an immediate improvement over Tiemoue Bakayoko no matter what.

At the same time, you also have Manchester City and Liverpool, two powerhouses, also getting stronger as sides. City have brought in Riyad Mahrez from Leicester adding some extra depth to the wings and could result in seeing Bernardo Silva pushed into the center-midfield role we saw him play in the Community Shield. City do not really bring in anyone else and just an aging Yaya Toure in terms of first-team regulars. Liverpool (who I will have a more comprehensive profile of upcoming) have had a well-documented transfer window with four high-profile signings, perhaps none bigger than Alisson at a world-record fee for a goalkeeper from Roma. The front three that was so lethal in the country and around the continent remains fully in tact and was only strengthened with the addition of Xherdan Shaqiri. Naby Keita finally joins the squad and Fabinho joins him in terms of new additions to the midfield. Finally, Liverpool's defense has a back-four and keeper that should be up to the task of defending and holding leads when Liverpool acquires them.

The other two sides, Tottenham and United, exist in a different realm. Tottenham have not gotten worse by any means and still possess every player from last season's strong campaign where they nudged out Liverpool for third place but they have yet to add a single first-team player. This is surely no reason to panic, but perhaps it could cause a bit of concern to Spurs fans who would have like to see their side strengthened as they continually see links for Toby Alderweireld to Manchester United. Speaking of the Red Devils, they have been the talk of the preseason, but not in a way they'd like. Jose Mourinho's rant after their 4-1 loss to Liverpool in Ann Arbor has set of the warning bells in some supporters as the manager continues to passive-aggressively demand new signings from his bosses. It seems apparent that a new defender will be signed as the constant links to Alderweireld or English World Cup hero Harry Maguire, for what would reportedly need to be a new world-record fee for a defender, continue, but surely United fans are a bit more uncomfortable than at this same time last season.

All six sides possess the players that would allow them to be capable of making a run even perhaps for the title. Still, Manchester City remain top dog of England and it will take a huge effort from not just a single side to knock them off, but the whole league. Both of City's losses were to fellow top four rivals. The rest of the lower-table sides are going to need to do their part to do their wealthier friends a favor. Otherwise, expect City to continue to dominate the league.

The Race for Seventh:
Of course, it's not exactly a race for seventh, a bigger top-six side could easily slip up. But right now, this is where it stands. Burnley were able to snag seventh last season and remain in the Europa League as they gear up for a trip to Turkey for the competition, but there are a good handful of sides that will all hope to make their own separate cases for what is, barring Arsenal, Chelsea, or Burnley winning the Europa League title and missing top four, the final European football slot for England.

Everton and Marco Silva seem, like last season, to be the favorites for this position. Of course, last season was nothing short a failure despite a decent eighth-place finish, but the road getting there was filled with potholes. Silva is a different beast than Ronald Koeman or Sam Allardyce. This transfer window has not contained the same false promises. Richarlison was the tens-of-millions pound man for Silva and Lucas Digne joins from Barcelona to provide competition to the aging Leighton Baines at left-back. Two sensible transfers that are a far cry from Everton's window last summer of multiple attacking-midfielders, including an aging (and now gone) Wayne Rooney and no one to replace Romelu Lukaku. Still, the games are not played on paper and last season proved that. Everton will need to be good to break that glass ceiling.

Additionally, you do indeed have Burnley hoping to repeat their dream season, but I covered them in detail already, which you can find here. Other sides hoping to knock down the door this season will have to include Leicester City, especially if they can retain Harry Maguire OR use his presumably massive fee to inject additional ability into the squad. Already though, with young talent at the full-backs positions in Ben Chilwell and Ricardo Pereira, a great young midfield in Wilfred Ndidi, and a young striker, Kelechi Iheanacho, who has so much promise in him as well, I personally will have an eye on that side's development. You also have Crystal Palace who went from losing their first eight matches under Frank de Boer to finishing 11th with Roy Hodgson and talisman Wilfred Zaha. They have new signing Max Meyer as well on a free deal, but have been playing Zaha and Andros Townsend as strikers which is a sign of Christian Benteke's lack of ability. That needs to be fixed. Finally, you have West Ham under new manager Manuel Pellegrini who have added huge amounts of first-team quality, none finer than Felipe Anderson from Lazio, a club-record. But the contenders don't end here.

Wolves and Fulham, two of the newest Premier League teams, both will hope to contend for at least a top-half finish as a result of their strong summer signings. Wolves return every key contributor from last season who played with them on loan: Willy Boly, Leo Bonatini, Diogo Jota, and Ruben Vinagre, with the odd exception of Benik Afobe whom they purchased then immediately loaned with the required option to buy to Stoke. But, in addition, they also add Rui Patricio, a top-class goalie, and Joao Moutinho, whose situation at Monaco will surely help with embed himself alongside Ruben Neves. The input of money by Wolves' Chinese conglomerate ownership, and Nuno Espirito Santo's expertise, combined with the friendship of super-agent Jorge Mendes, has put Wolves in a position to be one of the most dangerous teams in the league nearly right from the gate.

Meanwhile in London, Fulham have impressed by returning Aleksandar Mitrovic on a permanent deal from Newcastle to lead their line once again, but also added Alfie Mawson to strengthen a soft defense (by Premier League standards) and, the coup d'etat, Jean Michael Seri from Nice into the midfield to provide an immediate quality boost. If that weren't enough, they also signed Fabricio, the ex-Besiktas starting netminder, on a free. Combined with the already stellar young left-winger/full-back in Ryan Sessegnon and midfield heart Tom Cairney, Fulham have suddenly gone from fringe relegation candidate to potential top-half side. Both Wolves and Fulham have had impressive signings, but they will need to mesh with their sides if they are to impress the viewing audience of their fans on the pitch.

Relegation Fight:
Of course, the season would not be truly previewed if we did not take a look at who may take the drop. With the strength of the upcoming sides, we may see mainstays in the 2019-20 Championship season just as we will see West Brom, Stoke, and Swansea this season. Southampton survived by the skin of their teeth last season and while they have added strength to the defense via Jannik Vestergaard from Borussia Monchengladbach, and will likely survive the departure of Dusan Tadic to Ajax with the additions of Stuart Armstrong from Celtic and Mohamed Elyounoussi from Basel, their strike-force remains rather toothless with Charlie Austin having led the side with just seven league goals last campaign. At least one of the main four strikers, (Austin, Shane Long, Nathan Redmond, or Manolo Gabbiadini) but likely two, is going to need to step for the Saints and keep them up in the Premier League.

There are also the sides who were promoted last season but could face the pain of a drop this season. Brighton and Hove Albion have spent plenty over this summer, including breaking their transfer record a whopping FOUR times this summer alone (in order: Florin Andone from Real Deportivo, Bernando from Red Bull Leipzig, Yves Bissouma from Lille, and finally Alireza Jahanbakhsa from AZ Alkmaar) but they have done so in places where they need the quality. Of course, now the quality they've brought in needs to show up. Newcastle still has a miracle worker in Rafa Benitez and I, too, covered them in detail here but the brief of it is that if they do not spend money they may risk losing their mastermind manager. Finally, we have Huddersfield. Who very few expected to stay up, but did so with a brilliant pair of draws over Manchester City (in a shocking 0-0) followed by a 1-1 against Chelsea to clinch survival. With survival by any means necessary done, and often veering into heavily negative football, they injected a bit more quality in their squad due in large part to two Monaco-transfers in Terence Kongolo, to shore up any troubles in defense, and Adama Diakhaby, to add a winger (along with Ramadan Sobhi from Stoke) to deliver a different threat and perhaps allow one of their 6'3" massive strikers on top a bit more room to operate. Combined with the return permanently of Jonas Lossl in net from Mainz and Aaron Mooy hoping to build off a successful year, the Terriers may defy the odds yet again.

Finally, we have Cardiff City. Under Neil Warnock, they have not played the prettiest of football, but it was highly effective. With the cash injection that comes with the move up to the biggest league in England they spent over ten million pounds on Josh Murphy from Norwich and Bobby Reid from Bristol City to add to their attack, Greg Cunningham from Preston and Alex Smithies from QPR to add to defense and in net, but since have been quiet. Cardiff already do have quality on the wings in Junior Hoilett and Naz Mendez-Laing, plus a ten-goal scorer in right-back/center-mid Callum Paterson. The defense remains to look Championship standard on paper, but Warnock knows his way around defending and we will wait and see for their results.

Predictions:
Now it's time for the league-wide predictions! First, a couple of player predictions. My Player of the Season is going to go to Kevin De Bruyne. Manchester City's wonder-player was outstanding last season and so crucial in City's run to the title. We have generally seen the best player on the title-winning team get this award, but Mo Salah's season was just too good to not reward. I think both players will continue their stellar play this season as well, but I do think last year's snub and continued brilliance will be fresh in the voter's minds. I expect the man known as KDB to have a wonderful season leading the midfield for Pep Guardiola.

As I implied, I do not think Mo Salah will have the season he did last year (unfortunately for me and all the other Liverpool fans) but rather I think the scoring will still be bountiful for Liverpool, but perhaps a bit more spread around (back to being a good thing for me and my fellow Liverpool fans). With that said, I will go with the Golden Boot winner to be Harry Kane. The Englishman has been so good for so long, and I expect he will claim his third Golden Boot in four years with Tottenham. Romelu Lukaku will provide heated competition, but Kane as the star of Spurs' strong attack will continue to get plenty of opportunities to find the back of the net.

The final individual award of high prestige, in my view, is the Golden Glove. While a goalie's award, it really is a credit to how good a side's defensive ability is for an entire season. This is tougher because there is not really a keeper I think will run away with it. De Gea's United side could be in turmoil with the horror preseason as an indicator. Bernd Leno and Alisson will need a bit of time, I presume, before the clean sheets can well and truly start rolling in. Thibault Courtois may not be at Chelsea for the full season. Ederson I think will be the hottest contender to the glove, and it will indeed be him who takes it home. De Gea is the safest pick, I would say, but I admit I am scared a bit by the results this preseason, despite him not being culpable for them. We could also perhaps see Jordan Pickford of Everton, after his outstanding World Cup, contend for the award, but I don't see it yet.

Table Standings:
This is probably the moment you've been reading for. My full league table. Here we go:

1. Manchester City
2. Liverpool
3. Chelsea
4. Tottenham
5. Arsenal
6. Manchester United
7. Everton
8. Leicester
9. Wolves
10. West Ham
11. Crystal Palace
12. Burnley
13. Bournemouth
14. Fulham
15. Watford
16. Newcastle
17. Brighton
18. Southampton
19. Huddersfield
20. Cardiff

I do think Manchester City will repeat. I think Liverpool really do have a chance to contend for that top spot, but City remain too strong on paper at this point of the season. Also in the Champions League places I have Chelsea and Tottenham. I believe in Sarri and bit more than Emery when weighing the Chelsea/Arsenal debate and I cannot bet against Tottenham at this point. I'm not buying stock in United falling apart yet, but I think sixth place in a loaded top portion of the table is very feasible and that's what I'm guessing at the moment.

The toughest time I had was deciding between the 11th-16th places. I think any of these teams could do very well and surprise some finishing mid-table, or they could flirt with relegation (though I don't expect that from Palace or Burnley yet). Still, my bottom four were also quite tough to pick. I just don't see either of the three teams taking the drop able to score the required goals to stay up and think there are heavy flaws in each side's defense. It's going to take a team effort from Cardiff and Huddersfield (again) to stay up while Southampton needs more out of their key players.

So there you have it! Agree? Disagree? Want to call me out for picking your favorite team too low/high (if that's a thing you want to do)? Find me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan where I talk all about Liverpool primarily, but have a heavy Premier League and EFL Championship focus as well, while also discussing Michigan soccer and basketball, and AFC Ann Arbor when they're in season. Follow me for the top coverage of what will be an exciting season in English football!

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