Football Matters: Premier League Preview - The Title Race

Strike

I haven't done much writing lately but what better place to get back into the football side of things but with the start of the new Premier League season. The 2016/17 really does promise to be one of the best ever as for me the focus for the first time will be as much on the managers at the top of the table as it will the players. With no insult intended towards the likes of Manuel Pellegrini, Louis Van Gaal and Brendan Rodgers we now have some of the greatest managers in club football going head to head. With both Manchester clubs bringing in Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho and Chelsea taking Antonio Conte from his international role with Italy we have three world class managers joining the league. I would put all three managers in the top ten in the world if not the top five. I would also say the same for Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool for whom I have a lot of time and many fans outside Anfield love him too. Then in London you have the experience of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal and the youth and enthusiasm of Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur. Six great managers going head to head and all of them realistically have a chance of taking the title this season. As in previous seasons I will preview each team in the order where I predict them to finish together with their ins and outs in the transfer market. There are a number of positions where it is difficult to predict an order of teams so I will group them together but predict a position nonetheless to see how close I am come next May.

THE RACE FOR THE TITLE

Although I said above that six teams have a realistic ambition for the Premier League title I honestly expect it to be between both Manchester clubs and Chelsea. What the other three teams will have in their favour is that their managers have been in place longer than a few weeks whether it's a few months like Klopp or many years like Wenger.

1st – Manchester City

Guardiola joins City with a fantastic collection of honours which include three consecutive La Liga titles with Barcelona between 2009-2011 and three successive Bundesliga titles in 2014, 2015 and 2016. He has also won the UEFA Champions League twice with Barcelona in 2009 and 2011 as well as nine more trophies with them (Copa del Rey x2, Spanish Supercopa x3, UEFA Super Cup x2 and FIFA World Club Cup x2) and four with Bayern (German cup x2, UEFA Super Cup x1 and FIFA World Club Cup x1). The criticism aimed towards Guardiola is that in both cases he has taken control of winning sides and continued to win trophies. What he really needs to cement his reputation as a true great is to develop a potentially successful side into a winning one. He doesn't really have that challenge at City but he should find it harder than his two previous clubs. With the players they already had and the ones they have added this summer I think they have the best personnel for the job. If they can keep Sergio Aguero fit then in my opinion they have the best striker in the world never mind the Premier League. If not then there could be a question mark with only the promising Nigerian 19 year-old Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfried Bony (who has only 10 goals in 46 games for City so far) as cover. They probably have the best midfield in the country though with great attacking players like Kevin de Bruyne, the experienced Yaya Toure and new signings Ilkay Gundogana and Leroy Sane. Since I started this article City have signed young John Stones from Everton who was a former target signing for Chelsea. Over the years City have had more luck with their continental signings than with young home grown talent and a number of promising England careers have gone downhill with a move to Manchester. It remains to be seen whether Stones will go the same way as players like Scott Sinclair and Jack Rodwell.

Ins = John Stones – Everton - £47.5m, Leroy Sane – Schalke - £37m, Gabriel Jesus – Palmeiras - £27m, Ilkay Gundogan – Borussia Dortmund - £21m, Nolito – Celta Vigo - £13.8m, Marlos Moreno – Atletico Nacional - £4.75m, Oleksandr Zinchenko – FK Ufa – Undisclosed, Aaron Mooy – Melbourne City – Free

Outs = Edin Dzeko – Roma - £9m, Seko Fofana – Udinese - £3.8m, Florian Lejeune – Eibar - £1.2m, Martin Demichelis – Released, Richard Wright – Retired Loaned Out = Jack Byrne – Blackburn Rovers, Luke Brattan – Melbourne City, Anthony Caceres – Melbourne City, Aaron Mooy – Huddersfield Town, Marlos Moreno – Deportivo La Coruna, Gabriel Jesus – Palmeiras, Patrick Roberts – Celtic, Ruben Sobrino – Alaves, Enes Unal – FC Twente

Squad =

GK – Joe Hart – 29 – England 63 caps – 2006 from Shrewsbury

GK – Willy Caballero – 34 – Argentina – 2014 from Malaga

RB – Pablo Zabaleta – 31 – Argentina 54 caps – 2008 from Espanyol

RB – Bacary Sagna – 33 – France 64 caps – 2014 from Arsenal

LB - Aleksandar Kolarov – 30 – Serbia 64 caps – 2010 from Lazio LB - Gael Clichy – 31 – France 20 caps – 2011 from Arsenal

CB – Vincent Kompany – 30 – Belgium 70 caps – 2008 from SV Hamburg

CB – John Stones – 22 – England 10 caps – 2016 from Everton

CB – Eliaquim Mangala – 25 – France 8 caps – 2014 from FC Porto

CB – Nicolas Otamendi – 28 – Argentina 38 caps – 2015 from Valencia

CB – Jason Denayer – 21 – Belgium 7 caps – 2013 from JMG Academy

CM – Yaya Toure – 33 – Ivory Coast 100 caps – 2010 from Barcelona

CM – Fernandinho – 31 – Brazil 29 caps – 2013 from Shakhtar Donetsk

CM – Fernando – 29 – Brazill – 2014 from FC Porto

CM – Ilkay Gundogan – 25 – Germany 16 caps – 2016 from Borussia Dortmund

CM – Fabian Delph – 26 – England 9 caps – 2015 from Aston Villa

CM – Bruno Zuculini – 23 – Argentina – 2014 from Racing Club (Argentina)

CM – Bersant Celina – 19 – Kosovo 3 caps – 2012 from Stromsgodset (Norway)

AM – Kevin de Bruyne – 25 – Belgium 41 caps – 2015 from Wolfsburg

AM – Raheem Sterling – 21 – England 26 caps – 2015 from Liverpool

AM – Oleksandr Zinchenko – 19 – Ukraine 6 caps – 2016 from FC Ufa (Russia)

RM – Leroy Sane – 20 – Germany 4 caps – 2016 from Schalke 04

RM – Jesus Navas – 30 – Spain 35 caps – 2013 from Sevilla

LM – David Silva – 30 – Spain 103 caps – 2010 from Valencia

LM – Nolito – 29 – Spain 13 caps – 2016 from Celta Vigo

ST – Sergio Aguero – 28 – Argentina 77 caps – 2011 from Atletico Madrid ST – Kelechi Iheanacho – 19 – Nigeria 4 caps – 2014 from Taye Academy (Nigeria)

ST – Wilfried Bony – 27 – Ivory Coast 41 caps – 2015 from Swansea City

ST – David Faupala – 19 – France – 2015 from Lens

2nd – Manchester United

I said when Jose Mourinho joined Manchester United that he would win the league with them but I still wonder whether he is a good fit for them. It may be for that to be the case he has to change some of his ways but history tells me he is too stubborn for that. With Mourinho comes success but often some bad press and internal conflict. Over the years United have been famous for attractive, attacking football and promotion of youth players – two things which don't go hand in hand with Mourinho. Perhaps he's looking to change his ways though as he has criticised the defence-first tactics of Louis Van Gaal. He's already garnering bad press with his handling of Bastian Schweinsteiger and its surely only the start of things to come. As I said though he does breed success as shown by eight leagues titles with FC Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid as well as two Champions League wins and twelve other trophies. United finished fifth last season, losing out on a Champions League spot to City on goal difference but with the added creativity of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan they will mount a serious challenge for the title. One of the key points of focus for Mourinho will be how he uses Wayne Rooney both on and off the field. Since my first draft of this article United have completed the £89m signing of Paul Pogba as the French international returns to the club from Juventus. He's bound to be the number one choice in midfield and there will be great competition from Blind, Herrera and Schneiderlin to partner him.

Ins = Paul Pogba – Juventus - £89m, Eric Bailly – Villareal - £30m, Henrikh Mkhitaryan – Borussia Dortmund - £26.3m, Zlatan Ibrahimovic – Paris St Germain – Free Outs = Victor Valdes – Middlesbrough – Free, Nick Powell – Wigan Athletic – Free, Oliver Rathbone – Paddy McNair – Sunderland - £5.5m, Donald Love – Sunderland - £5.5m, Rochdale – Free, Joe Rothwell – Oxford United – Free, George Dorrington – Huddersfield Town – Free, Ashley Fletcher – West Ham United – Free, Jimmy Dunne – Burnley – Free, Tyler Reid – Swansea City – Undisclosed, Loans Out = Guillermo Varela – Eintracht Frankfurt, Adnan Januzaj – Sunderland

Squad =

GK – David de Gea – 25 – Spain 13 caps – 2011 from Ateltico Madrid GK – Sergio Romero – 29 – Argentina 79 caps – 2015 from Sampdoria GK – Sam Johnstone – 23 – England – Youth product

RB – Matteo Darmian – 26 – Italy 26 caps – 2015 from Torino

LB – Luke Shaw – 21 – England 6 caps – 2014 from Southampton

LB – Marcos Rojo – 26 – Argentina 49 caps – 2014 from Sporting Lisbon

LB – Cameron Borthwick-Jackson – 19 – England – Youth product

CB – Chris Smalling – 26 – England 29 caps – 2010 from Fulham CB – Eric Bailly – 22 – Ivory Coast 15 caps – 2016 from Villareal

CB – Phil Jones – 24 – England 20 caps – 2011 from Blackburn Rovers

CB – Tyler Blackett – 22 – England – Youth product

CB – Axel Tuanzebe – 18 – England/DR Congo – Youth product

CM – Paul Pogba – 23 – France 38 caps – 2016 from Juventus

CM – Daley Blind – 26 – Netherlands 36 caps – 2014 from Ajax

CM – Ander Herrera – 26 – Spain – 2014 from Athletic Bilbao

CM – Morgan Schneiderlin – 26 – France 15 caps – 2015 from Southampton

CM – Michael Carrick – 35 – England 34 caps – 2006 from Tottenham Hotspur

CM – Marouane Fellaini – 28 – Belgium 71 caps – 2013 from Everton

CM – Bastian Schweinsteiger – 32 – Germany 120 caps – 2015 from Bayern Munich

CM – Andreas Pereira – 20 – Brazil – 2011 from PSV Eindhoven

CM – Timothy Fosu-Mensah – 18 – Netherlands – 2014 from Ajax

AM – Juan Mata – 28 – Spain 40 caps – 2014 from Chelsea

AM – Jesse Lingard – 23 – England – Youth product

RM - Henrikh Mkhitaryan – 27 – Armenia 59 caps – 2016 from Borussia Dortmund

RM – Antonio Valencia – 31 – Ecuador 84 caps – 2009 from Wigan Athletic

LM – Ashley Young – 31 – England 30 caps – 2011 from Aston Villa

LM – Memphis Depay – 22 – Netherlands 24 caps – 2015 from PSV Eindhoven

ST – Wayne Rooney – 30 – England 115 caps – 2004 from Everton ST – Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 34 – Sweden 116 caps – 2016 from Paris St Germain

ST – Marcus Rashford – 18 – England 3 caps – Youth product

ST – Will Keane – 23 – England – Youth product

ST – James Wilson – 20 – England – Youth product

3rd – Chelsea

As a Chelsea fan I have to say after last season things can only get better and although I do think we can challenge for the title I would be happy with a top three finish. The key for Antonio Conte is to regroup and build for the future and the early signs for pre-season are certainly promising. It appears he will go for what he calls a 4-2-4 formation rather than the 3-5-2 he used at Juventus and Italy. That's probably down to the personnel though as Chelsea are very limited for quality centre backs especially with Kurt Zouma injured still. Unlike Guardiola and Mourinho there are no European trophies in Conte's cabinet but he can point to three Serie A titles with Juventus in 2012, 2013 and 2014 he had won Serie B with Bari in 2009 and finished runner-up with Siena in 2011. Hopefully we will see plenty of chances given to talented youngsters like Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Bertrand Traore, Kenedy, Nathaniel Chalobah and emerging right back Ola Aina. N'Golo Kante joins from reigning champions Leicester City to shore up the defensive midfield area where Nemanja Matic excelled in 2014/15 yet failed to badly last season. I was hoping we wouldn't see much of John Terry on the field this season as we work for the future but as we are yet to strengthen the defence it seems I may be disappointed there. Terry is a Chelsea legend for sure but his lack of pace is embarrassing and he cost us a number of goals last season as did Branislav Ivanovic whose Chelsea days are hopefully numbered. If Conte can get the best out of Eden Hazard and get Diego Costa to focus on the football rather than the fighting then the fact that Chelsea have no European distraction may see him take a title in his maiden season in charge.

Ins = Michy Batshuayi – Marseille - £33.2m, N'Golo Kante – Leicester City - £32m

Outs = Mohamed Salah – Roma - £12m, Papy Djilobodji – Sunderland - £8m, Stipe Perica – Udinese - £3.2m, Johns Swift – Reading – Free, Reece Mitchell – Chesterfield – Free, Tika Musonda – Released, Kevin Wright – Released, Marco Amelia - Released Loans Out = Baba Rahman – Schalke, Nathan – Vitesse Arnhem, Lewis Baker – Vitesse Arnhem, Nathan Ake – Bournemouth, Tammy Abraham – Bristol City, Tomas Kalas – Fulham, Alex Kiwomya – Crewe Alexandra, Charly Musonda – Real Betis, Mitchell Beeney – Crawley, Jeremie Boga – Granada, Matej Delac – Mouscron, Andreas Christensen – Borussia Moenchengladbach, Wallace – Gremio, Victorien Angban – Granada, Kasey Palmer – Huddersfield Town, Jordan Houghton – Doncaster Rovers, Joao Rodriguez – Santa Fe, Alex Davey – Crawley, Bertrand Traore - Ajax

Squad =

GK – Thibaut Courtois – 24 – Belgium 39 caps – 2011 from Genk

GK – Asmir Begovic – 29 – Bosnia 50 caps – 2015 from Stoke City

GK – Jamal Blackman – 22 – England – Youth product

RB – Ola Aina – 19 – England – Youth product

RB – Branislav Ivanovic – 32 – Serbia 87 caps – 2008 from Lokomotiv Moscow

RB – Todd Kane – 22 – England – Youth product

LB – Cesar Azpilicueta – 26 – Spain 16 caps – 2012 from Marseille

LB – Cristian Cuevas – 21 – Chile – 2013 from O'Higgins (Chile)

CB – Gary Cahill – 30 – England 47 caps – 2012 from Bolton Wanderers CB – Kurt Zouma – 21 – France 2 caps – 2014 from St Etienne

CB – John Terry – 35 – England 78 caps – Youth product

CB – Matt Miazga – 21 – USA 2 caps – 2016 from New York Red Bulls

CB – Kenneth Omeruo – 22 – Nigeria 31 caps – 2012 from Standard Liege

CB – Michael Hector – 24 – Jamaica 11 caps – 2015 from Reading

CB – Jake Clarke-Salter – 18 – England – Youth product

CB – Fankaty Dabo – 20 – England – Youth product

CB – Fikayo Timori – 18 – England – Youth product

CM – Cesc Fabregas – 29 – Spain 105 caps – 2014 from Barcelona

CM – N'Golo Kante – 25 – France 8 caps – 2016 from Leicester City CM – Nemanja Matic – 28 – Serbia 29 caps – 2014 from Benfica

CM – Ruben Loftus-Cheek – 20 – England – Youth product

CM – Nathaniel Chalobah – 21 – England – Youth product

CM – Marco Van Ginkel – 23 – Netherlands 6 caps – 2013 from Vitesse Arnhem

CM – Mario Pasalic – 21 – Croatia 2 caps – 2014 from Hajduk Split

CM – Danilo Pantic – 19 – Serbia – 2015 from Partizan Belgrade

CM – John Obi Mikel – 29 – Nigeria 75 caps – 2006 from Lyn Oslo

AM – Oscar – 24 – Brazil 44 caps – 2012 from Internacional (Brazil)

AM – Christian Atsu – 24 – Ghana 42 caps – 2013 from FC Porto

AM – Marko Marin – 27 – Germany 16 caps – 2012 from Werder Bremen

AM – Lucas Piazon – 22 – Brazil – 2011 from Sao Paulo

RM – Willian – 27 – Brazil 38 caps – 2013 from Anzhi Makhachkala

RM – Juan Cuadrado – 28 – Colombia 56 caps – 2015 from Fiorentina

RM – Victor Moses – 25 – Nigeria 24 caps – 2012 from Wigan Athletic

LM – Eden Hazard – 25 – Belgium 70 caps – 2012 from Lille

LM – Pedro – 29 – Spain 56 caps – 2015 from Barcelona

LM – Kenedy – 20 – Brazil – 2015 from Fluminense

LM – Isaiah Brown – 19 – England – Youth product

ST – Diego Costa – 27 – Spain 10 caps – 2014 from Atletico Madrid

ST - Michy Batshuayi – 22 – Belgium 7 caps – 2016 from Marseille

ST - Loic Remy – 29 – France 31 caps – 2014 from Queens Park Rangers

ST - Dominic Solanke – 18 – England – Youth product

ST - Patrick Bamford – 22 – England – 2012 from Nottingham Forest