This weekend marks the start of the 2014/15 Barclays Premier League season, like every year everyone, many fans go into the season with high hopes for their team but like always, we want to win the race before it has even begun. The first two months of the season are important but in no way decides how the season will go on. We've seen it many a year where teams who peak too early fall hard towards the end, last season saw Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal fail at the final hurdle and Manchester City walking away as champions.
This years season will be an interesting one, apart from the top four from the last campaign wanting to prove a point, the Premier Leagues most successful club Manchester United will have something to say. After a dismal season which I'm sure most fans of theirs wanting to forget, they come this season with a new manager, some new players and a fresh outlook. As far as whether they will challenge for the league title, it remains to be seen but they wont be pushovers like they were last season.
Manchester City have made some smart buys during during the transfer window, the most surprising signing from them has to be ex Chelsea legend Frank Lampard. With City already having such a commanding midfield it will be interesting to see what Pellegrini has lined up for the England midfielder. Their squad is a pretty strong one and they have plenty of depth to see them through till may next year. With captain Toure leading them, they will be a force to reckon with, just as long as the club remember to wish Kolo a happy birthday.
Chelsea, always the dark horses and with the Special One at the helm you know its going to be hard to get a result against them. Unless the premier league ban parking the bus, sides are going to find it tough to break down the double decker that Jose has employed last season. It's been an interesting preseason for them, they let go of two long serving players in Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard , then sold striker Lukaku and opted to keep two left feet Torres, I suppose they realised their error, hence they then re-signed ex striker Drogba. We know he knows where to find the net. Another note worthy buy for them was Cesc Fabragas, that won't go down well with half London but see if he cares.
Liverpool, or should I call my team Liverhampton/ Southpool? Yes we've been the butt of many jokes seeing that Brendan Rodgers practically raided Southampton for our first 3 signings in Lallana, Lambert and Lovren. Like always Brendan has a plan though, the money from the Suarez deal is being used wisely to strengthen our squad and also provide depth. With Champions League now on the offering the team doesn't have the luxury like last season to just focus on one competition. Other signings of Can, Markovic,Manquillo and Moreno are exciting as they bring fresh new qualities that our side lacked, especially in defence.
Our preseason tour to the USA provided a mixed bunch of results but we rounded off the last of our friendlies quite nicely on the weekend with an empathic win over German side Dortmund at Anfield. The player that's stood out by far the entire preseason was Coutinho, the kid just keeps on getting better. maybe being left out of the Brazilian world cup squad was a blessing for Liverpool. Rahim Sterling was also running circles around defenders and it was good to see Sturridge get a goal. With Suarez gone, we need all the goals we can get from all areas of the field. My aspirations for Liverpool? Many already writing off their top 4 chance but I reckon we'll be in the mix for the title again, we may not have signed big name players but Rodgers instills the right mentality in the players to make them winners.
There are many other clubs with points to prove this season and it could be very open for a long time which makes for a very tantalizing prospect. We all can't wait for kick off on Saturday as the banter has already begun between the supporters and its good to have that back. May the best team win!
No comments:
Post a Comment