EPL season preview: Man United look set to retain title

A new season is again upon us and my top four for the upcoming English Premier League is as follows: Manchester United to regain their title, Chelsea runners-up, Manchester City third and Arsenal fourth. So that begs the question, what’s changed? Quite simply, nothing. United have clearly made attempts to better the squad they had last season having being shown up in the Champions League final by the mighty Barcelona. While that squad would probably have been good enough to have scrambled another Premiership, they could never have closed on Barca. Therefore, the addition of another tricky dribbler and passer like Ashley Young to go with similarly-equipped players like Nani and Antonio Valencia is an improvement. The striking talent of Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez (my bet to finish as the league’s top scorer), Dimitar Berbatov and an ageing Michael Owen who still knows where the net is, is equally impressive. While in defence they have recruited Phil Jones to possibly sit on the bench with Chris Smalling while Rio Ferdinand and Nimanja Vidic play out their last season or two. Smalling and Jones are probably England’s central defensive pair for the next generation. It’s not only Arsene Wenger who keeps an eye on the future! Still, this group requires a further special ingredient to get close to Barca and I expect that icing on the cake to be Dutchman Wesley Sneijder from Inter. Get him and then we are talking about an outfit to rival the Spanish greats. As for the EPL, I just don’t see any of United’s rivals closing on them enough. Chelsea are still a title contender, clearly, and one would expect £50 million striker Fernando Torres to improve on his nightmare baptism from last season, but his body language doesn’t look good and still, while he is there, where does it leave perennial performers like Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka? Men who are tried and trusted to do the job? There are too many possible negative scenarios to go wrong for me that make Chelsea genuine winners. [caption id=“attachment_59820” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The clubs to watch out for this EPL season.”]  [/caption] Moneybags City should be the one team worthy of toppling United from their throne but the impending loss of Carlos Tevez leaves too many question marks as to whether they will be able to replace his goals and creative spark instantly. The potential strike pair of Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero sounds like the stuff dreams are made of but the example of Torres demonstrates that fairytales don’t always make good in reality. The probable purchase of Samir Nasri from Arsenal would be another box-office arrival. But so many superstars don’t always blend into a cohesive unit and for this reason I feel City will have to wait another year for get real close to the title. Arsenal’s veteran boss Arsene Wenger is receiving countless grief from frustrated fans, growing ever more disgruntled after six trophy-less seasons. But he is shrewd and I cannot believe we will reach the transfer window deadline in over two weeks with him not having bolstered that central defence, which every man and his dog knows must be strengthened. It has been surprising though that at least one of Chris Samba of Blackburn, Gary Cahill of Bolton or Everton’s Phil Jagielka have not landed at the Emirates by now. Gael Clichy also needs to be replaced after moving to City. And then there’s the tediously drawn out sale of Cesc Fabregas’s move to Barca. He is a quality performer, no doubt, but I am backing Wenger to spend the proceeds of that sale wisely. Of the rest, I expect Tottenham to battle with Liverpool for fifth. Kenny Dalglish has made huge advances since returning to the Anfield hot seat but £20 million on Jordan Henderson and £35 million on Andy Carroll in January suggests to me that it might take another season or two before the Reds are worthy title challengers. Aston Villa should lead the fight for seventh but owner Randy Lerner has not given new boss Alex McLeish anywhere near enough funds to enable them to push into the top six. The £9.5 recruitment of Charles N’Zogbia, though, is perhaps the bargan of the summer. He is, for me, better than the two England players Villa sold in Young and Stewart Downing, to Liverpool. Sunderland and Bolton will get closest to Villa for that seventh position. For relegation, my three are Newcastle, Wigan and Norwich. Newcastle sold Carroll and have not replaced him with any known quality, while they continue to sell their best players like Kevin Nolan, Jose Enrique and soon Joey Barton, so it is hard to see how they can avoid a massive struggle. Wigan almost slipped through the trapdoor last season but for the magic of N’Zogbia. Now that he is gone, they have no one to save them this season. And as for Norwich, you cannot bank £40 million television rights money and then buy second rate players and expect to survive. Bye bye Canaries.