Five wild Premier League predictions: Liverpool to win title, Van Gaal to be sacked

By Pulasta Dhar and Vinayakk Mohanarangan The beginning of the 2015/16 English Premier League season is upon us after months of rumours and weeks of pre-season friendlies. It is show time. Coming on the back of one of the least-exciting Premier League campaigns in memory, this season promises to be tighter and more competitive, with the top teams looking equally strong and the mid-table clubs - like Crystal Palace, Southampton, Stoke and Newcastle - strengthening their squads with some tasty signings, thanks to ever-increasing TV sponsorship money. So, with the season about to be underway, Firstpost takes a shot at predicting five wild, crazy, bonkers - but ultimately quite plausible - events over the course of the season. Liverpool to win the title Brendan Rodgers was forced to sell Raheem Sterling to Manchester City. Steven Gerrard’s legendary shadow no longer looms large in the dressing room, with the former skipper having departed for the MLS. But expectations are still high because of the signings of James Milner, Nathaniel Clyne, Roberto Firmino, Christian Benteke, Danny Ings and Joe Gomez. [caption id=“attachment_2190105” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] In Phillipe Coutinho, Liverpool have a star who can push them all the way this season. Getty[/caption] These six players all have the potential to to be part of the starting XI and they all fit in Rodgers’ preferred tactical plan. Firmino was the Bundesliga’s best chance creator last year, Clyne probably the best English right back and Milner an experienced versatile box-to-box midfielder. Benteke has proven Premier League pedigree (49 goals in 101 appearances) and Ings is a young agile forward who can man the channels and get in the box. Benteke and Firmino aside, the new boys were all part of Liverpool’s full preseason schedule so gelling on the pitch shouldn’t be an issue. Five of them also have English football experience. Add Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson, and youngsters like Jordan Ibe, and Liverpool have the look of a dangerous and solid side. And we haven’t even mentioned Daniel Sturridge. If Liverpool get a few breaks and can overcome a tough start to the season, they could well sneak in and nick the title while the more favoured teams are busy watching each other. Theo Walcott to win Golden Boot Walcott has played six times as a centre forward for Arsenal in the Premier League. He has scored seven times. That works out to a goal every 73.4 minutes. Five of these goals are from inside the penalty area — two of these five from inside the six-yard box. So, pretty lethal in the shooting area. Last year, his shot-on-target ratio was 22 percent — better than any other Arsenal attacker. [caption id=“attachment_2074727” align=“alignright” width=“380”] Arsenal’s Theo Walcott could have a storming seasson, fitness permitting. AP[/caption] The new contract, which brings him at par with the highest earners at the club, coupled with the fact that he has been used through the middle in pre-season and in two Wembley showdowns back-to-back, is indication that Arsene Wenger is finally ready to use his pace to get in behind centre backs. Arsenal have suffered with lack of pace up front. Olivier Giroud, Robin van Persie or Emmanuel Adebayor were never going to set sprint records. Their midfielders/wingers though, are pretty fast, with the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Which is why Danny Welbeck was bought — but his shooting is wayward and he doesn’t score enough. Walcott’s record from the right flank is impressive too as shown by a tally 35 goals in 103 matches. Again, 33 of those scored from inside the penalty area. This is a player who can thrive in the box, his pace is still blistering and his decision-making has improved over time. This is Walcott’s chance to prove himself and we think he is going to do by scoring a whole bunch of goals. Crystal Palace to qualify for Europe Okay, not the European Champions League, but the Europa League third qualifying round certainly beckons at the end of the season. Becaue of Alan Pardew and what he achieved last year. The former Palace player took over as boss in January with the club in 18th place and led them to a 10th place finish. That’s simply remarkable. [caption id=“attachment_1365623” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Frenchman Yohan Cabaye puts Crystal Palace right into the mix of European contenders. AP[/caption] Stoke City, Swansea and Southampton finished above Palace in 9th, 8th and 7th positions respectively and with the type of business Pardew has done this season, there’s all the reason to believe that The Eagles won’t push for these clubs harder this season. Southampton are the only club who have a huge qualitative difference with Palace — Swansea and Stoke can easily be overshadowed. Pardew has managed to bring back Yohan Cabaye to the Premier League from Paris Saint-Germain. The former Newcastle midfielder chose the big spenders over other moves (Arsenal were heavily linked) and his 18 goals and 14 assists in 93 appearances from deep midfield for Newcastle is a testimony of his creative quality. Pardew has also brought in highly rated Chelsea product Patrick Bamford and Sunderland forward Connor Wickham. It’s not a lot of changes because Pardew has a settled group of important players who seem happy to stay and play for him (Yanick Bolasie, Henry Gayle, Joe Ledley, Brede Hangeland, Jason Puncheon and Julian Speroni are some examples). In the first 20 matches last year, Palace scored 20 goals (10 from set pieces) and created 162 chances. In the 18 matches after — that Pardew was in charge — they scored 27 (14 from set pieces) and created 158 chances. Not a lot of difference there – but Palace grew in confidence: they beat Spurs, Manchester City, Liverpool, Stoke and Swansea (all teams above them). It won’t be easy — but the signs are there: Palace will challenge for seventh. AFC Bournemouth to stay up and Newcastle to go down The team that could very well be everyone’s second favourite team for this season. The team that almost folded twice due to insolvency, managing to stay above water just about and now making their debut in England’s top flight. The team that, after almost getting relegated from the Football League not so long ago, played some cracking football last season in England’s first division to win promotion as Division Champions. [caption id=“attachment_2274834” align=“alignright” width=“380”] Newcastle have been steadily alienating their fans and karma could finally catch up with Mike Ashley this year. Getty[/caption] The remarkable rise of AFC Bournemouth is surely one of the things to look forward to this season.. A young side, playing swashbuckling football under manager Eddie Howe - they scored the most goals (98) and conceded the second least (45) - will look to carry on their enterprising style in the EPL this year. “The club was on its knees six years ago,” said boss Eddie Howe towards the end of last season. “We had nothing. It is never a journey we expected to go on but through some hard work and some investment we managed to do it.” With experienced signings like Sylvain Distin and Artur Boruc to complement a young squad - Christian Atsu on loan from Chelsea is an exciting addition - Bournemouth have a steep battle against odds to stay up. But we predict (and hope) they do. That requires one of the established clubs to go down. For the Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley’s sheer apathy towards fans, the way they handled cancer survivor and relegation battle hero Jonas Gutierrez’s future last season, and despite having a wealth of talent needing a last-ditch goal on the closing weekend to stay up, the Magpies have had it coming for a while. Steve McLaren has had a troubled last few years in management - getting sacked at two of his last three clubs - and it might well continue this year. Louis van Gaal won’t last the season at Manchester United The purse strings have well and truly opened up at Old Trafford. Having spent over 260 million euros on incoming players over the last three transfer windows - with maybe two more signings still possible before deadline day - Louis van Gaal heads into the new season with no excuses. [caption id=“attachment_1679215” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Manchester United’s manager Louis Van Gaal. AP[/caption] Losses have been cut on the most expensive signing to play on English shores as Angel di Maria’s days as a Red Devil ended. Fan favourite Rafael has been shipped off to Lyon and his Dutch counterpart Robin van Persie sold to Fenerbahce. Nani has also finally left. Van Gaal has also not minced his words on David de Gea’s wishes to play for Real Madrid. To put it mildly, he has been ruthless in rebuilding the team. But if this ruthlessness does not extend to the playing field, sympathisers will be hard to find. Last season saw United play some dour football for two-thirds of the campaign with the nadir being Sam Allardyce accusing them of playing boring, long-ball football — a far cry from United’s identity of playing counter-attacking football with a focus on lethal wingplay. In fact, for some time, Van Gaal was matching David Moyes’ unenviable exploits from the season before in terms of points secured before an end-of-season turn around took them to the promised land of the Champions League. And Van Gaal got away with very little criticism because he was not Moyes. Anyone, it seemed, was better than The Chosen One. It will not be the case this season. If United don’t start winning, and winning well at that, fans’ patience will wear thin. Also, they had no European distractions last year. If they manage to make it to the group stages of Champions League, there are no free mid-weeks for them. With all this, and the need for the new signings to gel and adapt to the Premier League quickly, don’t be surprised if United falter in the first half of this season. If a sustained title challenge with a decent run in Europe doesn’t materialise, then you heard it here first that Van Gaal could be in for an earlier retirement than he anticipated. Agree? Disagree? What are your wild predictions? Let us know with your comments below or tweet to us @FirstpostSports