This is it football fans, the premier
league season is (at the time of writing) less than 16 hours away.
Liverpool, minus the still suspended Luis Suarez will entertain Stoke City in
the day’s early kick off. However, our football alphabet is still at the letter
C, so unless Coutinho or Crouch light up the opening fixture, let’s concentrate
on Chelsea, Cardiff and Crystal Palace and their chances for the coming season.
Chelsea - Many people have Chelsea as favourites for the title this
season and we certainly wouldn’t disagree with them – not unless there are
dramatic developments before the close of the transfer window. Despite a very
uncomfortable season at Stamford Bridge last time out, with both Roberto Di
Matteo and Rafa Benitez departing, they still finished a very comfortable 3rd
in the table and won the Europa League.
At times, they played some
outstanding football, with the likes of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar lighting
up the midfield with silky skills. Now add the likes of Andre Schurrle, Marco
van Ginkel, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku to the mix and an already
impressive outfit looks even stronger. John Terry, Frank Lampard and Fernando
Torres are also still holding the fort and the blend of youth and experience
looks special. Speaking of special – one Jose Mourinho has returned as manager,
to the club where he had so much success and this combination of great players and
great manager might just make Chelsea the Champions come May 2014.
Cardiff City - Not the blues but the reds have joined their Welsh
rivals in the Premier League and on the surface at least it would appear that a
season of struggle for survival could be ahead. Swansea managed to prove
everybody wrong when they came up and stayed up but the Bluebirds (or is it the
Dragons) may need to splash the cash a bit more to give themselves a fighting
chance. They have been trying though – Andreas Cornelius has been brought in
from FC Copenhagen to score goals but the English Premier League is...“leagues”
away from the Danish Superliga. Steven Caulker from Spurs was a good bit of
business and one would suspect that Cardiff will need lots of clean sheets to
give themselves a chance. Craig Bellamy won’t look out of place back at this level
but he is now in the twilight of his career so fans will have fingers crossed
for 2 or 3 big signings before the end of August – or January if push comes to
shove.
Crystal
Palace - Like Cardiff, the newly promoted Eagles could be in for a
tough time. Zaha has gone to Man United, Glenn Murray is injured, Chamakh has
yet to prove he can do the business at this level and manager Ian Holloway lost
out to Fulham for the signing of Darren Bent. The positives are that it will be
11 v 11 once out on the pitch but unless some serious business is done before
the window closes, Crystal Palace unfortunately look like a Championship squad
in a division that may be beyond them
We are all for the underdogs here
at Sporting Voices though, so we wish the best of luck to Cardiff City and
Crystal Palace in the Premier league. We don’t think Chelsea will be needing
much of that luck but wish them all the best regardless.
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