Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
Seeing as the new Premier League season starts tomorrow, I thought it would be great to jot my predictions for the season down.
Now bearing in mind my predictions last season, I cannot guarantee that these predictions will be right. After all last year I predicted that Swansea and Norwich would go down and that Blackburn (who were atrocious) would finish a staggering 13th so I am bound to get 2-3 clubs positions completely wrong!
So here is what I believe come the end of the season, the Premier League table will look like:
1) Manchester United
2) Manchester City
3) Chelsea
4) Spurs
5) Liverpool
6) Arsenal
7) Newcastle
8) Everton
9) Aston Villa
10) QPR
11) Sunderland
12) West Ham
13) Swansea
14) Stoke
15) West Brom
16) Fulham
17) Southampton
18) Reading
19) Wigan
20) Norwich
So there you have it. I have gone for Manchester United to reclaim the Premier League title. Before the signing of Robin van Persie, my gut told me that Manchester City would retain the league. However as Champions, teams will now not want to lose to them and will put in that extra 10% needed to try and stop them.
Some critics might say that City will be stronger this season and they of course will be right. City will be even more motivated to win things. Jack Rodwell’s a terrific signing and with Carlos Tevez slimmed-down, they will be scoring plenty of goals.
European champions Chelsea will finish third comfortably ahead of Spurs who I think could have a really good season under Andre Villas-Boas. After being unfairly sacked by Roman Ambramovich, he has a lot to prove to the footballing public in the UK and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him win the FA or League Cup this year.
Liverpool will be stronger this year. Suarez I feel will score plenty this season and certainly Liverpool will pick up a lot more points at home than they did last year (27). Andy Carroll I think will have a good season as will Joe Allen but they don’t have enough quality to get into the top 4. They should do well in the Europa League though.
I don’t see Arsenal and Newcastle being too far behind Liverpool. Arsenal face a tough year and with RVP gone and Alex Song seemingly on his way out, they will struggle in the big games between the top 5/6. I think playing in Europe may hurt Newcastle and their league form will suffer as a result but I can see them doing well in the FA Cup.
Down at the bottom I cannot see Noriwch staying up. Losing Paul Lambert will hurt them massively and despite the club making a great appointment in Chris Hughton, it will be near-impossible for the Canaries to match their achievements of last season. Don’t expect Grant Holt to get into double-figures of goals either!
The other two to join Norwich back to the Championship will be Reading and Wigan. Despite being busy in the transfer-market thanks to their new Russian owner, I fear the Royals lack enough quality where it matters to stay up. As for Wigan, despite the signing of Arouna Kone, this might be the year the team everybody predicts to go down finally does go down which would be a shame considering the hard-work that goes on at the DW Stadium.
By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87
