2014-2015 English Premier League Season Preview

Breathe in and out… we are only two days away from the start of the EPL season.  Sigh.  Wow, it feels like the league never went away.  That was the quickest 97 days I can ever remember.  I feel like we’ve spent most of our summer hanging out with our favorite players.  From the World Cup to the International Champions Cup, we were never far apart from the ones we love the most.  Now it’s time to begin another long roller coaster of a season and it’s time to start making what will inevitably be, wrong predictions about the EPL.  Who will win the league? Who else will finish in the top 4? Who’s gonna be relegated? Who will score the most goals?  These and a few other questions I attempt to answer below.  Full disclosure, I will probably get every one of these questions wrong, but that’s exactly why I love this league.  So here I go.

Champions: Chelsea

Of all the EPL teams, I have to be the most impressed with what Chelsea did during the Summer transfer period.  With the additions of a couple of Spaniards, Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa (well, kinda a Spaniard, but mostly a Brazilian), as well as Filipe Luis, Thibaut Courtois (who was on loan with Atletico Madrid) and the return of Didier Drogba, Chelsea look ready to take down the Premier League in Jose Mourinho’s second season of his second stint with the club.  Hmm, a title in Mourinho’s second year, if that sounds familiar, that’s because he’s done that before, a few times.  Back in 2006 Mourinho led Chelsea to the EPL title in his second season with the club (well, he also did it in his first season too).   Then in 2010 in his second season with Inter, he led them to the Serie A title in Italy.   Finally, in 2012, now in his second season with Real Madrid, his team finished atop the La Liga table.  The special one has figured out how to win championships during his second year with the club.  Chelsea appears to have got the right group of players (they finally have a striker better than Fernando Torres!) to allow Mourinho to put out a starting 11 that on paper, looks better than the rest of the league.

Runners-up:  Arsenal

Possibly the biggest news of the summer was that Arsene Wenger spent some money.  I mean, there’s a first time for everything.  The most notable signing of the off season was Alexis Sanchez who never seemed to be used to his full potential while with Barcelona.   Along with the transfer of Sanchez, Arsenal added a couple of defenders – French international Mathieu Debuchy and the young Calum Chambers who came over as part of the Southampton fire sale.  The biggest question as to whether or not Arsenal can contend for a position at the top of the league will be their health.  They have been injury plagued during the past several seasons, but if Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Jack Wilshire can all stay healthy and contribute, Arsenal looks to be very talented and for the first time in a while, quite deep on the bench as well.  This goes without mentioning their returning players like Oliver Giroud, Santi Cazorla, Lukas Podolski, Mesut Ozil and others who led Arsenal last season to another top 4 finish.   Arsenal was great last season against the bottom teams in the league but really super extremely awful against  the other top 4 teams.  I think they will be much more competitive against the top teams this year and will prove that they belong near the top of the table.

Third place: Manchester City

This 2014-2015 City team will look almost identical to the team which won the title last season.  Thanks to the slap on the wrist they got from the Financial Fair Play rules, they have not been amongst the big spenders this off-season.  So the question is, is this a good or a bad thing the Cityzens?  Here’s how I look at it.  City won the title last season by only 2 points and was not sitting on top of the league table until the penultimate weekend of the season.  By no means did City run away with the title last season.  So while the other teams around them got better, City remained the same.  One of the biggest questions for me will be the fitness and quality of play from Kun Aguero.  He was injured off and on last season as well as during the World Cup.  And when he did play for Argentina, particularly in the final, he did not look like himself and it was clear he was struggling to run down the passes played for him on the wings.  Yes City have other Strikers including Dzeko and a healthy Jovetic as well as one of the league’s most powerful midfielders in Yaya Toure, but I think they will struggle to defend their title if Aguero is not able to run past and get in behind opposing defenses with the constant threat of putting the ball in the back of the net.

Fourth Place: Liverpool

I think the final Champions League spot will be a toss-up between the two Merseyside teams, Spurs and Manchester United.  But even without Luis Suarez, I am giving the edge to Liverpool.  Last season we were all introduced to the talents of Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert from Southampton.  Unless you were paying close attention to the middle-of-the-pack Saints the previous season, you probably failed to notice these two emerging talents until Southampton suddenly made a run for the top of the EPL table during the first few months of last year’s campaign.  Now Lambert and Lallana as well as Dejan Lovren (along with pretty much everyone else at Southampton) has left Saint Mary’s and these three have found a new home at Anfield.   Liverpool played without Suarez to start last season as he was… wait for it… serving a suspension for biting someone (one year later, not much has changed) and only lost one match (ironically to Southamption) during Suarez’s absence.  The biggest surprise of last season was not that Suarez led the league in goals, but it was the emergence of some bright young stars like Jon Flanagan, Jordan Henderson, Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling.  Liverpool still has the second piece of their strike force, Daniel Sturridge, who will now be paired with Lambert, who scored 28 league goals in the past two seasons.  No Lambert cannot replace Suarez, which is why I think Liverpool take a step back from last season, but I still think Brendan Rodgers will put a very competitive team on the pitch each week, ready to compete with the rest of the title contenders.

Fifth Place: Manchester United

Sixth Place: Tottenham Hotspurs

Seventh Place: Everton

Eighth – Seventeenth place: Who knows

Relegation (18^th, 19^th and 20^th place): QPR, West Bromich Albion and Burnley

Biggest Surprise Team of the season: Leicester City
Top Goal Scorer: Diego Costa

Player of the year: Jack Wilshere

Young player of the year: Raheem Sterling

Who’s this guy? I’ve never heard of him before: Bruno Zucculini
Best new kit: Queens Park Rangers
Worst new kit: Arsenal (only because they're made by Puma - TIGHT)
(I know its not an EPL team, but I have to mention how awful Real Madrid's away and third kits are this season, almost Liverpool bad from 2013)

Most likely to become my wife’s new crush: Aaron Ramsey

There you have it.  I hope you all enjoy the first weekend of the EPL season. My only advice, don’t jump to any conclusions after one weekend.  Don’t forget, this is a marathon and not a sprint and in this season where there are 4 or 5 or 6 legitimate title contenders, we may not know until May 2015 which team will be lifting the trophy above their heads when it’s all said and done.