premiership 2007/08 - preview.

we will miss both henry and robben, (who were both mostly injured last season) but players like f torres, babel, hargreaves, nani, elano, muntari, rozehnal, malouda, pizarro and alex will join the premier league this season and we will see a stronger league than ever before.

not very surprisingly,  chelsea, man united and liverpool have signed most of the aces, while the fourth major club, arsenal, have kept a rather low profile.

chelsea and m united are joint favourites to win the league (2.50), but perhaps it will not be a two horse race this time. the price on liverpool is 6.5. considering their magnificent signings (f torres, babel, voronin and benayoun) i have to believe that liverpool will be able to push for the title.admittedly both chelsea and m united have signed some outstanding players as well, but that is only normal practice for big clubs.

m united will probably be even stronger offensively this season, (hargreaves, anderson, c tevez and nani - new united players), but if they have any achilles heel it is definitely their defence.

the great malouda has joined chelsea, along with  pizarro, sidwell and ben haim and i am only waiting on alex, the brazilian defender,  to join them. with him in the team they will have a perfect side, if is there is such a thing. definitely a worry for chelsea is the fact that their best footballers, drogba and essien, will play the african cup in january 2008. chelsea start their campaign with quite a few injured players  -  also a bit of a worry.

what about arsenal? i will never be able to say anything negative about their coach wenger. his team went through the premiership unbeaten a couple of years ago and i am not worthy of criticizing wenger after that unbelievable accomplishment. perhaps his present side is too dependent on van persie and maybe his team is too inexperienced, but you cannot question their tremendous potential. in the last two weeks arsenal have defeated psg, inter, lazio and ajax and arsenal will be a tough opponent to the big trio, but i do not think that they have the stamina, the durability to win the premiership.

personally, i would probably take a chance with liverpool. (6.5)

who will be contenders for a place in the uefa cup? my candidates are tottenham, portsmouth, newcastle and blackburn. i would not rule out everton, a villa and w ham either, but i stand by the first four.

tottenham are of course the obvious choice. many pundits think that they will be able to threaten the big four, but i doubt that. they have spent huge money on d bent. a bit strange, or maybe they will sell one of their other strikers, defoe, berbatov or r keane. well not berbatov, he is their prime asset. their defensive ace ledley king is injured again and he will miss at least the first month.

i like the look of  portsmouth this season and i will three bets with them involved. to finish in the top half (2.20), in the top 6 (6.5) and then on the handicap. if they finish less than 34 points behind chelsea and united you should win the bet, but of course all the other sides are in the handicap, but all the same,  they look good on the handicap. coach redknapp has bought wisely. distin for example. i have to believe that distin and sol campbell will be an excellent defensive pairing. the tough muntari on the midfield. i guess that he will see a red card every now and then and redknapp has some job to do with this unpolished gem. david nugent will play, one of my favourite strikers has joined, along with utaka. when utaka is on fire he is a terrific striker, i can assure you. he had some tremendous spells with his previous club, rennes.

allardyce and newcastle will make a serious push for europe, and about time, i would say. with a steady 50000 spectators you must be expected to do better than they have done these last seasons. viduka, a smith, rozehnal, geremi, j barton, cacapa, enrique and a fit m owen guarantee some success for newcastle this term. well, a fit owen, is maybe asking too much.

i include blackburn as european candidates as well. only one big signing, santa cruz, but they have been able to hold on to b mccarthy, j roberts and gamst-pedersen, and not to forget their great manager m hughes. blackburn  -  an honest football side. i am a fan.

everton depend much on a johnson, cahill and arteta, but they have added l baines, s pienaar and p jagielka to their squad. ok, everton are in the european race as well.

f ljungberg, c bellamy, s parker and faubert have joined w ham. sounds good? i wonder! f ljungberg is made of glass, bellamy mostly spreads disharmony and faubert is on the injury list. s parker? ok, he is a decent player. dean ashton is fit again, and that is good news, but their saviour from last season, c tevez, has left for m united.

aston villa have offloaded several players, but just bought reo-coker and m harewood. mid table position is awaiting on oneills team.

what can i say about m city, svens new creation? well, sven speaks fluent portugese, italian and english so no problems there. what i do know is that elano, bianchi, bojinov, bresciano? and m petrov are all very strong offensive footballers and the city fans will definitely see some goals this season, even at their own home. i would be excited if i was a city fan, but no guarantee that they will see immediate success.

bolton have lost their charismatic manager allardyce, but they have been able to hang on  to anelka, k nolan, diouf and the other aces and a safe mid table position looks likely for s lees troops.

reading will have pretty much the same side as last season, (minus s sidwell) but as the second season is generally more difficult than the first one,  reading will end up in the lower half of the table this time. they could even end up fighting for their existence. their leading striker, l lita, is out injured at the moment.

the rest, middlesbrough, sunderland, fulham, birmingham. wigan and derby, all risk being relegated.  maybe middlesbrough to go down. (7.00) j woodgate is injured again and no guarantee that tuncay sanli will be a success in the premiership. viduka has left for their neighbours, newcastle, and plenty of clubs are trying to buy his offensive colleague, yakubu.

i thought that sunderland would be extremely active on the transfer market, but it has not been the case. ok, kieran richardson is a good buy, maybe m chopra and r anderson as well, but hey, we are in the premiership now. they just signed a new keeper, c gordon, and he is supposed to be very good.

most experts expect derby to finish last, but i am not so sure about that. derby play smart football, and we have seen smart championship sides survive their first year in the premiership before.

l sanchez, the fulham boss, has invested wisely, the birmingham chief s bruce as well, but both sides could still struggle in this tough league. bruce has not been very comfortable in his previous visits to the premiership. sanchez is a bit of an unknown figure for this writer.

wigan? heskey and camara up front, the excellent koumas on the midfield and that is about it. they will get some cash from the selling of l baines and we will probably see some new names any of these days. unproven manager in hutchings.

going down  -  middlesbrough, wigan and birmingham. take it for what it is worth. only speculation

portsmouth is my main betting object in the premiership.