Premier League Preview

The Premier League kicks off tomorrow with the action kicking off at White hart Lane at 12:45 with Redknapp taking on Mancini as the battle for 4th place kicks off early in the season.

Manchester City this summer have spent big this summer, well over £100M has been spent by the Blues in an attempt to try and gain their place in the European elite next season. Mario Balotelli is their latest acquisation, coming in from Inter Milan. They have also acquired David Silva, Yaya Toure, Alexander Kolarov and Jerome Boateng. This should enable them to push forwards towards the top four as the season finishes in late May. However, Liverpool with Roy Hodgson at the helm will be looking to regain their spot in the top four of the Premier League.



Liverpool have had a summer of change with Benitez leaving the club before the Americans Gillet and Hicks bought in their first choice, Roy Hodgson from Fulham. They then have gone onto sign Jovanovic and Poulsen in an attempt to try to better their squad depth. Liverpool will not be alone though in trying to reach the top four with Everton and Aston Villa also holding out an outside chance of making the top four. Aston Villa having seen Martin O Neill resign earlier in the week due to differences with Randy Lerner however may well now be looking just to consolidate their position and make sure they finish above their main rivals still, Birmingham City.

Birmingham themselves had an excellent season last season and made a good impression on the Premier League. They have replaced their on loan keeper, Joe Hart with an able replacement in Ben Foster, and will hope that Benitez will finally manage to hit the goals that he was promised to score last season. Birmingham formed a midtable section of the Premier League last season along with Stoke, Fulham, Blackburn and Sunerland. All these clubs will be vying to finish on top of the middle "division" this season within the league, however not many have made serious strides forward and easily could be dragged back into the bottom division within the league.

The lower ends of the premiership include Wolves, Wigan and West Ham. Wolves and Wigan have been tipped by many to face the drop this season, with Wigan manager Martinez hoping to improve the defence with what was the worst goal difference in the league last year of -42. However, he will also need to sort his attack out, with it taking Jason Scotland until past new year to score his first Premier League goal. Wolves have a much more settled side and this season will look to consolidate their position in the league, and a succesful season for them will be staying in the league again, even more so with the stronger promoted teams.

The three promoted teams, Newcastle, West Brom and Blackpool all have tried to strengthen their teams this summer, to varying degrees of success. Newcastle have managed to sign Sol Campbell and with players such as Kevin Nolan and Steve Harper will be looking to stay up, and have since been installed as many people's favourites to stay in the top flight this season. West Brom have come up in 2nd place from the Championship, and have not managed to strengten their squad much, however, they come up with keeper Scott Carson in goal and will hope to manage to stay up this season, but will find it tough in such a competetive league, starting with an away trip to the champions, Chelsea. The last team to be promoted was Blackpool. The Seasiders are rank outsiders to even stay up in the league this year, being ruled out by many very early on with manager Ian Holloway being hemmed in by the rigid wage structure of the club, struggling to bring players in. Blackpool have also had major problems getting their ground ready, and will play their first two games away from home at Wigan and Arsenal, not playing a home game until the end of the month against Fulham.

The last league in the division is the top 3. Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Chelsea, the current champions have bought in Ramires, the Brazilian, for around £18M in a bid to improve their squad. They have however lost Deco, and Ricardo Carvalho in an attempt to try and trim their squad too comply with the new 25 man squad rule.

 Manchester United have not made any signings to try and improve their current squad, but bought in a player called Bebe to try and help them in the future. They however are second favourites behind Chelsea this season with the bookies rating them as a 3/1 shot for the title. Arsenal are slight outsiders for the title, as a 6/1 shot. Their main transfer in was a signing to improve their front line with Chamakh purchased in an attempt to help their front line. However, they have been linked with defenders also from Italy to try and improve their defence with Gallas being linked with Spurs.

The season is going to be a long 9 months for some teams, and for teams like Blackpool, Wigan and West Brom, it could end in despair. The season looks to be the most competitive for years, with a large contingent of teams thinking that this could be their year to have a great season.