Another Season Upon Us

I am watching Arsenal play Newcastle at Highbury as I type this Shay Given is having an absolute blinder as the score is still 0-0. I wonder what it will be by match end. Arsenal is laying siege to the Newcastle goal and the Magpies are defending marvelously.

In a short while, Chelsea will be taking on newly promoted Wigan. That's right, another EPL season has begun. Among other things, it's great to have the ESPN-Star Sports gang back on TV, especially John Dykes, Paul Masefield et al. I don't always watch Football Crazy, but it will be fun to see what Andy Penders and Co. have in store for us on Football Crazy. I even look forward to the tabloid tit-bits on Tiger First Edition!

The pundits have had their say. The general concensus is that Chelsea will successfully defend their title, but will win with more difficulty than they did last year. The expected challenge is to come from the usual suspects - Man Utd and Arsenal. A couple of the more charitable-minded pundits have put forth Liverpool as a fourth contender. I reckon the Liverpool squad is too new to achieve anything this season, so I am not as hopeful. (As for my other team, Aston Villa, the best I hope for them is qualification for next season's UEFA Cup. And that they manage to win at least the home Midlands Derby match against Birmingham.)

I wanted to make my predictions before the season actually started, but hey, we haven't seen Chelsea play yet, and Arsenal's match is still on, so it's still early enough in the season that this does not technically count as cheating.

Predicted Top 5:
Man United
Chelsea
Arsenal
Newcastle
Liverpool

Predicted Bottom 5:
Everton
West Brom
Portsmouth
Wigan
Sunderland

Predicted Top Scorers:
Henry
Van Nisterooy
Rooney
Defoe
Crouch

Number of teams that will change managers: 3

Predicted Best Defensive Teams (in terms of goals conceded):
Chelsea
Man Utd

Predicted Best Attacking Teams (in terms of goals scored):
Man Utd
Arsenal
Tottenham

Mid-season review of predictions will be done at Christmas. I will probably revise substantially, since these things are subject to injuries and bizzarre shifts in form.

Update: Arsenal has beaten Newcastle 2-0. But it was 11 against 10, so we cannot read too much into this result.