The Premier League is Back

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Will these scenes happen again for City at the end of the Season
Well, less than a month after France beat Croatia in the World Cup final, the Premier League is back in action on Friday night with two former champions in Manchester United and the Fairy-tale Champions Leicester City. The league has as usual new people coming to England either players or new managers and three new teams coming in from the Championship.

Wolves celebrating winning the championship
Fulham lifting the play-off trophy at Wembley

The three new teams this season are all former Premier League teams back for the first time in several years who had tough roads to get out of the championship. One of the teams that have fought hard to get back is Wolverhampton Wanderers. When the Wolves went down in 2012 it was seen as how they can recover in their first season in the second tier, well it didn't go well as they were relegated to League One the following season. They bounced back immediately and fought hard to stay in the Championship. Then last season after a big takeover and influential new manager Nuno Espirito Santo they dominated the Championship and were promoted with less than a month to go in the season. It then became a battle for the last automatic promotion place between Cardiff and Fulham which went down to the final game of the season. Cardiff went up automatically with a draw to Reading as Fulham were beaten by Birmingham City as both teams were fighting for both promotion and surviving relegation. Fulham, however, got promoted by the Championship playoff final defeating Aston Villa. The questions, as usual, would be who would survive the drop out of the three teams as promoted Championship teams have usually struggled in the past.

The big question at the top of the table is how will Manchester City top what they did last season. If they won the title again and they would go down in history as it has been ten years since a team has defended a title. City has a tough challenge with Jose Mourinho' Manchester United who is always one of the contenders. Though the main challenge would be one of City's thorns last season Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool. Liverpool beat City three times last season with them winning the league encounter at Anfield 4-3 and then beating them on their way to the Champions League final. Liverpool also spent a lot of money in the transfer market especially spending nearly 70 million pounds on AS Roma and Brazil goalkeeper Allison. Another challenger is Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs are the near team finishing 3rd,2nd and 3rd in the last 3 seasons. However, there is a lot of hope as a majority of the England team that had success at the World Cup like Harry Kane, Kieran Trippier and Dele Ali play for the team and could they push for the title this season. They will also play at their brand new stadium, after spending last season and playing their first home game this season at Wembley Stadium. Meanwhile, Arsenal and Chelsea are looking to prove themselves with new managers, Chelsea having former Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri at the Bridge, while Unai Emery has the task of replacing Arsene Wenger.

Unai Emery at the helm at Arsenal.
Maurizio Sarri is the new manager at Chelsea
One of the surprise teams last season was Burnley. They now have extra fixtures in the Europa League to contend with and have spent money to deal with it including buying Joe Hart from Manchester City. This could be the making or breaking for Burnley as the extra games could affect their results early on in the season and put them in a relegation battle at the end of the season. Everton is another team to look out for as they are one of those teams that you could either count out off contention or be one of the teams fighting for Europe come late February, early March. There will be battles not just for the top 4 but for the Europa League places.

However, as there is a fight for winning the Premier League, there is a fight for surviving in the Premier League. The three championship sides that came up last season are always thought off as survival contenders the others are Southampton who just survived at the end of last season. The other teams that could be in trouble are Huddersfield, Brighton and Newcastle as they have to contend with second season troubles.
Friday Night's game between Manchester United and Leicester is the first of 380 matches. The teams are former Premier League Champions. Manchester United have won the most Premier League titles since it was formed and they want to challenge their city rivals Manchester City for the Premier League. Meanwhile, Leicester famously won the title 2 years ago when they were odds-on favourites to relegated and stunned the world. This season it's not a case of going for the title it's more just hang on to their place in the Premier League.

Enjoy the season and I'll do some match reports on the Premier League this season.

KRO Mark

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