Dud3s

Absolutely.

Absolutely absolutely absolutely Arsenal. Even here from the sunny beaches of Canada, where we get zero Premiership broadcast, I still keep my Thierry Henry jersey tucked away nicely for a rainy day.

Id like to say Everton but there's no way you can top chelsea over the season.

Who's winning it? Arsenal of course.

You've clearly haven't been watching the Premiership in the last 2 years. Or else, you guys are getting a neutered version in the states.

Has everyone forgotten Man U. This is their year, again!

Chelsea will implode. Ballack and Lampard cannot exist in the same midfield and Mourhino will leave.

And we sure as hell didn't get the neutered version of the Champions League last year. The young team has momentum now and has finally started to gel. Shame Reyes won't be around for long.

"And we sure as hell didn't get the neutered version of the Champions League last year."

The Champions League != The Premiership
Arsenal suffered last year when playing against team who pressed and ground them down. They're stronger against teams such as Real where they have time and space to dictate the game and play a passing games. They suffered against more pragmatic teams such as Bolton. This was the reason for my slightly antagonstic comment above; sometimes, only highlights or major games are shown which end up producing a distorted view of a teams actual performance.

Chelsea have a team which may not always be pretty but can generally grind out a result. Mourinho has shown that he can gel a group of players into a cohesive force. Whilst they'll certainly be challenged this year, they'll still be the team to beat.

My point was at the beginning of the last season you could tell they were a young team and were in trouble of not getting the 4th spot for automatic placement in the Champions League, but over the season you started to see the youngsters find their place and it was evident in the Champions League AND the fact they came back to finish 4th.

I hope Liverpool at least makes an effort to join the title race. Chelsea seem to be imploding at the moment.

fucking chelsea all the way. although weisheng is right, i 'd say a majority of the big timers like crespo and drogba want out of their contracts. they already lost gudjohnsen.

The safe money is on Chelsea, but I hope that they get a run from Arsenal, Man U and Liverpool.

ericj - you're right about Crespo, he went back to Inter-Milan on a 2 year contract, with a clause that should Chelsea want him, they can get him back after one year into the contract.

It will be interesting to see how Mourinho deals with having Ballack and Lampard in his squad, as well as seeing how Shevchenko does in the Premiership. The styles of English and Italian football (or soccer as its known in the states) are different, so it will be interesting to see if he does better here or there.

I don't know if Drogba will go, apparently he wanted to go because everyone in England thinks of him as a diver, but with Gudjohnsen and Crespo gone, they'll probably need him to pair with Shevchenko.

Here's my early prediction on how the league will play out:

1 - Chelsea
2 - Man U
3 - Arsenal
4 - Liverpool

Woot, Liverpool beat Chelsea for the Community Shield today! The Chelsea players looked short of match fitness but I have to admit Shevchenko was awesome. He is scary. He made fantastic runs off the back line, shrugs off defenders with ease (this is crucial in the Premier League) and the stats say it all - 3 shots, 3 on target, 1 goal - clinical finisher.

I reckon its liverpools year.