West Brom v Sunderland – 3pm
Two clubs who go through managers like underpants and two sides who are generally, well, pants. The Baggies have brought in Alan Irvine, long term assistant to David Moyes as their new boss and at 56 years old in his first premier league gig you might well wonder why they ever decided to get rid of Steve Clarke. Irvine has a lot of fans to win over but they have made some decent signings and should be good enough to beat the drop if there manager doesn’t turn out to be hopeless. Sunderland survived last season with a stunning end to the season under Gus Poyet and with this his first full season in charge they should improve further and if they can get long term target Fabio Borini to join from Liverpool then they will be stronger going forward . They surely can’t start the season any worse than they did under madcap Di Canio a year ago and I expect both sides to survive but both to be ordinary and therefore there can only be one conclusion tomorrow. Score draw. Predictions West Brom v Sunderland – draw 2/1 West Ham v Tottenham – 3pm A London derby is a good way to get the season going and for Sam Allardyce the pressure will be on from the first minute as he has been told to play better football, score more goals and win more games...”ok then chairman, no bother” was of course the natural reply from a man who is staggeringly amongst the top 10 most highly paid managers in the world. No, really. Whether Big/Fat Sam (to me he seems bigger than fatter) can wave his magic wand and suddenly deliver free flowing football is highly doubtful and I expect Sams backside to the exit door sooner rather than later. Unless new boy Ener Valencia proves to be a goal machine, it could be dark days ahead for Allardyce who always delivers a safety first approach to the teams he has managed. Sadly for the deluded Hammers, they expect to be entertained as well as safe and with that in mind, I can smell the exit door awaiting for Allardyce who will surely struggle to entertain the masses with Stuart Downing amongst their top players although wild man Mauro Zarate has arrived from a spell back home in Argentina and could yet be the Alladyce joker in the pack. For Spurs, new boss Mauricio Pochettino has the enviable task of replacing resident buffoon Tim “nice but dim” Sherwood as manager this season and while they have barely added to their squad, Ben Davies apart, they should be a stronger side for their experience in the league last year. Another striker is required surely if Tottenham are to harbour genuine ambitions of the top 4 this season and while Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela et al should be expected to improve, I don’t expect those improvements to be significant enough and I can see Spurs finishing no higher than 6th. Another score draw could be on the cards tomorrow in what should prove to be a relatively feisty opening day encounter Predictions West Ham v Tottenham – Draw 2/1 Arsenal v Crystal Palace – 5.30pm Arsenal get their season underway against Crystal Palace who have remarkably parted company with Jesus, sorry Tony Pulis, the man who took over a side destined for the drop and lead them to not only to survival but mid-table safety with games to spare and who has now left his job over a dispute about control over transfers. A bonkers decision from a club who will surely now be fighting against relegation as a result of their chairman’s idiocy. Arsenal meanwhile have added 1 world class star in Alexis Sanchez to their group while replacing Bacary Sagna with another French fullback in Mathieu Debuchy which looks a solid enough replacement. Joel Campbell has returned from loan and a fine World Cup to fight for a place and Arsenal are looking healthier than they have for many years with last season’s FA Cup triumph fresh in the memory I expect the Gunners to be strong again this season and while it could be argued that they are still at least 2 world class players short of challenging for the title (for my money, 3 players are needed) they should have more than enough quality to improve on last season’s 79 points and with 2weeks left in the window, Wenger may yet surprise us further with an investment in the holding midfield role surely required. Still with Ozil, Sanchez, Walcott, Giroud, Podolski, Campbell, Cazorla, Chamberlain and Gnabry to call on in the attacking positions, Arsenal will score goals and continue to be entertaining although replacing their captain Thomas Vermaelan remains a priority. 3 points seem assured and again I expect the Gunners to do it with a little to spare. Predictions Arsenal -1 to beat Palace – 8/11 Ramsey to score anytime 6/4 Liverpool v Southampton – Sunday 1.30 pm Liverpool minus Luis Suarez kick off their campaign with multiple new additions including 3 of Southampton’s key first team players from last season in Lovren, Lallana and Lambert and while the Saints have been decimated in their fire sale of players, they have added a host of new players including Brazilian legend Pele! Oh sorry, it’s Graziano Pelle of Eredivisie fame who has been bought to replace Lambert and Dusan Dadic, also coming in from Holland looks like a fine replacement for the departed Lallana. Whether it was really smart to sell the heart of your team all at once is debatable but you cannot deny that the Saints have made some pretty good cash, specifically on Chambers at 16 million, Lallana at 25 (minus 25% to his former team) and Shaw at 27 million, Replacements have come quickly and unfortunately for Southampton, with everyone knowing their pockets are deep, they have had to pay some pretty big prices, see Shane Long, 12 million. Liverpool meanwhile have “done a spurs” and whacked a lot of cash on some proven and less proven players with the money from the sale of Suarez and while they have yet to actually replace that man directly, they should still be strong enough to fight for the top 4 again. I expect 1 more striker to arrive at Anfield and depending on his quality, they could yet spring a surprise by pushing hard for the title again. Tomorrow’s affair should see a home win and BTTS at 4/6 also looks a good shout. Much will depend on whether the Saints can gel quickly and with a new manager as well in Ronald Koeman, it will be a much changed Southampton that faces Liverpool on Sunday. For that reason, I expect a home win. Predictions Liverpool to beat Southampton and BTTS – 7/4 Newcastle v Man City - Sunday 4pm Newcastle have done as well as anyone this summer with new signings coming thick and fast now that the legend of Joe Kinnear has finally been condemned to the footballing scrap heap. Once again the Nouveau Chateaux have turned their attentions to France, snapping up Remy Caballa and Emmanuel Rivierre while also dipping their toes into the dodgy Dutch market for established internationals in Siem De Jong and Daryl Janmaat. The Geordie faithful will expect to see better performances from their team having slipped so badly in the second half of last season when they played like a team certain for relegation. That they still managed to finish in the top10 underlines not only the quality of their start to last season when they were challenging for the top 4 at Christmas but also the comparative dearth of competition in the bottom 10 where every side could have been relegated. I expect a similar season ahead for Newcastle. City of course were Champions and while they have added some quality in the Porto duo Mangala and Fernando along with Wily Caballero coming in to fight with Joe Hart (not literally, well maybe) and Bacary Sagna at full back, they still seem to lack an extra bite in attack and whether they have done enough in the market to hold on to their title remains to be seen. Oh yes, Frank Lampard will be there for 6 months before his move stateside. It won’t be easy on Sunday for Pellegrini’s side and BTTS is my bet for this one at 4/6 and while City should win, I would not be surprised to see an entertaining score draw. Predictions Newcastle v Man City – BTTS 4/6 Burnley v Chelsea – Monday 9pm Turf Moor plays host to the first Monday night football of the campaign as big spending Chelsea take on newly promoted Burnley in what looks like a tasty finale to the first weekend’s action. Chelsea have invested splendidly and it seems Jose Mourinho has taken a course at the Daniel Levy school of negotiations in managing to sell David Luiz for 50 million pounds. Yes, 50 million pounds. Of course, he did this before the World Cup semi-final and yet can’t help imagine Mourinho must have watched that performance with a wry smile on his face. Indeed Mourinho has let go of Luiz, Lukaku and Ba and with the money generated from the sale of those 3 replaced them with Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, Fillipe Luis and Didier Drogba. Tremendous business and indeed Chelsea are my tips to win the league this season. Diego Costa scored 36 goals in Spain for Atletico in his final campaign, and if he can finally break the Chelsea striker curse, (see Torres, Shevchenko, Crespo, Mutu and Kezman) and added to that, Cesc pulling the string in midifled, then the Blues will be very hard to beat. Burnley meanwhile are the bookies favourites for the drop and with little investment in the team, this would be hard to argue against but they have a tremendous home record and will certainly not be a pushover in this division but it’s hard to make a case for them to stay up, other than the fact that there are sure to be some other pretty ordinary teams in the league. Chelsea should take the points on Monday and get their season off and running in the style Mourinho demands. Cue 1.0 victory. Predictions – Chelsea to win – 2/5 (far too short a price though) So that’s my first weekend preview for the EPL. I will post my final predictions and bets in tomorrow’s pre match posts around lunchtime. Comments are closed.
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