PL 2022/2023 discussion and top 4 prediction

[gunner4ever]

What's up futbol fans, less than 2 days before PL 1st match, can't wait for the season to start!

Still quite a few important players to be moved this month, but anyway here is my predicted top4:

1. Man City
2. Liverpool
3. Tottenham
4. Arsenal

5. Chelsea
6. Man Utd

Liverpool has a great squad but giving the edge again to Man City with the extra quality in depth they have. Should be a 2 teams title race although Tottenham could make it interesting if Conte continues his solid work.

Spurs with a very good transfer window, they look like the best team after City/Liverpool.

4th place Arsenal to keep up the improvement with good additions, and equally because I'm not really impressed with Chelsea and Man Utd transfer activities.

Chelsea with no natural striker. It seemed they had no clear plan in this transfer window. Still got good players in but it may take some time to work. Wouldn't be surprised if Tuchel gets sacked midseason.

Man Utd 1st season for Ten Haag, discovers the PL, Ronaldo saga to deal with, will De Jong finally come or not, lots of unknowns and questions.

Give me your top4!

I'll do a small preview later today or tomorrow about Arsenal and what should be the starting team and new players. If you want to do the same with your team, go for it!

 

[KJ]

What's up futbol fans, less than 2 days before PL 1st match, can't wait for the season to start!

Still quite a few important players to be moved this month, but anyway here is my predicted top4:

1. Man City
2. Liverpool
3. Tottenham
4. Arsenal

5. Chelsea
6. Man Utd

Liverpool has a great squad but giving the edge again to Man City with the extra quality in depth they have. Should be a 2 teams title race although Tottenham could make it interesting if Conte continues his solid work.

Spurs with a very good transfer window, they look like the best team after City/Liverpool.

4th place Arsenal to keep up the improvement with good additions, and equally because I'm not really impressed with Chelsea and Man Utd transfer activities.

Chelsea with no natural striker. It seemed they had no clear plan in this transfer window. Still got good players in but it may take some time to work. Wouldn't be surprised if Tuchel gets sacked midseason.

Man Utd 1st season for Ten Haag, discovers the PL, Ronaldo saga to deal with, will De Jong finally come or not, lots of unknowns and questions.

Give me your top4!

I'll do a small preview later today or tomorrow about Arsenal and what should be the starting team and new players. If you want to do the same with your team, go for it!

Awesome!

Agree with it all and guessing Gunners and Chelsea could be a coin flip but certainly like it to go Arse way more times than not.

 

[KJ]

Wish there was a bet out there on 3rd. Spurs should auto fill that slot.

 

[gunner4ever]

Awesome!

Agree with it all and guessing Gunners and Chelsea could be a coin flip but certainly like it to go Arse way more times than not.

Yeah Chelsea with the better and more experienced squad with new owners who spend money like drunk guys (Cucurella for 50 or 60m?!!!). Looks like they just bid for Fofana 70/75m as well but they may have to get close to 100m to get him

Very good players but will this work quickly I am not sure. They could have used Gabriel Jesus they did try to hijack him at the last minute.

These guys are trying to hijack every deal like they just did with Cucurella

 

[gunner4ever]

Wish there was a bet out there on 3rd. Spurs should auto fill that slot.

On bet365 you can (winner excluding Man City and Liverpool)

Spurs +175
Chelsea +175

 

[dylanphan]

Not super looking forward to the EPL this year. ManCity is so clearly the best side in the league it's ridiculous. Liverpool is the only side that I could see even challenging, but to me they need Salah out there every game and he is just getting older and is always picking up a nick here or there. Their front 5 with Diaz and Nunez now could be extremely fun to watch, but can't see them playing Salah 50+ games this year.
You could throw a dart against the wall for Arsenal/Spurs/United/Chelsea for where they'll end up. I'd probably rate Chelsea best bet for 3rd and Arsenal best bet to fall out of the top 6, although a very strong argument for United can be placed for them to drop down depending on how EtH is able to manage at the top league in the world. I have faith, but I also had faith that Mourinho could do something there, and shit the bed he did.

More interesting to me is teams that could sneak up and battle for Europe. West Ham is #1 in my eyes. They finished just 2 points behind United for 6th and have a mostly unchanged side. Keeping Rice was massive. They have a team of some of the most under appreciated players around in the likes of Bowen, Souzec, & Antonio. I guess Bowen finally got a call up so maybe he'll be more recognized for how solid a player he is. Then they went out and grabbed Scamacca from Serie A who creates a shit ton of chances. They are a bit older and weaker in the back, but Moyes teams usually play within their structure so I think they may be a dark horse to do even better this year. #2 is Newcastle. Not sure how all of these moves will shake out, but they have money now and have been getting players. Botman was a good get, and Bruno Guimaraes produced some attractive play in his stint there the second part of the year. If ASM stays healthy, there are a number of nice players around on both offense and defense that can get them results. Joelinton position switch was a revelation as well last year as he went from an attacking player to more a central and holding player which most players don't thrive but the team benefitted massively from the change in formation.

And then you always want to see who will go down. It would have been pretty big to see Everton go down, biggest club since probably Villa to get relegated, but they hung on by the skin of their teeth. It's usually very hard for the newly promoted teams to stay up, so I have to assume at least one team will be one and done and that should be Bournemouth. Can Forrest or Fulham stay up? Well, if Mitrovic scores 30+ goals again, Fulham has a fighting chance. Forrest gonna just probably defend defend defend and try to get draws and wins here or there. I think Fulham stays up, and 50/50 on Forrest, so who goes down. Loads of people thinking Everton as the loss of Richarlson will be big, but there is still some young talent there. Solid GK, and DCL is a good attacking option. I think they have just enough to stay up, but if they drop, well, the cupboards will be plucked bare from this side and you may see a Sunderland type descent. Speaking of empty cupboards, Leeds is like an auto that lost it's engine. While I rate Aaronson pretty highly and Marsch is a promising young coach, there is just not enough there for me to see them stay up. Not sure who is going to score, I think Leeds is a pretty good bet for the drop.

 

[gunner4ever]

Quick Arsenal preview!

Here is what should be the starting lineup tomorrow and the first few games (because Tomiyasu and Tierney are not yet 100% fit both just coming back from injury)

Ramsdale
Zinchenko, Gabriel, Saliba, White
Xhaka, Partey, Odegaard
Martinelli, Jesus, Saka

New guys Gabriel Jesus, Saliba and Zinchenko have been very good in preseason. Vieira a new young midfielder from Porto hasn't played yet due to a small injury, apparently very good and at first he will come in for Odegaard or a winger during games and play the cups

Good bench players: Tomiyasu, Tierney, Vieira, Smith Rowe, Nketiah

Average or young bench players: Holding, El Neny, Lokonga, Marquinhos, Nelson, Cedric

Still need to sell a few guys: Bellerin, Mari. Possibly Maitland Niles and Pepe

If we manage to sell these guys, likely going to buy one or 2 more guys. A winger to replace Pepe and possibly a midfielder. There was talk about Tielemans a few weeks ago but as of now not clear who Edu/Arteta still want to bring in

 

[guaranteeed]

Quick Arsenal preview!

Here is what should be the starting lineup tomorrow and the first few games (because Tomiyasu and Tierney are not yet 100% fit both just coming back from injury)

Ramsdale
Zinchenko, Gabriel, Saliba, White
Xhaka, Partey, Odegaard
Martinelli, Jesus, Saka

New guys Gabriel Jesus, Saliba and Zinchenko have been very good in preseason. Vieira a new young midfielder from Porto hasn't played yet due to a small injury, apparently very good and at first he will come in for Odegaard or a winger during games and play the cups

Good bench players: Tomiyasu, Tierney, Vieira, Smith Rowe, Nketiah

Average or young bench players: Holding, El Neny, Lokonga, Marquinhos, Nelson, Cedric

Still need to sell a few guys: Bellerin, Mari. Possibly Maitland Niles and Pepe

If we manage to sell these guys, likely going to buy one or 2 more guys. A winger to replace Pepe and possibly a midfielder. There was talk about Tielemans a few weeks ago but as of now not clear who Edu/Arteta still want to bring in

Saliva will start over White wont he?

Even when tomiyasu is back

 

[gunner4ever]

Saliva will start over White wont he?

Even when tomiyasu is back

Not sure! I think White and Saliba are equals RCB but White is better than Saliba as RB so that's why Saliba starts in the middle for now

I think eventually White/Saliba could be our best CB partnership even if both are right footed. But with all the competitions Gabriel/White/Saliba should all get plenty of gametime and it has been a while we haven't had 3 CBs this good (probably have to go back 10 years or so with Koscielny/Vermaelen/Mertesacker)

Also let's not forget Saliba has 0 PL game. Good test today!

 

[KJ]

Cucurella to Chelsea is done, possibly $65m fee. Nuts. He wasn't worth the $50m they were asking for.

 

[KJ]

Time to bump

Bruno Guimaraes just followed City on Insta

Easy to say I've seen it from a mile away but thought Alvarez needed to be involved. Now that he's off the table, (and a bit of incredible business with him) it's time to figure out which outcast gets shipped. This is wonderful news!