With the main, Premier League transfer window now closed (apparently Premier League clubs can still acquire teams from the lower domestic leagues – good grief it’s complicated these days!), I’ve decided to take the international break opportunity to produce & release my annual, season prediction piece.
Firstly…
…I do seriously wonder why I’m bothering with this, this season, after such a crazy, CRAZY start! And it’s left me, amongst others, thinking that it’s becoming increasingly obvious just how much influence the home crowd appears to have over games; with so many unexpected away victories and other shenanigans. Games are now, effectively, being played in ‘neutral venues’ because of the lack of fans.
And then there’s the MAD scorelines in some of those away wins as well as other matches too!
Liverpool 4-3 Leeds United
Manyoo 1-3 Crystal Palace
Leeds United 4-3 Fulham
Everton 5-2 West Bromwich Albion
Leicester City 4-2 Burnley
Newcastle 0-3 Brighton & Hove Albion
West Bromwich Albion 3-3 Chelsea (with Chelsea 0-3 down after just 27 minutes)
Brighton 2-3 Manyoo (with the winning goal coming after the final whistle and after Brighton ‘hit the woodwork’ 5 times)
West Ham United 4-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Manchester City 2-5 Leicester City
Everton 4-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Manyoo 1-6 Tottenham Hotspur
Aston Villa 7-2 Liverpool…
…and then Leicester, who put 5 past us away from home, then lose 0-3 at home to West Ham United!
Seriously? I’m supposed to predict City-game-results as well as league & cup season outcomes after all of that?!
Secondly…
…here’s last season’s prediction posting and the results of (in those links).
And now…
…for this season’s crystal ball moment, starting with how I think the Premier League table will look on Sunday 23rd May 2021, if indeed it does manage to finish on that date or at all for that matter...
1st Liverpool
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2nd Manchester City
3rd Arsenal
4th Everton
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5th Manyoo
6th Chelsea
7th Tottenham Hotspur
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8th Leicester City
9th Leeds United
10th Wolverhampton Wanderers
11th Southampton
12th Sheffield United
13th Newcastle United
14th Aston Villa
15th West Ham United
16th Brighton & Hove Albion
17th Crystal Palace
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18th Burnley
19th West Bromwich Albion
20th Fulham
Notable points about that predicted, final table of 2020/21…starting with us:
- We have no keeper issues – I think we’ve got one of the best around in Ederson and Zack Steffen comes with many plaudits as his back-up. Scott Carson too is a very experienced ‘No.3’.
- The defence, excluding the left-side, has been massively improved too! I don’t think you’ll find too many Premier League teams turning down the opportunity to have, in their ranks: Aymeric Laporte, Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake, Eric Garcia, John Stones, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Kyle Walker & Joao Cancelo. I think that quality and strength-in-depth can take a few short-term injuries & suspensions and still carry us through [extra] busy fixture periods.
- And I would say the same about our midfield / wing department too - a list that includes, Fernandinho, Rodri, Phil Foden, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan, Tommy Doyle, Cole Palmer, Adrian Bernabe, Raheem Sterling, Riyad Mahrez & Ferran Torres; all of which has me putting a big ‘thumbs up’. However, I think we are going to miss David Silva – who wouldn’t?!
But I’m sure you know what’s coming…
- How could we possibly allow ourselves to get into a situation whereby a top club vying for every trophy that comes our way goes into a new season with Benjamin Mendy as our main left-wing back and a non-left-wing back, in Oleksandr Zinchenko, as the main competition / back up to him? Apparently, so we were told, we would’ve had-to-have off-loaded Oleksandr before even considering bringing in improvement in that area and we either couldn’t or just didn’t, for whatever reason, do that. I do actually have serious doubts, though, about how hard the club was trying to off-load Oleksandr and then bring someone in for this position earlier on in the transfer window. Why? Well, from the outside at least, it looked to me that they were then-later ‘shocked into action’ as the season started; witnessing, as well all did, some more alarming displays from the French, left-sided “defender”. Result? Ooops…too late. Best case scenario? If Zinchenko largely takes over that position from the French nightmare and performs really well there, as he has done from time to time, OR, Nathan becomes our new, perhaps slightly less-attacking, left-sided defender; then I think we might be okay. We'll…‘get away with it’. Worst case scenario? The unreliability in that area goes on to disrupt the rest of the otherwise good defence; as they are forced to ‘keep one eye on it’ and shuffle over to compensate.
- Moving on and further up the pitch - if you are reading this and you believe, on top of an array of attacking / creative midfield & wing talent, that we have enough ‘up top’ with an injury prone, aging Sergio; a slightly-injury-prone Gabriel who appears to suffer occasional confidence issues brought on by sporadic ‘game time’ and a 17-year old striker who has only just put one toe into the first team…then rest easy. If not, then be slightly concerned about a long season ahead that has had its fixtures squeezed together so tightly that you dare not blink! I’m sort of in-between…but definitely leaning towards the group of fans who believe that we should have brought in an additional, proven, quality striker. And, for me, that’s not JUST about having ‘the numbers’ in that department – by bringing in another striker we could then have the rest / rotation option on the left wing with Sterling & Jesus, just as we once had with Sane & Sterling; with new-signing Ferran Torres rotating on the right wing. Put another way, there’s room for another striker as WELL giving ‘game time’ to Jesus…it's just that'll be out-wide-left instead. Leaning that way, as I say; I think we’ve missed out once again there and it could come back to bite us.
- Any doubts about our manager? I have heard some things recently worth considering from various sources from both City and non-City fans alike. And, slightly worrying for me personally, I have found myself…not exactly disagreeing with them at times. Has he reached his peak in this country? Has he-possibly not got the capability of counteracting the fact that, as it sometimes appears more & more lately, the opposition have worked us out? Is he sometimes too slow to change things in games and when he does; is he only 'tinkering' and intensifying his 'Plan A' rather then deploying a 'Plan B' or 'C'? I’m not entirely sure…but sometimes it does kind-a-feel like that. In fact, something I’ve been thinking more & more myself, recently, is that we are, in some ways, the architect of our own recent struggles. What do I mean by that? Well…much to our managers’ credit he has, with absolutely no doubt, changed for the better the way we play domestic football in this country. Unfortunately, so I increasingly believe, that has now been studied SO much by our rival managers that-they-are-now not only able to nullify us but are also now learning, quite astutely, how to use our own tactics to hurt us at the other end. Of course, time will tell on that theory as this season unfolds…
All things considered? That’s why I can see us retaining 2nd place from last season (that’s me putting a nice, City spin on it). I hope and PRAY to be wrong…in the right way of course.
As for some notable points about the rest:
· Despite a 7-2 defeat to Aston Villa recently (I can’t believe I’m typing that!), I just see Liverpool as still-too-strong; particularly in the creative / attacking department where they’ve improved even more in the window just gone! As a fan of a rival club, I truly hope they suffer 'post-season Champions syndrome’, as both we and other teams have in the past. In fact, I’m pinning some of my hopes on that very thing happening...and hope-also that we’ve just witnessed the start of it at Villa Park. If they do, then it’s our title to grab IF we can iron out last season’s silly & avoidable mistakes at the back and inconsistences in general.
· I think Arteta will prove to be a calming influence over an Arsenal side that has improved its squad in key areas and whenever they have a wobble; I think he’s fairly quick to fix issues. That, I believe, will see ‘em with a very-creditable 3rd. Everton look very dangerous in the attack as well as full of confidence at the moment. I think, however, that if some little doubts start to creep in when they, perhaps, don’t do so well against tougher opposition than they’ve faced so far; then with that slightly iffy defence & keeper of theirs, I think we'll see them ‘slip off’ a little over time. Still…I’m going for a very good 4th-place finish by The Toffees this season.
· Huh…then we have Manyoo & Ole. A team PACKED with attacking, threatening talent that was added to further in the final hours of the transfer window…but with a dodgy defence to say the very least that was hardly fixed with the introduction of attacking left-wing back, Alex Telles. All of this managed by someone with a previous management CV that even gave ME hope that I could get a top football management job! When it goes well for them – and it will – they look unstoppable and when they’re in that mode, it’ll be ALL PRAISE for Solskjaer and...‘look at ‘em go’! But when the wheels come of for a time – and they will – all the question marks that are never far away about the Norwegian boss with a scary ventriloquist puppet face, will re-emerge. All that taken into consideration, as well as the strength of the teams around them, should see them finish 2 places lower than last season’s 3rd. When they’re good, they are very good but when they’re off, Chelsea look quite shambolic at times! Tottenham fans have a few reasons to be excited this season, for sure, but I think some of their main stars are so injury prone – as well as having a flaky, unpredictable manager – I think they’ll hit quite a few bumps in the long, fixture-packed road ahead. For Leicester, read Chelsea. But when The Foxes get stuck in a rut, Brendan Rodgers sometimes looks helpless to get them unstuck. They’ll batter mores teams this season and go on good form runs but I think, ultimately, they’ll fade over time, especially when Vardy inevitably breaks down or goes through another 'dry patch'.
· A quick mention for Leeds – I could be well wrong here and they could easily finish in a Europa spot or higher! I just wonder, though, and despite bringing in 13 players, I think it was, whether they’ll find a long season at this level - their first season back - a little too much. If I’m right with a 9th-place finish, that should be seen as a very good achievement…it’s just that Marcelo Bielsa won’t see it that way.
· Fulham…huh, down again for me. West Brom? They have some attacking midfield / wing talent for sure but ultimately…I think they’ll go down. And I do fear for Burnley this season. If I’m right, I think they’ve lost better players than they’ve recruited. I think Palace look as erratic as ever with performances & results, either way, that 'baffle' at times. Brighton look both lively & decent whilst, at the same time, somewhat flakey too. West ham COULD do better than I’ve suggested IF they manage to keep David Moyes away from the club! For those who don't know, he is, or has been, in Covid-19 isolation and has watched his Assistant Manager pick up their only 2 wins of the season.
City and the cups.
Finally, here’s how I think we’ll do in the cups.
League Cup - Final and, therefore, possible winners again.
F.A. Cup - Final and, therefore, possible winners.
Champions League - Semi-final stage.
With regards to the League Cup - with our manager’s desperate desire to both regain the Premier League and do better in the Champions League; I honestly thought he'd use a much-weakened side in this competition.
And, indeed, he did introduce a LOT of youngsters in our first round at home to just-relegated Bournemouth. These are very-much-talented youngsters, of course, but once we’d progressed to the next round; Pep then put together a side away at Burnley, which included far more ‘first teamers’.
So, I think now, if we get past Arsenal in the next round, we should stand a very strong chance of yet-another, League Cup final!
I think we’ll ‘go in quite strong’ in the F.A. Cup and then depending on the draws – and where those fixtures lie amongst other competitions – I think we’ll parking our team bus at HA9 once again.
As for the Champions League, I just don’t think we’ve strengthened quite enough to be there just yet…once again I'm sorry to say. ☹
To ‘sign off’…
…I think Covid-19 is gonna have another HUGE impact not only on my predictions but the season in general.
We’ve already seen the virus sideline two of our own, in Laporte & Gundogan; Sadio Mane very recently as well as others. And I think that’s a crucial factor in terms of predictions & team’s consistency – you could be ‘motoring along’ quite nicely when this ‘orrible infection hits and although the health of players and people in general absolutely comes first; that could very-well derail a team and finish their season in terms of either potential trophies at one end or relegation at the other.
I most certainly don’t want to end on that ‘dour note’ but I do think that’s what lies ahead for us football fans, whoever you may follow, in the season ahead...unless a proven vaccine can be sourced soon.
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