2017/2018 – Arsenal vs Leicester

Fresh from finishing way below what they had set for themselves last season, Arsenal and Leicester will be kicking off the 2017/2018 season with one thing on their minds, to start off on a good footing. After a 5th position finish which marked their worst finish in close to 2 decades Arsenal have the upper hand in this bout, but as the Premier League has proven over the years nothing is ever set in stone until the final whistle. Leicester finally made the decision to hand the reigns to Craig Shakespeare who steered the team from the relegation zone last season with impressive displays. With the arrival of Vicente Iborra and Harry Maguire as well as Ulloa and Vardy committing their futures to the club all seems to be going well so far.

As to how the two teams will line up on 11th next month little can be made of that since the transfer window is still fresh off the mill. A lot of formation changes are expected from the Leicester side, Craig Shakespeare will now try to cement his style into the team now that he has the time and the authority to decide what is to be done. Jamie Vardy is still expected to be their front man with Wes Morgan and Huth bringing up the rear.

With talk of Hector Bellerin being courted by Barcelona it is yet to be known who will replace him if that goes through but as it stands he is the favourite to start at the back right with Nacho covering the left flank. Laurent Koscielny and the new signing Sead Kolasinac are expected to start at the centre. With wild transfer rumours still surrounding Sanchez and Ozil it’s hard to tell how they will line up in the midfield but the two are sure starters for the opener if they will still be wearing the Arsenal jersey come the start of this coming season.

As for the betting predictions, this will be a comfortable Arsenal win since they rarely lose an opening match at their home tuff.

Who Will Win The Title in 2017/2018?

Speculation on how a season will turn out is part and parcel of the period between June and August. Fans and pundits across the world engage with each other in arguments on who they deem most likely to lift the trophy in the coming season. The English premier league is the most dynamic and the most unpredictable league in the world, you never know what is in store, Leicester proved that 2 seasons ago. So who has the most likely chance of lifting the 2017/2018 trophy?

  • Chelsea

Having secured the title last season on the back of a very strong campaign Chelsea are the favourites to retain the title again this season, but things may not go as smoothly as they did last season. The one advantage they had last time was that they did not have European football, while their rivals laboured through demanding fixtures they just cruised through to the title.

  • Manchester City

City are ones that will pose the biggest challenge to Chelsea’s quest for another title. With a busy transfer that has been them bring in very good players they have a very strong claim to the title and the spine to back that up.

  • Manchester United

The possibilities of United pulling an upset and claiming the title are there, but the truth is it is going to be very hard for them considering they now have Champions League football. The one thing going on for them are their new signings especially the acquisition of Romelu Lukaku who is a proven goal scorer.

  • Tottenham Hotspurs

They usually start the season strong but somewhere along the way towards the end they stumble and falter. They have bottled up the chance of winning the title twice in a row and that is not expected to change next season. Unless they tighten their affairs up they don’t stand a chance of beating the other 4 to the title.

The Season That Was

The football season is here with us once again. 2016/2017 was quite an intense season in the Premier League to say the least, although there were fewer surprises in terms of Chelsea winning back the title, everything happened much or less as was expected. Leicester was never going to defend the title and true to that expectation they struggled to replicate the miracle of 2015/2016, they even came close to getting relegated.

Chelsea bounced back from the disappointments of their previous season with a bang, after hiring the services of Antonio Conte and bringing in important players Kante from Leicester, Chelsea walked to the title without breaking any sweat. Manchester City were widely expected to win the title last season but Pep Guardiola has come to learn that the English Premier League is not a walk in the park. Despite spending large sums of money in adding mercurial players like Sane and Gundogan Manchester City found it very hard to keep up with Chelsea and they nearly lost out on a top 4 finish, had it not been for the constant stumbling of their neighbours, Manchester United, they would not have made the cut.

Manchester United continued with their struggles under their new coach Jose Mourinho who is still moulding the team to suit his vision. After spending a staggering 80 million pounds on Paul Pogba many of their fans expected the team to at least finish in a Champions League spot but that was not to be. Having been forced to deal with the demanding Europa League fixtures they found it hard to keep up with their rivals but all was not in vain in the end as they ended up securing a Champions League spot by winning the Europa trophy.

Arsenal were the biggest losers after failing to finish in the top four for the first time in 2 decades. A lot more will be expected in this coming 2017/2018 season no doubt.

The Transfers So Far

The summer transfer season in Europe is among the busiest sports affairs in the world. Clubs go into buying frenzy in their bid to bolster their squads ahead of the new season. This transfer season has not been any different, in fact, quite a handful of remarkable records have already been broken across Europe and the transfer window is not even closed yet.

Westham United were the first ones to start making early moves when they nabbed Pablo Zabaleta from Manchester City on the free. They followed this up with a Joe Hart loan, a Marko Arnautovic buy and their biggest signing, Javier Hernandez. No playing around for Westham.

Stoke City released quite a large number of players, including Shay Given, the legendary goalkeeper who decided to call time on his career. In return, however, Stoke invested in solid buys in the faces of Darren Fletcher and Kurt Zouma.

Having secured promotion back to the top tier, Newcastle has immediately set out to ensure they never drop down again. With good signings like Christian Atsu, Javier Manquilo among many others they look set to raffle up the big guns next season.

Manchester United has brought in Lindelof and 2 other surprise signings that no one saw coming, Romelo Lukaku and Nemanja Matic. But what was even more surprising was the releasing of Wayne Rooney, although expected the move to Everton caught many off-guard.

Kyle Walker has been Manchester City’s surprise signing this summer, the former Spurs man has had 3 great seasons and a move away from the Lane has been on the cards for a while now. City, however, has let go a plethora of players, from Zabaleta, Clichy, Navas, Hart, Nolito, Kolarov and other big names, makes you wonder why they bought some last season.

Liverpool has brought in Mohammed Salah from Roma which by all means is a wonderful signing.

Arsenal has also bolstered their striking options in the name of Lacazette and things are looking good for them at the moment in their pre-season.