Arsenal full back Gael Clichy has spoken publicly about the Gunners’ title prospects for the season ahead, and has rightly concluded that they can no longer hide behind the excuse of youth and inexperience should they fail to recapture the Premiership crown they last won back in 2003-2004. However, with Chelsea starting as title favourites and Manchester United not far behind, can Arsenal realistically challenge for top spot in the season ahead?
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To the surprise of few, Manchester City have once again been dominating the headlines in the transfer window, with last summer’s splurge seemingly set to be dwarfed by their current transfer dealings. Whilst the City faithful might be looking forward to seeing the likes of Jerome Boateng, David Silva and Yaya Toure at Eastlands, with Mario Balotelli and James Milner yet to come, they may like to spare a thought for those players whose careers in sky blue are over almost before they started.
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The 2009/2010 campaign will surely be one of the best remembered in the history of Blackpool FC, no matter the outcome of their first season in the Premier League. Ian Holloway led the Seasiders to unlikely promotion via the play-offs in his maiden season at the helm, after being given just a one year contract by the board, and won over the fans and the media with his spontaneous and quirky quotes and personality.
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Following on from the success of our World Cup prediction game (congratulations go to Dobbo for victory in that), here at The Football Blog we are now launching our very own Premier League prediction competition in conjunction with our sister site, SportGuru. The key to winning is simple: correctly predict as many Premier League results as you can. If you’d like the chance to prove yourself against other readers, then read on.
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In the aftermath of England’s World Cup debacle, the name of Roy Hodgson has been widely touted as a possible replacement for Fabio Capello should the Italian’s services be disposed of in the next week or so. Liverpool have beaten the FA to the punch however, with Hodgson having signed a three year contract for what he has described as ‘the biggest job in club football’. Whilst he may consider swerving the England job as a lucky escape, the size of his to-do list at Liverpool is comparable to that of the national job and expectation levels are equally as high.
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