Liverpool – Nowhere
Despite everyone under the sun claiming that this year was going to be where everything went back to normal and Liverpool would relinquish their Premier League title, and potentially behind the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, and Chelsea if certain pundits were to be believed, things are looking pretty good for Jurgen Klopp and the boys.
Again, ‘sparkling’ isn’t a word many could use to describe the performances of the Reds since the start of the new season, but results can’t be argued with. They’ve already established a lead over City, Chelsea, and Manchester United and are already in a good place to become the pacesetters of the league again.
They’ve added well with Thiago and Diogo Jota joining the ranks from Bayern Munich and Wolves respectively and, despite it being an entirely new campaign, the same steeliness from last season still seems more than prevalent in this Liverpool side.
Manchester City – The Spine
Every Manchester City fan in the land was eager to get this season going again on a level playing field after spending all of their last campaign missing sitters in the Champions League and beating Liverpool’s dust in the league.
However, despite dominating the soccer betting odds pre-season, two matchdays worth of football has already shown that City still isn’t the real deal. The spine of Manchester City under Roberto Mancini, Manuel Pellegrini, and now Pep Guardiola of Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, David Silva and Sergio Aguero has now pretty much been fully removed and it seems like the entire club is missing the bite they once brought.
Manchester City needs to find a combination of players that will deliver the steeliness and bite of years gone by (and which Liverpool have in the bucketloads) if they want to seriously claim any silverware this season.
Chelsea – A Plan
Frank Lampard and Chelsea could be on the verge of a very tricky season.
Having spent over £200 million during a time where uncertainty in football has never been rifer, the West London side has suddenly found themselves catapulted from being top-four chasers to outright title challengers, despite this only being Frank Lampard’s third professional season as a manager and second as Chelsea head coach.
The likes of Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Ben Chilwell and all of the other high profile names that have come through during the course of this summer’s transfer window are undoubtedly top class, however, there’s no denying the fact that right now Chelsea looks like a side that has spent a lot of money, but don’t really a plan of how to mold together a team just yet.
Manchester United – The Defence
Whilst Jadon Sancho has been the most talked-about twenty-year-old in Manchester for what feels like years and years now, it’s in the center of a defence that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United need the most work done.
Alex Telles seems to be arriving from Porto to sure up the left-back position, however that only draws attention to the holes created in the centre of the backline. Both Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof have shown their erraticism over the past couple of weeks, Phil Jones is still at the club but most wish he wasn’t an Eric Bailly, whilst talented, simply spend too much time on the injury table to be considered a reliable alternative.
The likes of DayotUpamecano would be a great choice for United to launch a bid for before the close of the transfer window.
