The English Premiership kicked off on Saturday. I think I can almost predict who will be in the top six in the league. The rest is harder to predict, but I will try.
If, and this is a big if, Manchester United sign Dimitar Berbatov they will win the league with Chelsea second. If Berbatov goes to Barcelona or somewhere else, Chelsea will win and United come second. The two English teams are that close, and they are the top two because they can sign players without selling others to finance the deal. Money is that important. Liverpool will be third and Arsenal will be fourth, after leading the league in the first few games. If they avoid each other in the draw, at least three out of these four will get to the Champion’s League semi-finals (unless Liverpool lose to Standard Liege!!).
Back to the Premiership and Tottenham will be sixth with Aston Villa fifth. As for the teams that will be relegated, Hull will go down without Frazier Campbell and Stoke will follow them. West Brom might stay up as Bolton will struggle. Fulham will be 16th and Middlesborough, Wigan, Sunderland, and Newcastle will occupy the places above them in some order. This leaves Portsmouth, Everton, Man City, West Ham, and Blackburn to try and grab a UEFA Cup place. Curiously, the first manager to lose his job could well come from the final four of this group of five – Harry Redknapp is safe in his post as he won the FA Cup earlier this year and got Portsmouth into Europe. Moyes has signed nobody, Hughes is unhappy about the finances of his owner the former Prime MInister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra, Curbishley lost his owners 6 million pounds when they paid off Ljungberg, and Ince seems to have upset lots of people in a short space of time.
So here is the Premiership table for May 2009.
Man Utd
Chelsea
Liverpool
Arsenal
Aston Villa
Spurs
Portsmouth
Everton
Man City
West Ham
Blackburn
Newcastle
Sunderland
Wigan
Middlesbrough
Fulham
WBA
Bolton
Stoke
Hull
Let me know what you think