Premier League Preview: Can Manchester United Outrun Manchester City to challenge Chelsea for the Title?

For every Premier League fan, it is a familiar feeling: the long, dead months of June and July are finally behind us and there is a sense of high expectation in the air.

With no major tournament to fill the void, the eighty-two days between the end of the old season and the start of the new have felt like an eternity. There’s always the early optimism of the transfer window, with your club linked strongly to Oghenekaro Etebo, Ethan Ampadu, Denis Suarez, Hans Leupold (please insert name of a young player you’ve never heard of, who the papers are convinced is the missing piece that your team needs). Sadly Chelsea pipped you to it and signed him before sending him on loan to the Netherlands.

Since then, you’ve waited for the signings that – in my case, as a Liverpool fan – haven’t arrived, forever in fear that a club with more money will steal your best player. Now, however, the season is so close that you can smell the freshly cut grass when you wake up every morning. We’re in that beautiful and brief moment of hope and possibility, which every football fan experiences, before the realities of a season full – for most – of pain and suffering take effect.

If you’re supporting one of the Big Six, there’ll be results that’ll break your heart and crush your spirit. It could be a Sunday away to Burnley; perhaps it’ll be Chris Hughton’s Brighton’s first win of the season; Bournemouth are always a good bet for some giant killing; on a bad day you might even lose to Swansea.

At point zero in the season, however, the big six, plus Everton and Southampton, are the only outfits that seem like they’re a sure thing to be safe. For the other 12, it’s a race to 40 points. The moment you reach that target you can look up and see who’s ahead of you and how high you might possibly dream. Last year there were 10 teams, from 8th to 17th place, who ended the season spread across a mere 6 points. With margins that tight, the three points lost to Huddersfield in August could be what sends you down.

US-VERSUS-THEM

For neutrals, this is one of the most intriguing seasons in decades. Chelsea were excellent last season and they’re surely the team to beat, but there’s definitely a question mark over their summer activities – or effective lack thereof. Diego Costa looks sure to depart – and there’s not a player in the world who would find it easy to fill his shoes. While it’s possible that Álvaro Morata could replace Costa’s 20 league goals next season (Morata averaged just 10 league goals a season over the past three, at Juventus and Madrid), Costa’s greatest asset was not his goals but how he terrorised defenders, and how he lead the line – holding-up the ball, creating space for the likes of Hazard, Pedro and Willian.

The Chelsea hierarchy also took a gamble by selling Nemanja Matic, who played in 34 of their 38 league games last season, to one of their big rivals, essentially in the hope that Tiemoue Bakayoko will be an upgrade on the Serbian battler. Their season will be defined by the decision to allow Matic and Costa to leave – and the calibre of players with whom they chose to replace them.

Meanwhile, Tottenham, the team who were closest to them last season, haven’t bought a single player. They have some really fine footballers on board in Lloris, Vertongen, Alderweireld, Alli, Eriksson and Kane and they have a great manager in Mauricio Pochettino – but Kieran Trippier isn’t an adequate replacement for the world’s most expensive defender, Kyle Walker, and you feel that with many of their rivals having strengthened, Tottenham have perhaps gone backwards over the summer. Nonetheless, with that core of players and that manager, they could still contend.

Having underwhelmed since arriving in England, Pep Guardiola has decided that the best approach is to throw another £210 million at the problem. On top of the £170m he spent the year before, and the £150m his predecessor spent the year before that, they have surely build a group of should-be title contenders. I mean, if half a billion can’t buy you a meaningful trophy, what can it buy?

City’s noisy neighbours haven’t been afraid to splash the cash either. Manchester United made Paul Pogba the most expensive player in the world last season and over the summer they spent another £90m on Romelu Lukaku. Jose Mourinho’s first season at United was a huge improvement on the shambles Louis Van Gaal had overseen. Since arriving at Porto in 2002, Mourinho has won a league title during every stint in charge of a club. Last year, he won the League Cup and the Europa League – and the resources he has at Manchester United easily match anything he’s had over the years.

Mourinho has the ability to create an us-versus-them attitude within the dressing room – and a team that will win at all costs. Historically, the combination of his colossal ego and his lack of loyalty to his players means that eventually the squad will turn on him, but I certainly wouldn’t bet against Mourinho ending the longest period the fans at Old Trafford have had to wait for a title since Alex Ferguson’s first in 1993.

THE GENIUS OF MAN

From long to eternal waits, we move from Manchester across to Liverpool. Many a Kopite believes that Jürgen Klopp is the man to win Liverpool their first Premier League crown. He’s built perhaps the most exciting group of attacking players in the league, and the addition of Salah to the nine-strong group that encompasses Coutinho, Firmino, Mane, Sturridge, Lallana, Wijnaldum, Origi, Solanke and Ings surely makes for a unique group of attacking players: technical, intelligent, quick and bound to score goals.

The major problem is at the other end of the pitch, where Liverpool have thrown away countless points. Mamadou Sakho’s exile seems inexplicable, considering he’s Liverpool’s best centre half – and Ragnar Klavan is still a Liverpool player. Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren have done well together but both are injury prone. If Virgil Van Dijk does end up at Liverpool, his presence alone could transform their defence from stuff of nightmares to that of dreams.

Over at Arsenal, Arsene Wenger has decided to keep Sanchez and Ozil, choosing to let them leave for free next year, rather than cashing in on the £100 million or so he could earn by selling them sooner. That speaks to both the desperate situation that the Gunners are in – and also the esteem in which they hold Alexi Sanchez. He’s a player that every team in the league would love to have and he – along with Coutinho, Hazard and Aguero – has the ability to win a game by himself. On paper, Arsenal are as good as anyone, with a plethora of classy midfielders, more attackers than they can use, and in Bellerin, Kocsielny, Mustafa and Monreal a more than adequate back four. With the horrible abuse Wenger has had to endure over the last few years, he seems determined to win a title, to bow out on a high and show his ungrateful fans exactly what they’ll miss when he does go.

Finally, Hot Press Deputy Editor Stuart Clark would turn in his yet to be dug grave if I didn’t mention ‘The People’s Club’. His treatment of Ireland midfielder James McCarthy aside, Ronald Koeman had an excellent first season with Everton. They’ve bought the best young keeper in the league in Jordan Pickford, the best centre-back outside the top 6 that isn’t named Virgil Van Dijk, and two highly-rated players in Davy Klaassen and Sandro Ramirez.

The return of Wayne Rooney, meanwhile, could be a masterstroke, as playing at a club where there isn’t the pressure or expectation of Manchester United, he might have an Indian summer. Besides, if it doesn’t work out, they’re not losing much. No one really expects Everton to challenge for the title, but they’ve assembled a squad that could burst from the pack and break up at least some of the contenders.

At the heart of it all is the beautiful game. Beyond the cameras, the wages, the transfer fees, the jerseys, the sponsors; beyond the 24-hour media coverage, there is the beautiful game of football itself, involving 22 players, a ball, two goals and a referee.

The unpredictability of chaos combined with the genius of man; our creativity combined with our natural competitiveness; 90 minutes and a spell of injury time that will always be disputed. A draw, a win or a loss.

A journey of 722 games is just around the corner and beyond the back post. Watch your house!