The 2016/17 premier League season is promising to be the most intriguing season yet.
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Here, for the moment, the Galacticos are the managers. But England has the best league from top to bottom.
Leicester City’s Premier League title defence got off to a awful start as they were beaten 2-1 at promoted Hull City, who shrugged off an injury crisis to shock the champions on the opening day of the new season today.
“It’s a world championship of managers”, Wenger said this week.
Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea are the clubs with the most money, and despite the relatively even playing field, they have an advantage.
It is exactly what happened with Manchester City. United opens the season Sunday as a -144 favorite against Bournemouth.
Of course, the bookies can get it wrong. Having seen manager, Steve Bruce, walk out on the club not long before the start of the season, fans were understandably anxious. At the end of the 2014/15 regular season, Leicester were nearly relegated down to League 1 in the United Kingdom, but somehow the Foxes beat all of the odds and won the coveted Premier League title.
The league football tournaments in Europe start with the English Premiere League on Saturday.
When talking about a team “doing a Leicester” perhaps it is wise to look no further than the defending champions themselves. The Irishman had his best Premier League scoring season in 2015/16, and only started 23 matches. This is the first season of a new three-year broadcasting deal for domestic and global rights worth a record 8.3 billion pounds ($10.8 billion) – 71 percent above the previous deal – and clubs have used that windfall to spend around $1 billion this offseason.
While a player is considered good if he can consistently perform through a season, great players can remain consistent season after season. This season, there will be no easy games.
Guardiola insists he is happy with England number one Joe Hart as his first-choice goalkeeper as things stand. [We’re chasing] new targets because people we went for earlier in the preseason have now moved on and gone to other clubs. The defending champions created a lovely fairy tale in the football world by winning the league by a huge margin of 10 points ahead of the second placed Arsenal. Two or three big teams could easily finish outside the top four.
“The prospect of increased revenue from the new broadcast deals next season has encouraged Premier League clubs to invest in this window in order to be as competitive as possible, said Alex Thorpe, senior manager in the sports business group at Deloitte in London”. Pogba joins additions Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. But the team lost key midfielder N’Golo Kante to Chelsea for £30-million. Arsenal and Tottenham have been quiet but have more strength in depth.
With the new season almost upon us, it is time to look at which youngsters will light up the Premier League this term and who will be in the running to follow in the footsteps of former Young Player of the Year winners Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Gerrard, Ryan Giggs and more recently Eden Hazard, Harry Kane and last year’s victor Dele Alli. Watch out for pacey striker Ahmed Musa, Leicester’s club-record signing, causing defenses problems this season.
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In other games on Saturday, Everton will play host to Tottenham, new boys Middlesbrough entertains Stoke City, Burnley tackles Swansea City, Southampton and Watford will battle at St. Mary’s Stadium and Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion will face-off at Selhurst Park.
