Premier League Winner 2009 / 2010 Part 2:2

Challenger:

Liverpool is really thirsty for a success in the league. They are often in the discussion before the seasons that they can be an outsider to win but it has gone amazing 20 years (1990) since they won their last league trophy. And since Premier League was renamed 1992 Liverpool have never won this “new” Premier League since it started witch is pretty chocking because of their capacity and size of the team.

The positive thing for Liverpool is that they have been coming closer and closer the title and that’s one of the reason that I think they will manage to go all the way this year. The manager, Rafael Benitez, has built this team for five years now (staring 2004) and have made small progresses all the time. The year after he came to Liverpool they ended fifth in the league and if it wouldn’t been for his success in European Champions League, that he won 2005 after the amazing turnover in Istanbul against Milan, I am pretty sure that Liverpool would have another Manager today.

Bu after that he have taken Liverpool to a third, third, fourth place and last year they finished second, only four points behind of Manchester United. So he has definitely taken smaller steps towards winning the league. Liverpool’s problem have been that they play a fantastic winning game in the Champions League but when it comes to Premier League they can fall back and play like 1-1 against Wigan, Bolton, Middlesbrough or teams like that – Teams that winners often have to beat.

The last years Rafa Benitez official have been speaking about the importance of winning the league and that he will force more to win that then the European matches. Another important change in Liverpool’s (actually Benitez) way of thinking football is that he has stopped rotate his players and start-up that often as he used to do. He has, more like the other top competitors, started to play the key-players more frequent and rotates in fewer positions then before.

And the last problem that Liverpool has had before is that they have missed a world-class striker. They have tried lots of players on top (P Crouch, R Keane, F S Pongolle, A Voronin, D Cisse and so on) but in Fernando Torres they have a player that for sure can score 25-30 goals in Premier League and him together with captain Steven Gerrad will bring home the trophy for Liverpool this season. I think that the odds, 4.00, are valuable and that Liverpool have great chances to win the eagerly awaited league title that the fans have waited for in 20 years.

The Underdogs:

Arsenal is always supposed to come top 4 and of course that will be their aim even this year, even though Arsene Wenger strikes for higher position. Arsenals problem, every year lately, has been that they build up a strong team built by youngsters and play great football now and then. But they never last for a whole season. And every time they play their best football they still are most remarkable team in the world to see. But that happens to rarely and I can’t se how Arsenal is going to compete with Liverpool, Manchester United or Chelsea trough out the whole season with League, FA-cup and Champions League in their minds.

They have sold Adebayor and even though Van Persie, Arshavin and Bendtner still is available, I find it hard to see that Arsenal can go all the way. They pay 8.00 in winning the league, but if I think that they have to fight for their fourth position instead since more and more teams are coming from behind.

Manchester City has bought even more players and sooner or later they have to climb into top 4 if they continue buying world-class players. In this silly season they have spent most money in England and with players in like: Carlos Tevez (Manchester United), Emanuel Adebayor (Arsenal), Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn), Gareth Barry (Aston Villa) they defiantly have a chance to challenge in the top of the league. The rumours even say that City is interested in buying a defender like Terry (Chelsea) or Lescott (Everton). If they can buy one more defender and midfielder I am ready to put them in front of Arsenal in the table, maybe even higher. But it is always hart to make a bunch of new star-players play together like a team, and that’s a challenge for Mr Hughes. If Hughes makes a team of all these stars City can challenge with Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea as well. But my guess is that they have to wait at least one more year. 15.00 in odds for the league title are not interesting for me at this moment.

The odds is picked from Bwin-premier-League

Best Regards

/Amrish