Sportsnet’s Premiership season predictions

Sportsnet’s special panel of soccer commentators offer their picks and predictions for the upcoming English Premier League season.

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Manchester City	Manchester United	Chelsea	Arsenal	Carlos Tevez	Reading, Wigan, West Ham

As difficult as it is to win two in a row, I see no reason to suggest that Manchester City cannot repeat as Premier League Champions. It’s basically the same City team that won last year. Who did they lose in the summer transfer window? Nobody really. And they brought in 21-year-old midfielder Jack Rodwell from Everton — a useful addition. Losing Defender Micah Richards to start the season won’t help, but they’re deep enough to survive injuries. If Carlos Tevez is happy, and it appears as though he is, Manchester City will not only repeat as champions, they’ll do it in less dramatic fashion than they did last year.

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Manchester United	Manchester City	Arsenal	Chelsea	Sergio Aguero	Reading, Southampton, Norwich

There’s so many interesting stories to watch this year. Can Manchester United rebound after a stunning final day last season and reclaim the title? With Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney up front, United is going to be a hard team to beat, and you just know Alex Ferguson is going to have his team performing at peak level. Manchester City didn’t make any major moves in the off-season, but they’re still a strong side under Roberto Macini. Plus, they’ll have the benefit of being to call upon Carlos Tevez for the entire season, barring any more of his shenanigans. At the other end of the table, I have to think that Southampton and Reading will go back down, but I have a feeling West Ham will avoid relegation, if only because there are so many more clubs that are worse than them, like Wigan and Norwich.

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Manchester City	Manchester United	Tottenham	Arsenal	Sergio Aguero	Stoke, Southampton, Norwich

My five big stories to watch: 1) How will Wayne Rooney co-exist with Robin van Persie at Manchester United. Rooney had some ups and downs with Ronaldo, especially in Champions League matches. Can both feed off each other? My guess is they can, given what an underrated creator van Persie is, as well as a stone-cold finisher. 2) Chelsea — what are they? A sixth-place squad or Champions League title defenders? If you’re going to crow and say they overachieved in Europe, it can’t be argued that they clearly played well below their capabilities domestically. Last year, they had losses to Aston Villa, Queens Park Rangers, and West Brom. That’s simply unacceptable for any big club, let alone Chelsea. 3) Arsenal — how do they recover from RVP’s departure and who scores? It’s a great challenge for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott. 4) Tottenham — a remarkable season of ups and downs. How will they move on past Harry Redknapp who got loads of credit for their achievements domestically? How does the Luka Modric situation resolve itself and can they truly make the Europa League advancement matter to their players and their fans at the same time. 5) Who goes down? We saw Newcastle do it a couple years ago and now West Ham following a drop is back. Can Reading spend enough money? Has Stoke been lucky despite the hard work of their players to have stayed up this many years consecutively already?

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Manchester United	Manchester City	Chelsea	Arsenal	Wayne Rooney	Reading, Southampton, Wigan

I always love it when top foreign players come to a new league, because you get to see how they adapt to their new surroundings and if their success will carry over. So needless to say I’m interested to see how Olivier Giroud, Santi Cazorla and Eden Hazard do in the Premiership. But I guess what really intrigues me most about this upcoming season is seeing how David Hoilett does at QPR and if, once firmly established at his new club, he decides to play for Canada at international level. I was more than a little surprised when he signed with QPR — he’s a very bright, young talent, and I would have thought he would end up at a much bigger club. Still, he should do well at Loftus Road under the guidance of former boss Mark Hughes, and hopefully he settles in quickly and then announced he’ll play for Canada.

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Manchester City	Chelsea	Manchester United	Arsenal	Luis Suarez	Reading, Swansea, Wigan

It’s hard to believe that this season might have some even better story lines than last season. Manchester City will feel more pressure upon every dip in form. Manchester United just needs to make sure they can keep pace with their city rivals throughout the season. Chelsea will be hard pressed to repeat their European successes domestically and relying too much on Fernando Torres could be catastrophic. I fear that Brendan Rodgers may have moved on too quickly but I also think Luis Suarez is prime to have a massive season and Liverpool shouldn’t be far off the top four. Andre Villas Boas has the potential to make Spurs a real force even without Luka Modric in the fold, but a slow start could rattle his sensitive pysche beyond repair. Personally, a top half finish for Aston Villa is all I need to have a smile on my face come May. And it will be interesting to see if QPR can be as competitive on the pitch as they look on paper.

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Manchester United	Manchester City	Chelsea	Arsenal	Papiss Cisse	Wigan, Norwich, Reading

The 2012-13 Premiership season has a lot to live up to, coming off one of the most dramatic finishes to a league campaign anytime, anywhere. It was fitting that the last goal of the year, Sergio Aguero’s, changed the landscape of the Premier League — possibly forever. After a very quiet off-season, can Manchester City keep that momentum rolling and win another title? Which newcomer (Hazard? Kagawa? Cazorla?) will set the Premier League ablaze? Can Brendan Rodgers and Paul Lambert translate their success with smaller clubs and fulfill massive expectations with Liverpool and Aston Villa? Can the new boys (Southampton, Reading and West Ham) duplicate the success of last year’s promoted teams? The next nine months and 38 matches will tell all.

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Manchester City	Manchester United	Chelsea	Liverpool	Mario Balotelli	Aston Villa, West Ham, Southampton

What I’m most interested in is if any club can make this 2012-13 campaign more than just a Manchester mash-up. And it seems as if Chelsea is the team best prepared to step up to the challenge. Coming off a Champions League crown, the Blues spent nearly 60 million pounds, adding 20-year old Oscar and 21-year old Eden Hazard to their midfield. Additionally, the latter stages of the Champions League seemed to energize the embattled Fernando Torres. With the departure of Didier Drogba and those two young stars playing behind him, I expect Torres to have a bounce-back season.

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Manchester City	Manchester United	Chelsea	Arsenal	Sergio Aguero	Reading, Norwich, Wigan

Somehow the Premier League just keeps getting better and better. I expect a three-horse-race at the top of the table, and just like last year, the title is likely to come down to the season’s final days. All eyes will be focused on whether Manchester City can repeat, and though Roberto Mancini recently said he doesn’t expect them to, his comments were probably just a coy way of relieving pre-season expectations on his side. But with Robin van Persie’s arrival at Manchester United, the league title might be a pick-em between the two Manchester rivals. And Chelsea, coming off Champions League glory, is impossible to write off — even given the loss of Didier Drogba. Expect spots four through eight and the relegation battle to be tightly contested as well. It should be a tremendously exciting season, and as followers of the league, we all win.

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Chelsea	Manchester City	Manchester United	Liverpool	Sergio Aguero	Norwich, Wigan, Reading

Now that Robin van Persie has jumped to a rival ship, Arsene Wenger has to find a way to recoup the 30 goals lost with his departure. It’s a difficult ask, but Olivier Giroud could be the man to fill the void. He won the scoring title in Ligue 1 last season, and possesses all the attributes to succeed at this level –physically strong with the ball at his feet and in the air, with great technical ability in the box for a player of his height. Chelsea strengthened considerably after a disastrous sixth place finish in 2012 and should be expected to challenge for the title. The acquisition of Eden Hazard is by far the best piece of business the Blues made this summer and quite possibly the best transfer by any Premiership side for the upcoming season. He will make an immediate impact and is exactly the type of player Chelsea needs –great vision, quick on the ball, with the ability to create his own chances and set-up a teammate. Hazard is a nightmare scenario for any opponent and should strike up a great partnership with Fernando Torres.

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Manchester United	Manchester City	Arsenal	Chelsea	Wayne Rooney	Reading, Southampton, West Brom

While it looks like the title race will once again come down to a battle between the two Manchester clubs, it will still nonetheless be interesting to see how Arsenal performs. The additions of Santi Cazorla, Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud early in the summer transfer window were impressive and looked like acquisitions that addressed key weaknesses and push the Gunners closer towards genuine contender status. However, the sale of Robin van Persie looks to have negated those gains and whispers surrounding the possible imminent departure of Alex Song to Barcelona now have more people again talking about the London club’s current state as a second tier feeder club for the big boys rather than whether or not Arsene Wenger’s squad has what it takes to end a sever-year trophy drought. Will Arsenal surprise this campaign or will their run of top four finishes finally come to end?

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Manchester City	Manchester United	Chelsea	Arsenal	Robin van Persie	Swansea, Southampton, Reading

Manchester City has the most complete side in the EPL and will still be the team to beat this year. Manchester United may have added Robin van Persie to its roster, but Carlos Tevez is back into the fray with the Blues and he’s looking like his old self. Van Persie’s departure isn’t as big a blow as it looks for Arsenal. Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla are very good signings. The Gunners won’t be able to challenge for the title, but a top four finish isn’t beyond them. After winning the Champions League, Chelsea has its eye on winning the league title this season and doing so will largely depend on how their new young weapons — Eden Hazard, Oscar, Marko Marin — turn out.

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Manchester City	Chelsea	Manchester United	Tottenham	Robin van Persie	Southampton, Norwich, Wigan

I’m always more interested in the battle at the bottom of the table and how the smaller teams do. Last year all three promoted teams stayed up, with EPL regulars Bolton and Blackburn losing their place. As a result, there are a lot of teams who don’t quite look like they belong this season, with Southampton, Reading and West Ham joining the likes of Norwich, QPR and Swansea. There aren’t the usual obvious two or three relegation candidates. How Swansea and Norwich survive the loss of Brendan Rodgers and Paul Lambert respectively will influence whether they can stay up again. Add in the “Canadian factor” of Jonathon de Guzman, Junior Hoilett and Simeon Jackson, and it should get very interesting down at the bottom of the table.

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Manchester City	Manchester United	Chelsea	Arsenal	Wayne Rooney	QPR, Southampton, Reading

Aston Villa bolstered its defence by signing Sheffield United’s Matthew Lowton and Dutch international Ron Vlaar. If the mandatory own-goals courtesy of Richard Dunne’s backside are kept to a minimum, Villa Park could be a difficult place to score goals. However, new boss Paul Lambert has opted for unknown quantities in Karim El Ahmadi and Brett Holman to add potency to a rather flaccid attack — the second worst in the Premiership last season. Striker Gabriel Agbonlahor never fulfilled his early promise and simply remains a fast bloke with a funny name, winger Charles N’Zogbia has struggled to recreate the form he showed at Newcastle and Wigan, and captain Stiliyan Petrov is absent indefinitely with leukaemia. An over-reliance on Darren Bent could prove costly.