Premiership preview
When the last ball drops, the top four are likely to be the same
Posted: Thursday August 13, 1998 01:35 PM
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Arsenal has barely made a change to its lineup, adding only David Grondin to the growing list of French players on the roster Mark Thompson/Allsport |
LONDON (AP) -- Ian Wright in a West Ham shirt. Marcel Desailly lining up for Chelsea. Paul Gascoigne back in the Premier League.
English soccer has a different look for the new season kicking off this weekend but the same names are likely to come out at the top.
Defending champion Arsenal, runner-up Manchester United, third-place Liverpool and fourth-place Chelsea are likely to fill the top four places again when the season ends in May.
But in which order?
If last weekend's Charity Shield is a guide, Arsenal still appears to have the measure of United after a 3-0 victory at Wembley. The Gunners beat the Reds at home and away last season as they wiped out United's 12-point lead to clinch the title.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has barely made a change to his lineup, only adding unheralded David Grondin to the growing list of French players on his roster.
But Wenger did sell Wright to West Ham on the basis that the 34-year-old striker -- Arsenal's all-time leading scorer -- wouldn't have been guaranteed a starting place because of the form of Dutch World Cup star Dennis Bergkamp and French forward Nicolas Anelka.
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson was annoyed at seeing the league title slip away last season after four triumphs in five years but was even more furious that his team tumbled out of the Champions Cup at the quarterfinal stage.
So Ferguson spent 10 million pounds (US$16.5 million) on Dutch World Cup player Jaap Stam, a world record for a defender, and added Swedish winger Jesper Blomqvist.
But Ferguson was turned down by AC Milan's Patrick Kluivert and is still chasing Aston Villa's Tobagan striker Dwight Yorke, priced by the Birmingham club at 16 million pounds (US$26.4 million).
Liverpool's biggest and most surprising recruit was former French national team coach Gerard Houllier. The Merseyside club, whose last of a record 18 league titles was back in 1990, named Houllier to work alongside current manager Roy Evans, who came under criticism last season.
With 18-year-old striker Michael Owen still getting rave reviews for his standout World Cup performances, Liverpool has the potential to win the title. But the Anfield club has spent several seasons promising much but achieving little.
Cup Winners Cup holder Chelsea had another busy summer in the transfer market and has added some more big names to its already powerful roster. Danish striker Brian Laudrup, French World Cup star Desailly, Spanish defender Alberto Ferrer and Italian striker Pierluigi Casiraghi have joined the Blues, and Denis Wise might find himself the only Englishman on the team.
Newcastle, a major flop last season after finishing runner-up the previous two, doesn't look any stronger despite the arrival of French World Cup player Stephane Guivarc'h. Many critics say the fans may lose patience with manager Kenny Dalglish if the club doesn't make the top six, especially since the Magpies went close to relegation last season.
The same applies to Everton and Tottenham, two big clubs which are expected to be in the top six instead of the bottom six.
Everton now has experienced former Glasgow Rangers' manager Walter Smith at the helm and he has recruited John Collins from Monaco. But Spurs, still with Christian Gross in charge, has been very quiet in the transfer market.
The surprise of the season could be West Ham.
The arrival of Wright, Liverpool's Neil Ruddock and Chilean World Cup defender Javier Margas has strengthened a team which performed well last term to finish eighth under Harry Redknapp.
Leeds manager George Graham has barely altered his squad which looks unlikely to improve on last season's fifth-place finish, although former England international winger Lee Sharpe is back after virtually a year out with injury.
Blackburn manager Roy Hodgson has to justify spending 7 million pounds (US$11.5 million) on Kevin Davies despite the striker's spectacular goals for Southampton last term, and will do well to repeat last season's sixth place.
Aston Villa finished in such good form it gained a UEFA Cup place. Although Yugoslav striker Savo Milosevic and Irish defender Steve Staunton have gone, Villa places much faith in its young signing from Bolton, Andy Thompson, and John Gregory's team is capable of repeating last season's seventh place.
Derby County, under veteran Jim Smith, and Leicester, guided by one of the most promising managers in the game, Martin O'Neill, can't afford to be among the big spenders and has made few changes. Both are likely to repeat their mid-standings positions, although Derby's elusive and unpredictable Costa Rican forward Paolo Wanchope could push his team close to a top-six place while Leicester may struggle to hang on to talented striker Emile Heskey.
Coventry, also expected to be among last season's strugglers, played impressively and wound up 11th under Gordon Strachan. It has attempted to add talented Croatia defender Robert Jarni to the squad. But those plans may have fallen through as Jarni recently sent the club a fax stating that no agreement has been reached. The team has also let go of Romanian striker Viorel Moldovan.
Of the newcomers, division one Nottingham Forest will struggle to survive, especially if it winds up playing without its 58-goal strike partnership of Kevin Campbell and Pierre van Hooydonk.
Manager Dave Bassett sold 24-goal Campbell to Turkish club Trabzonspor and that prompted 34-goal Van Hooydonk to refuse to play for the club.
Big-spending Middlesbrough flopped in its last promotion to the top flight and there will be huge pressure on manager Bryan Robson not to repeat the club's 1996-97 disaster. Gascoigne, playing Premier League soccer for the first time since 1991, will hog the spotlight especially after missing a World Cup place on fitness grounds.
The third promoted club, Charlton, is already a strong favorite to go back down. The south London team gained its Premier League place through the playoffs and, like Barnsley last season, will struggle to restrict the powerhouse teams to less than three or four goals.
Other teams likely to be fighting relegation are Sheffield Wednesday, even with highly-rated former Barnsley manager Danny Wilson in charge; Southampton, despite hiring experienced Mark Hughes and Stuart Ripley, and cash-strapped Wimbledon, which has virtally the same roster as last season.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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