- Nov 15, 2018
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Nice analysisGenuinely think positions 3-8 are near impossible to predict. I think there are two huge factors that could cause a lot of deviation amongst that pack.
1) Transfer business in the rest of the window
2) Key injuries that occur in the season (Bentancur was killer for us last season)
Utd and Liverpool clearly need to bring in a top quality DM. If they fall short there I can see both having very inconsistent seasons. Question marks about two massive players in VVD and Casemiro in age drop off (we know in the PL players can fall off a cliff). Both seem to have gone a bit heavy on #8/#10 type midfielders this summer.
Both of the above and us also need better CB depth IMHO.
Newcastle look gravy but as you say CL football is a huge undertaking for a club not used to it. Same goes for Brighton and Villa, who have even thinner squads.
I actually feel quite good for us under Ange. I still hope one of Son or Richy will adapt to the striker role, with Orban as a potential x factor if he comes in. Early signs are that Udogie and Emerson are very well suited to the inverted FB roles, which is a huge difference to last season where we had no capable RWB and a knackered Perisic! We seem to have a really nice blend of CM options (our other key weakness last season). VDV also looks very promising. Also think no Europe is being massively underrated by a lot of people.
Chelsea have insane CM options now - probably 2nd to Real Madrid in the world - but still question marks over where regular goals will come from. They also have injury prone CBs and such a bloated squad for Poch to try and manage.
Pretty confident we'll be in Europe in some form next season. Anyone saying we'll be bottom half is being way too pessimistic/dramatic IMHO.