I can still remember my exact feeling when the full time whistle blew on match day 38 this past year. I couldn’t believe that Aston Villa gave up their two goal lead to City, costing Liverpool the Premier League by one point… again. New players have arrived and club legends have left. In the words of JAY-Z, What More Can I Say? Let’s get into it.
1. Raheem Sterling has found his new home with Chelsea
After seven years with Manchester City, Raheem Sterling is now back in his hometown of London. This time he will be playing for Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea. The former Liverpool and Manchester City winger arrived on a fee of $57 million, signing a five-year contract. Sterling had an incredible run with the Citizens, scoring 131 goals and assisting 94 times in 337 appearances. The England star seemed to have fallen out of Pep Guardiola’s starting XI at City this past year, forcing Sterling to look for a brand new move. It will be interesting to see where the German manager will play Sterling in a crowded attack, but I think he’ll definitely find his form for the Blues.
2. Manchester United under Erik ten Hag
Ten Hag ball is in full effect right now. Ten Hag has Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial scoring goals again. Ten Hag has Fred in the field chipping Allison from outside of the box. These man are moving different right now and I love it. Football is better when United are in good form. After winning the Eredivisie in his last campaign as Ajax manager, Erik ten Hag has his sights set on the Premier League with his new side. New signings Lisandro Martinez and Christian Eriksen will greatly improve the side with their creativity and poise. What has been lacking from the center back position is a consistent playmaking/passing ability and Martinez can provide that. Rumors have been swirling around that the Argentinian might even play CDM for the Red Devils, which I would love to see tactically. The only question mark surrounding this side is the Cristiano Ronaldo situation. He has not traveled to any of their preseason games or training sessions as he asked the board to leave. However, with Bayern buying Sadio Mane and Chelsea pulling out of negotiations, I don’t know where the Portuguese legend could go.
3. The return of Nottingham Forest
Evangelos Marinakis has orchestrated a complete turnaround for this side. Nottingham Forest, two time European Champions, hadn’t played in the top flight since the 1996/97 season and here they are. After beating Huddersfield Town in the Championship Playoff Final, they are back in the first division. They will have to go through the year without Djed Spence, James Garner and Keinan Davis, whose loan deals have all expired. However, things are looking bright for the newly promoted side, as they just signed former Manchester United midfield Jesse Lingard on a free transfer. That’s not the only business they’ve done though, Forest have also signed two former Liverpool players in forward Taiwo Awoniyi and right-back Neco Williams. With manager Steve Cooper at the helm, and that incredible atmosphere at City Ground, I believe in this Forest team.
4. A full season under Antonio Conte for Spurs
This is a tough one to try and figure out. If you look through recent history, Antonio Conte has done nothing but win trophies everywhere he’s went. However, if you look at Spurs in the last two decades, they’ve done nothing but stay away from trophies. After a horrible start to the season last year, Antonio Conte came in and saved the season for Spurs, somehow helping them qualify for Champions League. And now in the transfer window, they’ve went out and spent a pretty penny to try and contend for a trophy this year. Big players like Richarlison, Yves Bissouma, Ivan Perišić and Djed Spence have all arrived in this summer transfer window. Richarlison himself has arrived for a now club-record fee of $72.6 million fee. Now I obviously don’t think they’ll win the league, but don’t be surprised if Conte somehow lands this team in a domestic cup final.
5. How will Darwin Núñez fit into this Liverpool side?
Sometimes I sit back and think about how old I am. For example, I am one day older than Darwin Núñez. That is absolutely insane to me, but that’s the reality of life now. Anyways, let’s talk about this mans skill. Darwin Núñez is an incredible force on the pitch, the Uruguayan always seems to find himself in prime positions to put the ball in the back of the net. However, for the last five or six years, Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool have played with a false nine who has an incredible passing ability and great hold up play at the center of their attack. The reason for this would be to let the wingers run in behind and have the full-back duo of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson push up down the wings as well. The system has clearly succeeded, but with Núñezs’ main ability being a target man the Reds will now have to change their attack style. A perfect display of this would be their friendly match against RB Leipzig. Liverpool are now letting the Uruguayan striker make those runs in behind as they try to feed him passes from either of the full-backs or from the creative players in the midfield like Naby Keïta, Thiago Alcantara or Fabio Carvalho. I know that it is only a friendly and that it isn’t going to be that easy in the Premier League, but that match will do a great deal for the confidence of Núñez and the whole side.
YSN 2022/23 Premier League Predictions
- Liverpool
- Manchester City
- Manchester United
- Tottenham Hotspur
- Chelsea
- Arsenal
- West Ham
- Aston Villa
- Crystal Palace
- Brighton
- Newcastle
- Leicester City
- Brentford
- Nottingham Forest
- Wolves
- Leeds United
- Everton
- Southampton
- Fulham
- Bournemouth
Last year, I picked Manchester United to win the league. After signing Sancho and Ronaldo, I thought it was over. However, as we saw last year, the big names are not always going to win you games. It’s all about team chemistry and player fits. Liverpool, although they are my club, are the most well-rounded side in the league and I believe that this year they’ll get over the hump and bring home another league title to Anfield. I almost put Chelsea at sixth position, but I feel like that would’ve been a little too much Chelsea hate. I think that the loss of their captain Cesar Azpillicueta, Antonio Rüdiger and their leading goalscorer Romelu Lukaku will have a big impact on them at the beginning of the year. They will be able to bounce back and make Europe but they’ll be too far behind to make a run at Champions League football. I’m sick of Manchester City so I put them in second and with United I genuinely think Erik Ten Hag can turn this thing around. Arsenal’s time will come, just not right now. They might be able to make a run in the Europa League though. The Premier League officially kicks off on August 5th at Selhurst Park with the Eagles of Crystal Palace hosting the Gunners of Arsenal. I can’t wait to spend my weekends sitting on my couch and watching sports from morning to night. That is what I know as true peace. This is YSN, until next time, signing out.
