Off We Go

Well, a quickie for you. My summary of how I see City’s season ahead, which will deliberately ignore any of the more complex issues and focus purely on the football.

Strange, (to start at the opposite end of the spectrum) seeing Moyes on the telly the other night, punditting for all his worth on the England match. An icon in the shape of Sir Alex has gone forever, and one can’t help feeling that United will not be the same again for some time. Last season they weren’t exactly superb, but managed to doggedly float to the top of a steaming pile of kak. This year, my feeling is that they will bob around 2nd or 3rd place, especially looking at the limited pool of talent they have assembled.

Chelsea I believe are by far the biggest threat to City retaking the title, and it will be a close thing. Mourinho’s return will have a significant impact, and they still have a good squad. So it’s Chelsea 2nd or 1st for me. Laughably, Mark – the dickhead Gooner at work – tips Arsenal for the top (based on their besting of us in the pre-season match in Scandawegia) and I can only treat that pathetic claim with the contempt it deserves. Arsenal, I would say 4th or 5th with their fortunes perhaps tied to the ludicrous Suarez nonsense.

That takes me neatly on to the Scousers, who have shown promise under Brendan Rodgers but are nonetheless looking a bit short. The Mad Biter can make a difference to any team, but even he can’t win the title on his own. Lucky to get 5th I would say. Then on to Spurs. You will see my views on the Gareth Bale situation in the final ever post to be published just before kick-off on Monday night, and again he is a player who can make a huge difference. A defender who scores loads of goals; a terror to any opposing team; should he stay, along with some other talented yet inconsistent team-mates, he could push Spurs up to 3rd or 4th if he’s up for it.

City? Good – even great – signings to the value of £90 million, and some exceptional talent in those I have actually seen play. Navas in particular looks incredibly quick, and promises to form an unstoppable partnership with Merlin, while Jovetic should have the power to brush aside the likes of Stoke City et al. Yet, some of our pre-season form was a little worrying, and that loss to Arsenal (dickhead Mark aside) in particular. Of course, none of it matters till the matches start in earnest, and... Brother, here we go again.

So, to take it all in the round, here’s my predictions:

1. City
2. Chelsea
3. Rags
4. Spurs
5. Arsenal
6. Liverpool
7. Everton
8. All the rest