The new Premier League season is upon us (and it’s gonna be the best one yet)

Ask anyone to predict how the Premier League teble is going to look like at the end of the season and there is a huge chance that he will get it very wrong. Never before have so many teams been able to actually fight for the Top 4 finish. And with great managers taking over, quality players arriving, it’s hard not to get excited about the upcoming campaign. While the relegation battle is a topic for another article altogether (I predict Sunderland to go down), let’s concentrate on the business end of the table — the battle for the European spots.

For the last couple years, Stoke City have been very consistent, finishing 9th in each of their last 3 seasons. Their most important acquisition in the transfer window so far has been Joe Allen, who should considerably strenghten the midfield. For 13 million pounds he looks like a shrewd buy. However, their offence showed signs of inconsistency and with opposition investing heavily in strikers or attacking midfielders , it’s the amount of goals scored that might decide whether the club ends up higher up the table than last time.

While we’re on the subject of strikers — Everton managed to keep hold of Romelu Lukaku (though this might change by the end of August). Even though the Belgian made it clear that he wants to leave for a Champions League club, the Liverpool side have set the asking price so high, the interested parties had to look elsewhere. And with John Stones going to Manchester City for almost 50 million pounds, Everton are not short of money. The new manager, Ronald Koeman, replaced the young Englishman with Ashley Williams, who possesses both experience and leadership qualities, while former Aston Villa player Idrissa Gueye should be able to support the defence from midfield.

Southampton on the other hand have a hard task ahead of them. Not only did they replace Koeman with a manager without any Premier League experience or even any considerable success, but they also lost some very important players, adding only promising youngsters. To be fair, this is not the first time this has happened. Things looked bleak when Mauricio Pochettino left as well — and they are loosing their best players every year (mainly to Liverpool). Therefore, you should not discount them.

West Ham’s squad looks VERY promising. They have brought in quality players while not spending ridiculous amounts of money and Slaven Bilic has proved he is an inteligent manager. The problems however lie elsewhere. As we’ve seen over the years, clubs have trouble adapting to the new stadium. It remains to be seen whether it’s gonna have the same atmoshpere as Upton Park/Boleyn Ground but it’s up to the players to turn the London Stadium into a fortress as quickly as possible. If that happens, I expect them to do really well this campaign.

Then what about the champions from Leicester? Surely their success must have been a one-off, right? I lost count how many times I’ve heard in the middle of last season, that their luck is going to run out eventually and they are going to fall down the table. I thought so too but if there is one thing I’ve learned from this is that everything is possible. Logic tells me however, that the Foxes won’t be able to do it again — and Claudio Ranieri agrees with me. Loosing N’Golo Kante to Chelsea is a huge blow and the future of Riyad Mahrez is still up in the air. But the most important thing in Leicester’s squad was the team spirit and that has not vanished.

Now onto Liverpool. It was easy to see that Jurgen Klopp’s presence had a immediate impact on the whole squad — they even got to the Europa League final. He was now able to add the players he wanted to really make the team his own and he did just that. While the transfer of Georginio Wijnaldum from Newcastle raised some eyebrows, there is no denying that Sadio Mane is a quality acquisition. Klopp also solved the goalkeeper problem by buying 24-year German (you know they have good keepers over there) Loris Karius. It will be interesting to see whether the manager will be able to finish in the Top 4 in his first full season at the helm. During the pre-season The Reds have DESTROYED the great Barcelona 4–0, only to loose against Mainz 0–4 couple of days later.

Tottenham have been quiet in the transfer window, which only shows how confidend Pochettino is with his squad. And why shouldn’t he be? This is a team that has been solid throughout last campaign (bar the last few matches) and till a point competed with Leicester for the title. They only needed to bring in couple of acquisitions here and there to be able to give the big boys a run for their money — and they’ve done just that. Victor Wanyama and Vincent Janssen should give Spurs strength in depth they so desperately needed, at the same time giving them more flexibility, by offering something different to what they already had.

On the other side of London, Chelsea have a new manager (again) in Antonio Conte, who’s Italy has done really well at the Euro 2016. He has shown his tactical awareness and passion, whish will certainly endear him to The Blues faithful. However, even though the Italian manager has brough in reinforcements in the midfield and attack departments — in N’Golo Kante and Michy Batshuayi — the aging defence is the issue. Unless the club is able to sign a full-back and a cente-back (they are after Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli) before the end of August, they might struggle to get into the Top 4.

Speaking of managers with great tactical awareness, one of them arrived in Manchester. Okay, maybe TWO of them arrived in Manchester but let’s concentrate on the one who managed Chelsea before — the “special” one. When he took on the job at United he was promised a free hand in the transfer market and the budget to bring in the players he wanted. He wasted no time in taking advantage of that, securing the services of Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan by the 6th of July, before bringing in Paul Pogba at the beginning of August. By doing so, Mourinho has made a statement and the belief is back at the red side of Manchester. However, this is not the first time The Red Devils have splashed the cash on new players and it didn’t always work out well (Angel Di Maria anyone?). But I somehow feel that the Portuguese manager will be able to get a lot more out of his team than Louis van Gaal did.

Meanwhile, in the blue side of Manchester, City weren’t messing about either. Guardiola made it his priority to freshen up the squad. He brought in young players with huge potential, not caring about how much money he has to spend to get them — both Leroy Sane and John Stones are in their early 20s and both cost about or over 40 milion pounds. Ilkay Gundogan is likely to replae the aging Yaya Toure in the middle of the park, while the experienced Nolito will give The Citizens more options on the flanks. However, they still need to sign young full-backs, perhaps even a striker, and ship out the players they do not need any more — and by the looks of it, there’s quite a lot of them.

Back in London Arsenal, in a typical Arsenal fashion, have frustrated their fans throughout the summer by not strengthening the areas everyone knows they should. They’ve brought in Granit Xhaka early on to improve the spine of the team but they still lack a quality partner for Laurent Koscielny at the back and a prolific striker up front. Even with injuries piling up yet again, The Gunners show no signs of urgency in the transfer market. That ignorance might cost them the title. At the same time, over the years Arsene Wenger’s men have shown their incredible consistency when it comes to finishing in the Top 4, so I don’t expect it to change anytime soon, even without the necessary acquisitions.

With so many clubs getting stronger and stronger — thanks in part to the new TV deal — the thing that might decide which team ends up where is their participation in the European competitions this campaign. It’s going to be a new experience for Leicester and it remains to be seen whether they have the squad to compete on both fronts. Manchester United might have to give up on the Europa League altogether to concentrate on the Premier League. If Tottenham have a deep run into the Champions League, how will it affect their title chances? It is a collection of many factors that decides who comes up up top: injuries, squad depth, mentality, right tactics, team spirit, form of the key players… While it’s hard to guess which side has the tools to cope with all of them, one thing is for certain — it’s going to be one hell of a season.