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Sridhar Iyer
Smarter than your average bear

5 predictions for the 2015–16 European football season

As I sit here writing this, West Ham are busy tonking champions-elect Man City 2–1. If the result stays the same, Manchester City will remain third in the table which is inexcusable for they have the best squad in the division.

This has been a crazy season of football in general and Barclays premier league in particular. Leicester are top of the table ffs.

Predicting the future is a fool’s errand you might say. And I’d agree. But I just have to get mine out of my head so here goes :

  • Arsenal will win the title – There. I said it. They have all the right ingredients and, in Petr Cech, they have the final piece of the puzzle. I say this despite the fact that they’ve been bottlers for the better part of a decade. Fancy the mighty Leicester to run them close with a second place finish. City third and Spurs fourth. To sum it up : Arsene Wenger to win the title and walk into the sunset while Pep Guardiola takes over next season. (I can dream can’t I?)
  • Real Madrid and Atletico to run Barcelona close – The la liga may well have been brought to a screeching halt after Barcelona thumped a Rafa Benitez-managed Real Madrid 4–0 in the latter’s own ground. That, however, was 2 months ago and turned out to be the beginning of the end for Rafa. Real are now a rejuvenated force thanks to the new manager Zidane taking charge and kicking things off in style. Real’s neighbours Atletico are also in with a shout for the title. But I fancy Barcelona to just about nick it towards the end purely because of their quality at the top. To sum it up, Barcelona are just too good not to retain the la liga title.
  • Napoli to win the Italian Serie A – Italian league is mostly ignored these days due to the monopoly that Juventus have enjoyed of late. This year is a bit different however. As January draws to a close, Napoli are sitting at the top of the summit with Juve inching towards them in second place. It’s been a remarkable recovery by Juve after a horrendous start to the season and they may even go on to win the title but I’m a romantic at heart and I’m gonna side with Napoli.
  • Bayern to walk the league – Self explanatory.
  • Expect a grand stand champions league knockout stage – Champions league resumes in February and, except Man Utd, the other 3 English teams were somehow able to squeeze through to the last 16. Arsenal-Barcelona and Psg-Chelsea promises to be enticing. Despite Arsenal’s resistance, I fully expect Barcelona to go through. The bigger prediction, however, is that there could be an El Classico semi finals and I’m going for a Bayern-Barcelona finale.