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Which squad will deliver the title?

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Arsenal have had sides as good as they have now in the past and still bottled it. Their defence relies on Koscielny for the most part and I really don't think Debuchy is an improvement on Sagna.

Liverpool will be out of the top four again imo, they need to sign a genuine world class talent who can win games for them when they need to. Champions League will be more of a hindrance I think!

United will probably make top four. Their attack is still world class and if Van Gaal can find a way of making Rooney, Mata and RVP play well together then they'll be laughing. Defence is still pretty piss poor but Liverpool proved last season that you can rely on world class talent up front to paper the cracks of a bad defence and United have 3 players who can do that.

City's squad is sublime, was already last season and now they finally have a brilliant CB to partner Kompany in Mangala. Fernando will also help them with their depth in that position and we all know how good they are going forward anyway.

We are a lot more balanced going into this season. As much as I love Ivanovic defensively, he isn't brilliant going forward with the ball and especially at whipping them into the area. Similarly, Azpi was a right footed player playing on the left so his crossing from that position was never going to be brilliant. We've aqcuired 3 amazing players imo, two of whom were up there with the best in their positions last season and one who is a proven world class talent in the two best league's in the world and filling a position of creativity we've cried out for. We pushed both City and Liverpool last year with an out-of-shape squad and Mourinho basically admitting we wouldn't win it from an early stage, I feel confident we will be right up there this season.

1.Chelsea/City

2.Chelsea/City

3.Arsenal

4.United

 
Was at the bridge tonight and saw absolutely nothing to suggest we are any threat in the absence of our no.19.

Really worried

 
City scored 30 more goals than us last season and we came 4 points behind them. Granted it's preseason but it's fairly evident that Costa fits us like a glove, and has hit the ground running.  Even if he's only around for half the season, we'll be much, much better off than we were before.  He, Fabregas and Luis will improve us immensely IMO.  We didn't even play with true overlapping fullbacks last season because Dave was on his weaker foot.  Now we have a mastermind in the middle next to Matic, a staple of our side who has only been with us for half a season.  We now have a striker to rival the likes of Aguero, and fullbacks that can overload the flanks.  We have every reason to feel confident.

The only issue is cover for Costa, but I believe our hands are tied with Torres.  At least our team is used to playing without a world class striker by now.

 
City for me.

It's more of a question of if they can keep their players fit long enough to win it, their core players are always the ones getting injured.

 
One thing I thought that was strange last night was how the balance of the team has switched. We are no longer constantly looking for hazard, who used to look like our only creative outlet.

Schurrle looked good, as did fabregas, to the point where hazard was fairly quiet, so in that respect it was refreshing

But the striking backup really has to be addressed

 
I personally wouldn't be suprised if City drop off the top 2 next season. I don't think Yaya will be as good as last season, and he was their real talisman. I don't know why, but it's just a feeling i have about City next season; every one is saying they'll be the ones to beat, but I actually think Liverpool and Arsenal will do as good, if not better than City. I seriously think our main rivals next season will be Arsenal. People are sleeping on them and liverpool too much for my liking. Not to mention Utd, who I feel will also improve a lot and be better than their local rivals. 

 
dkw said:
So youre dismissing us due to only having one top striker, but then backing Arsenal who only have Giroud? Arsenal will continue to miss out on the top prizes simply because of the lack of fight and confidence when it comes to the sharp end of the season, completely down to Wenger.

I would have City slight favourites ahead of us, but if Fabregas and Costa can click then we will edge it.
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Sanchez and Walcott have both proven to be a success playing in the striker role. They have no need to worry
 
This season will depend on injuries.

If arsenal players (Walcott, Ramsey, ozil, wilshere) get injured at their usual January and February period, they come 4th again. Luckily for them, Sanchez is not injury prone.

If city main core, aguero yaya silva kompany get injured, they go third. Because of their focus is on the Champions League, they won't do as well in the league and yaya can never be that good this season(hopefully)

For us, if costa and Hazard gets injured, we come 2nd unless our rivals get worse injuries. Hazards injury towards the end of last season cost us a title imo. Luckily we won't depend on Hazard as much this season because of added creativity of costa and fabregas.

The scousers cannot win the title. Anyone that loses the top goal scorer and top assist maker without adequate replacement cannot be better. They are now also in the Champions League so Rodgers won't have all week to prepare tactics like last season. And fatigue will set in too.

The dark horses are manutd. I don't know what to expect. They could be destroying everyone because of no European competition and vangaal will have time to prepare tactics against opponents especially big matches. Or their 3-5-2 could be exploited in the flanks by proper counterattacks.

89points will deliver the title this season. You heard it here first.

Chelsea

Arsenal

City

United

 
Once Arsenal have secured 4th place they'll fall off again as per usual, signing Alexis Sanchez isn't going to suddenly transform them when they still only have Giroud up front and use Arteta as their first choice holding midfielder, not to mention Arsene '1 tactic' Wenger in charge.

 
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Jonty said:
Once Arsenal have secured 4th place they'll fall off again as per usual, signing Alexis Sanchez isn't going to suddenly transform them when they still only have Giroud up front and use Arteta as their first choice holding midfielder, not to mention Arsene '1 tactic' Wenger in charge.
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If one player was enough to win something big, we'd have done so last season because Hazard is clearly better than Sanchez.

Not worried about Arsenal, to be honest. It's City who worry me because of their squad depth and Liverpool because they are well rested and probably on for a good start.

 
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This one!

 
Surprised at the result of the poll on BBC website -  we're clear favourites with 34% -  ahead of Manchester United on 18.7%, Arsenal on 16.1% and Liverpool on 14.5%.

and only 8.6% think Manchester City will retain their title next season.  Not surprised that Manure are second - lots of their fans usually vote in these polls but surprised that we're so far ahead of all the others.  I reckon lots of neutrals must have voted for us.  As I say, bit surprised.

And Phil McNulty is tipping us too!

 
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Beerqueen said:
Surprised at the result of the poll on BBC website -  we're clear favourites with 34% -  ahead of Manchester United on 18.7%, Arsenal on 16.1% and Liverpool on 14.5%.

and only 8.6% think Manchester City will retain their title next season.  Not surprised that Manure are second - lots of their fans usually vote in these polls but surprised that we're so far ahead of all the others.  I reckon lots of neutrals must have voted for us.  As I say, bit surprised.

And Phil McNulty is tipping us too!
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Are you a bit flattered? ;)

 
I dunno I have a good feeling about Utd, well, not good, just surprising. I think they might do better than expected.

 
Beerqueen said:
Surprised at the result of the poll on BBC website -  we're clear favourites with 34% -  ahead of Manchester United on 18.7%, Arsenal on 16.1% and Liverpool on 14.5%.

and only 8.6% think Manchester City will retain their title next season.  Not surprised that Manure are second - lots of their fans usually vote in these polls but surprised that we're so far ahead of all the others.  I reckon lots of neutrals must have voted for us.  As I say, bit surprised.

And Phil McNulty is tipping us too!
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While the BBC poll is intertesting, for gauging aggregate opinions it is a lot better to look at the betting market than a BBC poll (or any poll for that matter). The main reason betting markets are superior is that a vote on a poll is effectively cheap talk. I can say that I think Burnley will win, and there will be no repercussions if I'm right or if I'm wrong. In the betting market, however, your "vote" is backed up by the potential winnings or the loss of your stake, and so the voter is more robustly (dis)incentivised when making their choice. There's also the argument of the wisdom of crowds, which I would suggest is more applicable to the betting market (and particularly to betting exchanges which do not have a centralized bookmaker) than a poll due to the discouragement of cheap talk. Not only this, a betting exchange updates more frequently (as bets are made) whereas a poll is a one-time interaction with the voter.

For example, there's currently just under £2M of matched bets on the "Premier League Winner" Betfair Exchange market. The probabilities of winning the Premier League, implied by the odds at the time of this post, are in order: (1) Chelsea - 34%, (2) City 28%, (3) United 18%, (4) Arsenal 15%, (5) Liverpool 8%. These can be calculated by taking 1/decimal odds, i.e. 1/2.9 in the case of Chelsea.

For what it's worth, my opinion is in agreement with the order implied by the betting exchanges. However, I have creeping doubts that City could beat us to the title, largely due to their greater depth in striking positions. Of course, I hope these doubts turn out to be nonsense!

P.s. to Beerqueen: I hope I'm not putting words into your mouth by implying you thought the BBC poll was a good indicator of who might win. I know that isn't what you were suggesting, and this post is supposed to be a more general argument about aggregating opinions.

 
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Some people completely underestimated us last season and we where still never valued that season even now.

One of the few who did speak out was Gary Neville and said that we must have been kicking ourselves when we beat Liverpool 2-0 because the amount of stupid points we dropped over that season was mental. But I think everyone knows that if we had a good striker, we would have won it that season, even though we did lack quite a bit of creativity coming towards the end. But we've made improvements.

God I hate getting carried away but I just can't help but feel optimistic about this.

 
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