The English Premier League season begins on Friday, as Manchester United begins their attempt to repeat as champions. When you're talking about the EPL you really only have to limit your talk to Man U., Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, as they have finished as the top four in various orders for what seems like forever.
Manchester United won last year's championship by six points over Chelsea, which ended Chelsea's two-year reign at the top. Man U. reloaded for another run at the title this year by signing midfielder Owen Hargreaves and opening the purse strings to snag the talented duo of Nani and Anderson. Manchester United's bread-and-butter combination on the scoresheet will still be Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, and with their roster full of stars it will be hard for anyone to keep them from repeating this year.
A big part of Chelsea's failure to claim their third straight league title last year was injury. Chelsea's backfield was left shortstaffed when John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho went down last year, and having keeper Petr Cech also added to the walking wounded did not help. Chelsea made a few big acquisitions in the offseason to make another run at the title including Florent Malouda and Claudio Pizarro, and Tal Ben should provide some stability to the defense should the injury bug bite again. These additions alongside leading scorer Didier Drogba make Chelsea a soccer team to be reckoned with again, and a legitimate title contender.
Another third-place finish last season caused Liverpool to throw around some cash in the offseason to try and get to the top. However, signing Fernando Torres to a record-setting deal and also grabbing Ryan Babel may not be enough to put Liverpool in the same category with Man U. and Chelsea. Captain Steven Gerrard and forward Peter Crouch should provide their usual punch, while Dirk Kuyt showed he could be a future force in his first year with Liverpool last season. Even with their changes though, most experts are predicting Liverpool to find more success on the Cup stage than in the soccer league once again this season.
And what about Arsenal? After another fourth-place finish last year it looks like another tough year is ahead. Their best player Thierry Henry departed for Barcelona and veteran Freddy Ljungberg is also gone, leaving Arsenal in quite a lurch. Unless they get some stout support from their youth and what's left of their scorers, this could finally be the year another team cracks the Top 4. If that were to happen watch for Tottenham Hotspur, which made a splash in the offseason by acquiring Darren Bent, to make a run.
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