Andy Gray and Richard Keys: Liverpool not top four side

Sport360 staff 08:18 08/08/2015
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  • The Premier League begins.

    With the new Premier League campaign upon us, Andy Gray and Richard Keys, who will once again be anchoring beIN Sports’ coverage of the English top flight, offer their pre-season predictions as well as forecasting the weekend’s results. 

    Title Winners?

    Andy Gray: I just fancy Manchester City this year. For Chelsea, winning back-to-back titles is really difficult, it’s one of the hardest things to do. People want to beat you more, the pressure’s intensified, you’ve done it so maybe the intensity of your players isn’t what it was. They’ve also done nothing in the transfer market and that surprises me. I thought they would have got at least one big name in.

    City will be better and the signings of Raheem Sterling and Fabian Delph will make a difference. Manuel Pellegrini’s contract extension puts to bed the allegations he was a man without portfolio. It suggests he’s going to be staying, which helps the internal workings of the club.

    This is as good a chance Arsenal have got since they last won it but I see them just falling short.

    United, as they sit right now, they won’t win the league. They’ve got a really good right-back in Matteo Darmian, Morgan Schneiderlin is an excellent footballer, if Bastian Schweinsteiger stays fit, he’s a fabulous midfielder with bags of experience and quality and Memphis Depay might be anything… we just don’t know yet. But, they’ve not addressed the centre-back problem. 

    Andy’s top four: 1. Man City, 2. Arsenal, 3. Chelsea, 4. Man United

    Richard Keys: I really do think Arsenal have got enough to mount a sustained challenge. They’ve been close the last two seasons, one affected by a World Cup hangover where a number of their big guys came back exhausted and the year before they were beset by injuries. When they got players back healthy, on both occasions they challenged.

    Keeping players fit has always been a big problem for Arsenal because Arsene Wenger runs his medical department uniquely. No one’s lost more playing days over the last few seasons than Arsenal, so that remains a concern.

    Olivier Giroud gets a lot of criticism but I think he’s a good Premier League forward and is worth 20 goals, Alexis Sanchez will get you 15 and Aaron Ramsey will surely make a bigger contribution. If they then sign Karim Benzema, well, then it’s game, set and match.

    Defensively they only conceded four more than Chelsea last season so there’s not a lot wrong there and Petr Cech will, of course, make a difference. He’s not as a good as he was but he’s still better than anyone they’ve had for a decade.

    My feeling on Chelsea is they have the quality but not the quantity. They need more personnel.

    I also think Jose Mourinho wants to win the Champions League with Chelsea and that might take their eye off the league.

    I don’t think Pellegrini is in charge at City, it’s smoke and mirrors with this new contract. I’ll remind you of Luis Suarez’s four-year contract and how long did that last? I still expect Pep Guardiola to be there next season.

    I’ve always said that dressing room is always one game from meltdown. I also don’t see Vincent Kompany as a great defender and I think he got found out last year.

    As for United they’re just not good enough. Schweinsteiger hasn’t been fit for three years and Louis van Gaal has had to go out buying players he wouldn’t normally do because they don’t have the strength in depth.

    Richard’s top four: 1. Arsenal, 2. Chelsea, 3. Man City, 4. Man United

    Best of the Rest

    AG: I don’t know what kind of team Brendan Rodgers is going to pick at Liverpool. I’m not sure if he knows himself right now.

    Christian Benteke is a terrific buy. I really have plenty of time for him and I think he could be awe- some. Nathaniel Clyne and James Milner are also really good sign- ings. So when you look at that, they should be better than last season but are they good enough to crack the top four? I don’t think so.

    I haven’t seen Tottenham do anything that suggests to me they can be in the mix. They’ve shifted a

    few players on that were just excess in the squad but they haven’t really brought any in, and especially someone to shift the goalscoring burden off Harry Kane. That could become a problem for them. Maybe not right now but certainly as the season wears on.

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    RK: With good reason Reds man- ager Rodgers is the bookmakers favourite to go. He’s made some big calls over the last 12 months – letting Gerrard go, for one – and now it’s time to deliver.

    Milner is a brilliant piece of business. A good player, a great lad who will be fantastic to have in the dressing room. I also like Benteke. But they’re lacking leaders and personality. Gerrard was a leader in every respect and I look around that squad and don’t see too many like him. They’re nice lads but as we all know, nice guys don’t tend to win things. I just don’t know with Spurs. I don’t think anybody does. Will Kane be as a good as last sea- son? Will they be able to get their hands on Saido Berahino?

    Southampton look to be focusing on the Europa League, which is nice to see, but that could take a toll and affect their league form. 

    Surprise Packages 

    AG: I like what Crystal Palace have done, they haven’t lost anybody of significance and they’ve made some good additions.

    Yohan Cabaye’s a terrific signing, we don’t know about Patrick Bamford, he did ever so well at Middlesbrough last year, but we don’t know if he can do it in the Premier League. We’re about to find out.

    Connor Wickham is another good player who’s better than we saw at Sunderland. It could be a decent season for Palace.

    I also think Aston Villa might have a good season and surprise a few by finishing in the top half of the table if Tim Sherwood can gel his new signings quickly and get them going.

    RK: Stoke will do well. I like the look of what they’ve done. The way they finished last season was blistering and Mark Hughes has added a bit of quality.

    Alan Pardew has done well with those he’s brought in and from what I’m told there are more to come. It’s just a good fit, Pardew understands that club.

    Stoke can go top eight and I think Palace can finish top half.

    Relegated

    AG: Bournemouth came up playing a nice, tidy brand of football but they’ve brought eight new players to make them more experienced for the league and we don’t know how it’s going to come together.

    How they play was fine when they were in the Championship and you’re up against inferior teams, but if you try and knock it about in the Premier League and you maybe don’t have the quality to do it – because there are better teams – you can get found out.

    Watford will probably have had three managers by the end of next season. Quique Sanchez Flores will have to take this team of mostly mercenaries on and it remains to be seen whether Troy Deeney can score the goals in the big league.

    I would throw Leicester and West Ham in there as well. I don’t know if there’s a unity at West Ham and I’m a little unsure how good they are and if the likes of Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho will have the same impact as last term.

    Relegated: 18. Leicester, 19. Watford, 20. Bournemouth

    RK: I can’t see Bournemouth surviving. If Burnley couldn’t do it, with a far more determined attitude to their football, then they wont be able to. I don’t think they are streetwise enough to stay up.

    Watford fly in the face of accepted rules regarding stability at a football club and expect plenty of chaos again at Vicarage Road.

    I cannot get my head around the situation at Leicester. It was bad enough letting Nigel Pearson go but to replace him with Claudio Ranieri, we’re already hearing tales of unrest there.

    Relegated: 18. Leicester, 19. Watford, 20. Bournemouth.

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