Saturday, August 18, 2012

The best league in the world

The Premier League starts today, and every football fan should be looking forward to it. Last season ended spectacularly when Manchester City took the title in the final seconds of the last match ahead of their rivals of Manchester United. And City already took a title by winning the Super Cup match against Chelsea 3-2 last week and will still be hungry this season. But it will surely not be easy. Manchester United has bought a couple of high profile players to strengthen their side: firstly Shinji Kagawa, who was bought from Borussia Dortmund, will greatly strengthen United's midfield and attack; and secondly, Robbie Van Persie, the Arsenal captain has joined United and will contribute to their attacking power.
In the meantime there will also be other sides going for the title. The Champions League winners of Chelsea have lost their greatest superstar, Didier Drogba, but will be hoping that Fernando Torres can take over, while some interesting new players have joined the side, such as the Brazilian youngster Oscar and and the gifted Marko Marin from Werder Bremen.
With Arsenal losing Van Persie it would seem doubtful that Arsenal would be able to go for the title, but Arsene Wenger's side has purchased strong new players, such as the Spanish international Santi Cazorla, the French international Olivier Giroud and the German star Lukas Podolski.
Tottenham ended in fourth place last season, and keep the ambitions for more. Their most high profile purchase has been the strong Belgian defender Jan Verthongen, but most interesting will be to see whether their new coach Andre Villas-Boas can swipe away the fiasco he had at Chelsea.
Liverpool's main change has also been the coach, where Kenny Dalglish was fired and replaced with Brendan Rogers, who will have to try to continue the success he had at Swansea at Liverpool.
The best thing about the Premier League is that there are many "small" teams with strong sides that all can win against any of the giants, and that is what makes the league so exciting! Quality, drama, fight and great fans.
On a personal level I might say that unfortunately I have never had an English favourite team, which of course takes the passion a bit away, but at the same time it permits me to say objectively that it is certainly the best league in the world!

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