STAT ATTACK
the next gen of world-class starlets born and bred across the Isles – from Ryan Sessegnon to James Maddison to Declan Rice – will not be deciding the destiny of the Premier League title. Not this season at any rate.
No, that is very much the domain of the existing megastars – Mo Salah, Kevin De Bruyne, Paul Pogba (above) Harry Kane etc – and that fresh brigade from abroad, here to bring more gloss, glamour and glory to our beautiful game.
Even where we have lost some of the greatest managerial minds, with Arsene Wenger and Antonio Conte exiting Arsenal and Chelsea respectively, we find two heavyweight replacements.
Joining Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Jose Mourinho and Mauricio Pochettino at the top-flight’s top table come ex-Paris Saint-Germain chief Unai Emery, who has taken over at The Emirates, and former Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri, now in the Stamford Bridge hotseat.
What a spectacular line-up in the dugouts, arguably stronger than anything previously seen.
HP’S PICKS
Prem winners: Liverpool
Top four: Man City, Man Utd,
Arsenal
Chasing Europe: Tottenham,
Chelsea
Relegated: Cardiff, Watford,
Huddersfield
FA Cup winners: Arsenal League Cup winners: West Ham Champions League winners:
Man City
TOTTENHAM move into their new stadium this season – but they do not have grounds for concern.
Their nomadic existence, which will have seen three homes in as many seasons, will come to an end in a positive atmosphere of optimism.
They are the seventh current Premier League club to move to a new stadium since 2000, with Arsenal, Southampton, Manchester City,
West Ham, Brighton and promoted Cardiff being the others.
Those clubs have done so with mixed fortunes, with Arsenal failing to replicate their Highbury success and West Ham struggling to adapt at the London Stadium, which was the venue for the 2012 Olympics.
But the other clubs to move have positive stories to tell and everyone is benefiting from bigger grounds, higher attendances and more revenue. Spurs will be in that category when they complete their move from White Hart Lane to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – via Wembley, which will still be their temporary home at the start of this season.
They are due to play their first home match at their new base, on the site of the old White Hart Lane, against Liverpool on September 15. Their new
£850million ground will have a capacity of
62,000 and Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy clearly believes it will be the start of an exciting era for the club. The main thing Tottenham have in their favour is that so much is already in place – a talented manager in Mauricio Pochettino and a fine, young team of coveted players, who are already established as one of the best SPURS got off to a stuttering start at their previous new home of Wembley last season. In the Premier League, it took them until October to win their first game there. THERE will be four new bosses in Premier League dugouts when the 2018-19 season finally gets under way this week.
Everton’s Marco Silva and West Ham chief Manuel Pellegrini have seen it all before having already managed in the English top flight, while this is completely new territory for Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri and Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal replacement Unai Emery.
Pellegrini has a winning CV from his previous spell in England that includes a Premier League title and two League Cups with Man City.
That all came before being replaced with Pep Guardiola by City’s owners.
This time around, though, the shoe is on the other foot as Pellegrini (right) replaces David Moyes at the Hammers – and has been given plenty of cash to spend.
Whether he has used it wisely enough to make West Ham fans’ hopes of European football a reality remains to be seen. sides in Europe. Spurs had 12 players at this summer’s World Cup in Russia and nine of them made it to the semi-finals.
The backbone of Gareth Southgate’s England squad had a Spurs spine, with captain Harry Kane. Kieran Trippier, Danny Rose, Eric Dier and Dele Alli.
That has not helped Pochettino’s preparations for this season, but it underlines why Tottenham are confident they are on the right lines.
The Spurs boss, in fact, stresses that the club is ahead of schedule in its planning and as that has raised expectations, there is a danger that Tottenham will be “victims of their own success”.
Pochettino said: “In my first meeting with Daniel and owner Joe Lewis, the But the additions of Jack Wilshere, Andriy Yarmolenko, Fabian Balbuena, Felipe Anderson and Ryan Fredericks for a combined £61million looks like incredibly good value at a time when transfer valuations have hit the stratosphere. And if Pellegrini is to be considered a success during his time in East London it seems likely that Wilshere and Anderson will be the key men. The other new boss with lots to prove is Everton’s Silva (right). A relegation at Hull was followed by a troubled time at Watford and although Everton finally got their man after letting Sam Allardyce go, will he get the Toffees back in the race for the top four? Since turning up at Goodison, Silva has certainly worked tirelessly to improve a squad which looked destined for trouble target was to a four years an possibility to fi
“In the secon the target was League. When we are ahead o
Spurs should hitting the gr before the unpopular Allardyce arrived. Luc brought in, as has £40million man Richarliso former club Watford.
He has an uphill task ahead of him an bookies – who rarely get things wro him 6-1 not to make the finishing l While Silva’s job at Everton is to style of football that gets the fan their feet while also winning gam Chelsea, Sarri’s is to steady the s The last four seasons have bee or bust for the Stamford Bridge c two titles followed by 10th and fifth finishes respectively.
Sarri (right) has inherited a side from Conte which looked uncomfortable even wh last season and stars Willian, Eden Hazard a