PREM GUIDE
THE recent spate of shock Player of the Year winners makes tipping the likely stars for the coming season a perilous task.
Few, if any, predicted Mo Salah, N’Golo Kante, Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez would be collecting the personal gongs from fellow players and football writers during the last three seasons.
Those unlikely names mean anyone predicting who will be in line for the top honours come May must be warned that a new star can appear from anywhere.
Liverpool’s new keeper Alisson, the most expensive man ever to wear goalkeeper gloves at £67million, will be afforded no time to settle.
Nor will £50m Jorginho at Chelsea or Manchester United rival Fred, who cost something similar.
Perhaps more relevant to Old Trafford and Anfield fortunes between now and May is how Alexis Sanchez and Naby Keita perform.
The case of United’s Chile striker Sanchez is particularly interesting.
Having had his first summer off in five years, it is hard to imagine those haphazard, headless performances of last season continuing.
Far more conceivable is that he will re-emerge as a lethal playmaker, making and banging in goals galore.
Over on the red side of Merseyside, Keita’s £57m price tag could hang heavy over his head.
But with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain out for the campaign and Emre Can gone, the ex-RB Leipzig midfielder, 23 – in tandem with shrewd buy from Monaco, Fabinho – may become the new idol of the Kop masses. Something similar could apply to the foreign faces recently lured to Arsenal by their new Spanish boss Unai Emery – especially Lucas Torreira, 22.
There was huge interest in the Uruguay midfielder but the Gunners nailed a £26m deal with Sampdoria. Torreira may not be a creative genius but watching a quality, defensively disciplined midfielder at The Emirates will be a real novelty.
As for those a little lower down the table out to catch our eye, first stop must be promoted Fulham and their flying left-back Ryan Sessegnon.
The teenage star, whose skill and speed rips any defence to shreds, will be one of the homegrown highlights of 2018-19. Sessegnon, 18, is destined to be a regular in the England side very soon. Another potential future Three Lions international is James Maddison, 21, now lining up for Leicester after his £22m arrival from Norwich. Exciting in possession, with a knack for spectacular strikes and assists, he could fill the creative void left by Mahrez’s exit. Look out for Jack Wilshere under new West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini and fellow Three Lions outcast Ross Barkley, who lest we forget is at Chelsea.
Both have much to prove – and, as stunning Salah showed last term with his PFA and FWA clean sweep, that can lead to fantastically unexpected feats.