Who will win the Premiership?

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

Oh, I meant in the top 3, not top four. I got confused. :p Arsenal are still a good team without him, just not good enough.

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:p Oh, awesome. So we can come in the top 4 but not the top 3 which makes us 4th, it would be. xD We'll see ;) :p

Edit: Oh, Black Mage 121 hero-o'-mine, are you AN ARSENAL FAN? Comme moi???? :love: YAY! ^_^

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Originally Posted by Black Mage 121

Fair comment about Reyes, but I can't see how Ljungberg is any less consistent than your average player. Besides, we've lost Vieira to injury or suspension on numerous occasions and haven't really missed him, despite what Alan Hansen might lead you to believe. Gilberto, Fabregas and Flamini are all great replacements, and Wenger has the time and money to invest in another central midfielder if necessary. Vieira's departure might cost us the title, but not a top 3 finish.

Besides, we're not nearly as bad as Man. United. :p

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Gilberto, Fabregas and Flamini are certainly talented, but I personally do not rate them as high as I do Viera. Fabregas will probably need another season or two (He's younger than I am!) in order to get near Viera's quality, as he is still young, but this is good news fot Arsenal's future.

Maybe ;)

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Originally Posted by Cz

Baros and Morientes haven't exactly set the world alight at Anfield, and Cisse hasn't yet justified his purchase (largely due to his injury, to be fair). What makes you think Peter Crouch will be any different? On paper each of those signings should have saved you, but in reality they failed pretty dismally. That's the trouble with Liverpool, they look great on paper but they simply can't maintain their good form over the course of a season. Everton, on the other hand, had a bunch of mediocre players but were neat and consistent all season. It was unspectacular, but in the end it got them a Champions' League place. If you do manage to produce some good form next season then you'll go far. But as we all know, asking your team to be at their best every week is pretty optimistic.

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Baros is clearly on his way out of Anfield and Morientes, yeah, I'll give you that one. Cisse has been awesome in pre-season, having already netted three Champion's League goals, and I expect him to perform a lot better next season, hopefully without injury touch wood. Crouch scored more than any Liverpool striker did last season - while playing for a team with less quality supporting players - so him signing for the team can only be a good thing, and also I think his style of play will suit Cisse's.

Newcastle look good enough to place in the top 10

Sunderland seem doomed back to championship

Chelsea might win it again Manchester United look as if they might be an edgy team

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

Gilberto, Fabregas and Flamini are certainly talented, but I personally do not rate them as high as I do Viera. Fabregas will probably need another season or two (He's younger than I am!) in order to get near Viera's quality, as he is still young, but this is good news fot Arsenal's future.

Maybe ;)

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True, and that's why I'm hoping Wenger will use his cash to bring in another player for the centre of midfield. But I feel that Fabregas has proven himself enough to be a first team regular, even at his young age (he's sexier than you too, by the way) and that Gilberto has been strong since returning from injury.

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

Baros is clearly on his way out of Anfield and Morientes, yeah, I'll give you that one. Cisse has been awesome in pre-season, having already netted three Champion's League goals, and I expect him to perform a lot better next season, hopefully without injury touch wood. Crouch scored more than any Liverpool striker did last season - while playing for a team with less quality supporting players - so him signing for the team can only be a good thing, and also I think his style of play will suit Cisse's.

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Cisse's good performances were all against weak opposition, but to be fair a player of his calibre should do just as well in the Premiership. I still have my doubts about Crouch though. At St. Mary's he was tall enouh to fit into the Southampton gameplan, which is smashing the ball upfield and hoping for the best. If you look at his record at Aston Villa, with a (slightly) more ground-based style, he wasn't nearly as prolific. Liverpool's game is pretty varied, and so Crouch shouldn't be entirely starved of attention, but he won't score as often as he did last season.

Besides, you have a history of ruining strikers' careers in recent seasons. Believe it or not, Emile heskey used to be a promising young talent at Leicester. :p

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Originally Posted by Resha

Edit: Oh, Black Mage 121 hero-o'-mine, are you AN ARSENAL FAN? Comme moi???? :love: YAY! ^_^

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I wuv you too, Resha. [img]http://home.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/heart.gif[/img]

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Originally Posted by Black Mage 121

Besides, you have a history of ruining strikers' careers in recent seasons. Believe it or not, Emile heskey used to be a promising young talent at Leicester.

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This was largely due to the mediocrity of the last regime. Gerard Houllier spent his last few seasons at Anfield on Magic Mushrooms, playing good players like Heskey out of position thus completely destroying their confidence. He had a knack of making good players, bad.

Rafa is different, we've seen this already. Look at Traore (Burnley excluded) and Biscan. Their performances last season were so far improved it was like we had signed two new players! Benitez has the ability to bring out the best in his players, in a similar way the Arsene Wenger does, and ultimately it has been through his guidance that we won the Champions League. It will be interesting to see how we tackle our away performances this season, but if we nail it like we did our home form, there's no reason we can't challenge Man Utd and Arsenal for 2nd place. 1st is a foregone conclusion for me. Never has there been a stronger squad (on paper at least) than Chelsea's. I believe their 2nd XI would be good enough to win the league comfortably.

So I hope everyone's ready for a Premiership monopoly on talent and success because that's what will happen now I think. The days of a decent title challenge, I fear are over.