We left off with Burnley in VOLUME ONE of the Premiership Preview: The Opposition, where LFC-News covered Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Blackburn, Bolton and Burnley… as I mentioned just a short while ago. 
That means we start here with Chelsea, a club who will be looking to win the league for the first time in four seasons after what looked to have been the start of an unstoppable dynasty.
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CHELSEA FCLast Season: 3rd
5 Key Players: Lampard, Terry, Drogba, Anelka, Cech.
Style of Play: Ruthless defending and punishing when they decide to put their thumb on it. Sometimes they focus too much on the ruthless defending, though, and would probably win more if they throttled it.
Key Additions: Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow), Sturridge (Man City)
Key Losses: none
When We Play Them: October (a), May (h)
Rafa’s Record: 3 wins, 5 losses, 2 draws… but no losses in the last 5, if that tells you anything!!!
In 3-5 Sentences…: Chelsea are truly an enigma to me. How they haven’t been winning the title instead of Manchester United is beyond me, because they have better players, better goal scorers, and a more intense style of play. What they lack, I guess, is the belief that they belong at the top of the mountain. That said, the constant shifting of management makes it hard for Chelsea to gain an identity, and I think that they’ll spend this season adapting, and perhaps winning a cup but finishing behind United and Liverpool again. If you ask me, though, there is no better core of players in the Premiership.
Prediction: 3rd.
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EVERTON FCLast Season: 5th
5 Key Players: Cahill, Fellaini, Yakubu, Arteta, Lescott
Style of Play: United, relentless in defense, organized, and opportunistic when given chances.
Key Additions: Jo (Man City on loan, again)
Key Losses: none
When We Play Them: November (a), February (h)
Rafa’s Record: 6 wins, 2 losses, 2 draws
In 3-5 Sentences…: Manchester United may be our biggest rival, but Everton is the “classic” encounter we have each season. The Merseyside Derby is incredibly friendly on one hand, but bitter and ferocious on the other… with red cards aplenty and many special and “would-like-to-forget” memories included. Bias aside, Everton are one of the class acts of the Premiership who go about their business in the correct manner and conduct themselves very professionally… if they weren’t our rivals, I’d pull for them on a neutral basis. Everton’s main strength comes from their unbelievably united attitude and their ridiculously organized system, where players have trust in one another and you know that 100% will be put out onto that pitch every match. As a result, this side has over-achieved and been one of the main threats to the top four for the past seven seasons or so, but a lack of signings this season makes me believe that Manchester City will probably leapfrog over them.
Prediction: 6th.
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FULHAM FCLast Season: 7th
5 Key Players: Dempsey, Hangeland, Schwarzer, Murphy, Johnson
Style of Play: Organized, Counterattacking, Full of Endurance and Solid in Unity… not the prettiest, but not the ugliest either.
Key Additions: Kelly (Birmingham), Riise (Lillestrom, and yes… this is John Arne’s brother!)
Key Losses: none
When We Play Them: October (a), April (h)
Rafa’s Record: 7 wins, 2 losses, 1 draw
In 3-5 Sentences…: Fulham over-achieved in 2008-2009, finishing an incredible 7th place in the Premiership… all of which happened a season after Danny Murphy’s header BARELY kept them in the Premiership after they had looked dead and buried. Under Roy Hodgson, this outfit has completely transformed, and they have the look of a side that is going to be a Premiership upper-mid-table mainstay, much like Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham were able to do over time. Though Liverpool usually gets the better of Fulham, they are always a tough nut to crack and are considered to be one of the stingiest defensive units in the league. With former Red Danny Murphy and USA favorite Clint Dempsey, Fulham are also quite creative and are able to break down difficult defenses. I expect them to drop a few places because others have upgraded while they haven’t, but they will still finish very well in the table.
Prediction: 10th.
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HULL CITY FCLast Season: 17th
5 Key Players: Geovanni, Boateng, Cousin, Bullard (if fit), Turner
Style of Play: Depends on which part of the season! First half of the year, it was a “yee haw” approach where they were balls-t0-the-wall and took no prisoners. “We’ll score more than you” was the idea, but in the second half of the season they kept up the defensive ineptitude but lost the offense and became quite negative. We’ll see this season which Hull City shows up.
Key Additions: Altidore (loan from Villareal), Olofinjana (Stoke City)
Key Losses: Ricketts (Bolton), Windass (Darlington)
When We Play Them: September (h), May (a)
Rafa’s Record: 1 win, 1 draw
In 3-5 Sentences…: The ultimate Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde situation. Despite beating Arsenal, Tottenham, etc., Hull City were nearly relegated after amassing a pathetic single digit points total after Christmas! Had it not been for their miraculous start to the season, they would have surely been relegated. Thankfully Newcastle and Middlesbrough were even more dire, and they survived… much to the delight of the media because of the antics of manager Phil Brown, who is truly loonier than any manager I’ve witnessed in the Premiership. Both matches in which we played them last year were high flying affairs, and that is what they’ll give you, which is definitely entertaining. For the sake of that, I hope they stay up, but I have fears for them because let’s face it, they were rubbish for most of last season and haven’t made legit enough improvements… though rumor has it that Stephen Hunt might join, so that would be helpful!
Prediction: 19th.
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LIVERPOOL FCLast Season: 2nd
5 Key Players: Gerrard, Torres, Reina, Kuyt, Mascherano
Style of Play: We are definitely a defensively minded team that is absolutely lethal on the counterattack. Attack Liverpool at your peril, because we’ll soak it up, wear you out, and then strike back with a vengeance. We are also developing into quite the possession-happy unit, as well, which may or may not change now that we’ve lost Alonso.
Key Additions: Johnson (Portsmouth), Aquilani (Roma), Voronin (returns from Hertha Berlin loan)
Key Losses: Alonso (Real Madrid), Arbeloa (Real Madrid)
When We Play Them: erm…
Rafa’s Record: AWESOME. Ha ha!
In 3-5 Sentences…: This season is off to a bit of a shaky start, without a ball even being kicked, because of the shocking (not out of surprise) departure of Xabi Alonso and the possibility that Mascherano could join him. With our central defenders all slightly or definitely injured, we need to grab some goals and quick! Fortunately for us, we’ve got Gerrard and Torres, who are arguably the two best players in the Premiership. There is a lot of talk that we rely too heavily on this duo, but we also have some quality around them in Mascherano, Kuyt, Carragher, Reina, Agger, Glen Johnson, and Alberto Aquilani (who will be fit in late September). This season could be the one where we win the title, but it could also be like 2002-2003 when we lost our chance because of a summer where we didn’t keep up with our rivals… let’s hope for the former and not the latter, but I have a sneaking feeling that we won’t win the title.
Prediction: 2nd again, which holds absolutely no shame!
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MANCHESTER CITYLast Season: 10th
5 Key Players: Robinho, Barry, Ireland, Given, Tevez
Style of Play: They’ll look different this year, but in 2008-2009, they were all about the counterattack and outscoring the opposition. Definitely a lot of goals in City matches!!!
Key Additions: Barry (Aston Villa), Tevez (Manchester United… I guess), Santa Cruz (Blackburn), Adebayor (Arsenal), Toure (Arsenal)
Key Losses: Sturridge (Chelsea), Bojinov (loan to Parma), Elano (Galatasaray), Caicedo (loan to Sporting Lisbon), Hamann (released), Ball (released)
When We Play Them: November (h), February (a)
Rafa’s Record: 6 wins, 1 loss, 3 draws
In 3-5 Sentences…: Manchester City have had an outstanding summer, brining in about 23 strikers and losing a bunch of deadwood players that really didn’t need to stick around. The additions of Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz, and Emmanuel Adebayor mean that there is proven striking quality to add to the already capable Craig Bellamy, Benjani, and Robinho in attack. The challenge for City will be to gel together and to keep all of these striking stars happy and playing. My guess would be that they’d play three up front and that Benjani wouldn’t figure in, and that Robinho would play out on one of the flanks. Other than up front, City also have Wright-Phillips, Richards, Dunne, Given, Ireland, Barry and Kolo Toure… all of whom are fantastic footballers, which makes me believe that they’ll probably oust Arsenal from the 4th Champions League spot, as they’ll be stronger and more deep than the Gunners.
Prediction: 4th.
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