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Liverpool and their fans approach the start of another new Premier League season knowing that they have gone another season without winning the Premier League title and that is something they are desperate to put right this season.

Last season, Liverpool had a great opportunity to win the Premier League and yet let it slip at the crucial time and that must have been very hard to take for everybody connected to club.

To their credit Liverpool showed tremendous character and ability to push Manchester United all the way and that at least demonstrated that the Liverpool squad has the mental capacity to fight for the cause, which is a massively important factor.

Rafa Benitez will be looking to his players to use their anger and frustration in providing an extra impetus this year and push them on because there can be no doubting the strength of the Liverpool squad with Steven Gerard and Fernando Torres amongst the very finest players in world football.

Transfer activity has been quiet at Anfield this summer and the only real move for Liverpool has been the signing of Glen Johnson who will add new dimension and balance to the Liverpool team as he strengthens the back areas and provides the bonus of attacking options given his commitment to get forward and provide quality in the final third as well.

Negative aspects of the transfer activity at Liverpool have surround Alvaro Arbeloa, Xavi Alonso and Javier Mascherano and the situation does not look great with Arbeloa already sold to Real Madrid, Xavi Alonso close to signing for Real Madrid and Mascherano still heavily linked with a move away.

The sale of Alvaro Arbeloa is not so such a significant deal and he shouldn

Hull City went in to their first season in the Premier League as the great unknowns and with everybody confidently predicting their relegation back to the Championship, they managed to prove all everyone wrong by staying up to have another crack at it.

Phil Brown’s team showed great endeavour and ability in the early part of last season and it was that early spell that kept them in the Premier League because their form post Christmas was so poor they only just survived on the final day of the season.

Those who expected Hull City to go down last year will expect the same this year and Brown, as an experienced manager will know that he has a big job on his hands to pull it off again.

Brown is a positive man who will give everything once again to keeping Hull City in the Premier League and their public declaration of interest in Michael Owen is a testament to that, but Brown also knows that he need to sign several quality players for all the key areas to keep Hull City up this time around.

The club has experienced great frustration in the transfer market so far this summer and unless they manage to break that frustration and get four or five more quality players into the squad then it is only sensible to have concerns about the lack of depth and quality within the Hull City squad.

If, however, Brown can pull off a few signings then that will help but based on what we know now, Hull City and their fans are in for a very long and quite possibly very painful season.

PREDICTED LEAGUE POSITION:- 19th

In terms of finance, size and overall profile, Fulham are some way behind all of the other London clubs in the Premier League but none of the other London clubs impressed as much as Fulham did last season, the prime factor being the excellent work done by Manager, Roy Hodgson.

Hodgson arrived at Fulham to find a club in turmoil and almost certainly facing relegation to the Championship, but since taking over he has masterminded a turnaround at the club and last season they produced a level of consistency of performance that made them hard to beat and gave them their highest ever placing in the Premier League.

Fulham go into this season with the added bonus of European football and that should serve to be a tremendous experience for them given the proven versatility and experience of Hodgson with his past record for clubs throughout Europe.

Fulham’s key strengths last season were being defensively well organised and solid as a team which made them hard to break down and gave a platform to achieve positive results. We expect Fulham to have exactly the same approach this season.

Fulham’s squad does look thin at present and we assume that Roy Hodgson is working on adding to the squad. Given his shrewdness in the transfer market, we would expect Fulham to at least consolidate themselves in the top 10 in the Premier League again and if they achieve that it would be another tremendous season.

PREDICTED LEAGUE POSITION:- 9th

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Another new season and yet another new big name foreign manager arrives to take over at Stamford Bridge as Carlo Ancelotti makes the journey from AC Milan to Chelsea to try and achieve the success that Roman Abramovic and of course the Chelsea fans desire.

This time last year Felipo Scolari was hailed as the new saviour for Chelsea and the manager with the big reputation who was going to attempt to win the Premier League and Champions League.

The Scolari experience did not last that long and of course Guus Hiddink was drafted in to take over and stabilise the club. To be fair to Guus Hiddink he achieved far more than was expected and he did a magnificent job and has left a Chelsea squad that looks ready to achieve at the highest level again.

Carlo Ancelotti is a proven winner at the highest level as both player and manager and there can be no doubting his aptitude for the position of Chelsea manager. Heis a vastly experienced manager used to dealing with the highest calibre of players and that will be a massive benefit to him at Chelsea as he will have the instant respect of all the squad and especially the influential players such as John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Petr Cech.

Chelsea already have a powerful squad with proven quality and experience in all key areas and as it stands Chelsea already have a squad more than capable of winning the Premier League and Champions League but Carlo Ancelotti will be looking to add 2 or 3 key signings to add an extra dimension to the squad that will give Chelsea the opportunity to really have a serious challenge at winning all the major trophies.

Youri Zhirkov has been signed already and he is a talented, versatile player who will give Ancelotti different options in midfield areas while Daniel Sturridge is a highly promising young striker who could certainly have an important impact this season and provide excellent back up to Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka.

Carlo Ancelotti has to settle into life as a high profile manager in the Premier League but once he has done that he should be able to carry on the excellent work that Guus Hiddink did with Chelsea and in our opinion Chelsea are massive contenders again for the Premier League and Champions League this season we think that Chelsea are the team everyone has to beat this year.

PREDICTED LEAGUE POSITION:- 1st

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Given the fact Bolton and Blackburn are local rivals, the Bolton fans may not like us saying this but Bolton Wanderers are similar to Blackburn Rovers with the set-ups at both clubs being very similar.

Gary Megson has done a very good job at Bolton Wanderers since taking over and he is a proud manager who instills a determination and a willingness to compete into his players in very much a similar way to what Sam Allardyce does at Blackburn.

Wanders are by no means a flash team with no outstandingly talented players and certainly no big egos – Megson would not entertain such a player – but what Bolton Wanders are is committed, competitive, determined and they certainly can give all teams a real test when on their best form.

The three best players at Bolton last years were the goalkeeper Jaskelainen, Kevin Davies provides real physical power, leadership and a goal threat and also Matthew Taylor who adds quality and creativity and we expect the same three players to be the key for Bolton again this season.

Gary Megson has always been fairly shrewd in the transfer market and yet again this summer he does appear to have landed some good looking deals for Bolton with the signings of defenders Zat Knight and Paul Robinson along with midfielders Sam Ricketts and Sean Davis and all four will certainly strengthen the Bolton squad.

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Blackburn Rovers fans will be very grateful for the fact they are in the Premier League for another season given the horrendous start last year and of course the praise has to go to Sam Allardyce for doing what he does best, making Blackburn Rovers solid again, hard to beat and doing enough to survive.

The question for this season is what do we expect from Blackburn Rovers? To be honest, we don

When a team is promoted to the Premier League, the key question they face is at what cost to the club do you place on survival – do you spend big to try and stay up or do you keep things tight and hope to stay up.

For Birmingham City the case seems to be very much the former as they have embarked upon a substantial recruitment drive in terms of both finance and personnel and have been spending big in the hope of giving it their very best shot to survive in the Premier League. We commend them for that positivity.

Alex Mcleish is a manager who has always impressed with his character, attitude and overall approach to the game and he will doubtless give absolutely everything to keep Birmingham City in the Premier League.

He has his teams well drilled and well organised so they will be hard to break down in games and especially in home games at St Andrews which generates an intense atmosphere and that provides a solid platform from which to build.

The signings of Lee Bowyer and Barry Ferguson will add experience, physical toughness and strength to the midfield unit while Roger Johnson is a highly rated central defender who certainly looks capable of performing to a high standard in the Premier League.

The biggest challenge that promoted teams face is scoring goals on a regular basis and this could be a problem for Birmingham City, but they will be looking to record signing Christian Benitez to fire the goals for them that will then give them a chance to gain positive results in matches.

Mcleish is wise enough to know that Birmingham City face a massive task to survive and clearly the new additions to the squad need to adapt quickly and perform to a high standard, but the confidence appears to be within the club that they can survive and that attitude could yet well see them survive for another season in the Premier League.

PREDICTED LEAGUE POSITION:- 17th

There is tremendous respect for Martin O’Neill and for the great work he has done at Aston Villa but the key to this season for Aston Villa is will they be able to build upon the excellent work of last season and improve further or will Martin O’Neill’s side fail to live up to expectations and fail under the pressure.

Despite having a poor finish to last season, Aston Villa had a fantastic season and the fact they had a major chance of achieving Champions League football illustrates how good they where for the majority of the season.

Martin O’Neill is a great believer in team spirit and team ethics and there are no outstanding superstars within the Aston Villa side, but what they do possess is a group of players who give maximum commitment and believe in each other whilst being willing to play very positive football and that has to be commended.

Where major doubts remain about Aston Villa is the obvious lack of depth of experience and quality within the squad and that has only been made worse by the exit of their inspirational captain, Gareth Barry, who has been their best players for years.

Another massive loss will be the retirement of influential defender Martin Laursen and he will need replacing to make sure the defensive unit does not become weakened.

Aston Villa possess talented players with the likes of John Carew, Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlohar and Emile Heskey, but they lack depth and quality in all the key areas and Martin O’Neill needs to make several important moves in the transfer market to bolster the Aston Villa squad and maintain their recent progress.

Stewart Downing has been signed which should prove to positive in time, once he has recovered from injury, as it will add further attacking quality, but the lack of positive transfer activity at Aston Villa must be concerning for their fans and it casts doubt with regards to what they can achieve this forthcoming season.

Martin O’Neill is an experienced manager who will endeavour to produce beyond expectations yet again and will give the Aston Villa squad the confidence and belief they need. But whether the squad is strong enough to match last year