Who gets silver (not silverware)?

When Chelsea gets Gold, there is a dog-eat-dog competition for the silver, bronze etc. While we enjoy the ride some old-timers are still fighting for the tickets. The contenders for the left-overs like Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal are supposedly expecting to win the title (my wrong foot!). Whereas the Spurs seems to have a more realistic expectation of getting the fourth place. Here goes my views on where these non-champion teams could end up this season:

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League place #2 – Manchester United: A very committed bunch. Rooney is the main man who can turn matches allright, but yet to score against Chelsea. I see Rooney maturing and peaking slowly. This could be his season. Ruud will be badly missed and I dont think there is a good replacement for him yet. Saha is there but I dont see him in the same league as Ruud. Saha is the only genuine striker in the squad and he is very injury prone. If he falls to injury again, Man Utd will have to do an England in WC 2006. Rooney and Saha already share good on-field relationship. We need to see how Rooney and Ronaldo play together after that ‘red card – bench wink’ incident in the world cup. The newspapers say that they are training together and pallying along. For a person of Rooney’s temper, I dont see him making amends this easily. Rooney has also expressed his wish to stay in Man Utd longer than his current contract till 2010. That should be good news for Sir Alex. Park is a live wire and Rossi was impressive too.
While the defence is allright with Gary Neville, Rio, Silvestre and O’ Shea, the midfield is what posing too much of a problem for Sir Alex. Well, the 18.6 million man Carrick is here but still it does not quite comfort me. When you compare the midfielders of the other top 4 teams, the Man Utd midfield is not that promising. While the transfer window is not closed yet, and most of the Serie A discount sale being over I wonder from where Air Alex is going to land his man. FC Bayern has stated categorically that Owen hargreaves would not leave the club.

Verdict: If they want to achieve their best possible finish of No.2, this team needs to be very consistent and make one real good signing for the midfield and bring home a geniune striker as a back up for ever-broken Saha. 80 – 85 points.

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League place #3 – Liverpool: Their fans have started saying that they are title contenders and looking forward to Champions League etc. But one thing about Liverpool is that they are very very inconsistent. They beat Man Utd one day and lose to Fulham a day after. And this keeps happening all season. Against quality defences, I dont see them score a single goal unless Stevie Gerrard buries one from miles away or the tallest player of Liverpool sticks his head out when heavens are showering on him.

I dont believe that Peter ‘where-is-the-ball’ Crouch is a football player and his being upfront for Liverpool gave me so much peace and comfort. But now you have a mad bull Bellamy who can really make a difference there. I’m not so appreciative of Liverpool defence and by al probabilities, Sheva would score more against them in this season and Chelsea will extend their premier League grip over Liverpool. There have been some good signings this summer for Liverpool and they might really give Man Utd a run for the second place.

If they need to be anywhere near No.2, Liverpool should certainly start scoring goals. In the 05-06 league, they score only 57 goals while Chelsea netted 72. May be, Craig Bellamy can influence this figure.

Verdict: If Bellamy clicks, they can certainly believe to reach No.2. Otherwise it might be fight taken to the last day of the season. 75 – 80 points.

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League place #4 – Arsenal: A very young team and a Champions League runner-up. I was never impressed by Arsenal’s football in the Champions League last year. It was clumsy, crappy and boring to death. Henry scores and the whole team defends the goal like a school team playing league champions. This happened day in and day out. They got lucky and they were there. It was more of destiny than skill, strategy, teamwork etc. How else can you explain Riquelme missing the penalty in 91st minute?

It is still a one-man team. If we see Henry gets injured midway in the season, I wouldnt be surprised if they finish 6th or 7th. Reyes has his one foot in Madrid and Ashley Cole waiting with his blue jersey. The new kids in the defence were good enough for the 11-men defenc in the Champions League but to maintain the consistency in 38 matches spanning over 10 months? I doubt. Fabregas and Rosicky are good but the main concern is the defence.

Verdict: A possible No.3, if Rosicky clicks and Ashley stays or No.4 if Ashley goes and No.6 or No.7 is Henry misses more than 5 matches. 75 – 80 points.

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My predictions for the Chelsea matches against these teams are:

Chelsea 3 – 1 Man Utd
Man Utd 1 – 1 Chelsea
Chelsea 2 – 0 Liverpool
Liverpool 1 – 2 Chelsea

Chelsea 3 – 1 Arsenal
Arsenal 0 – 2 Chelsea