Right after EPL finished last season, Chelsea sacked their manager Avram Grant and later in July they hire the vibrant Scolari, fresh from his mission in Swiss with Portugese team in Euro 08.
Chelsea already bought Jose Bosingwa, right back from Portugal to tighten the weakest position in Chelsea team last season. Paulo Ferreira was injured most of the season and Belleti does not really set the fire alight with his chances. I guess one of them will be signing with european team soon (transfer ends midnight 31 August 2008).
Joining one of them, could be Shaun Wright Phillips who also struggle to hold his place with resurgence of Michael Ballack and Joe Cole last year. Michael Essien and Frank Lampard are almost guaranteed their place in midfield thus leaving two or three position left (depending on manager plays sole or strike partner).
Obviously fans are interested to know how Scolari can accomodate Lampard and Ballack together in heart of midfield. Towards the end of last season, Ballack blossoms under his favourite role but without Lampard who was injured. It seems Grant failed to get the tactic right when both are on the field.
Hernan Crespo has been released by Chelsea after spending two seasons on loan in Italy. Although he played few matches for the blues but his strike rate was phenomenal. However he suffered from 'tinkering' by Ranieri and also tinkering by his wife. His wife does not like London. Being family man, he followed his wife to Italy for sunny mediteranian.
My prediction? EPL will be very tight between Chelsea and Manchester United. United has very good second string players who can replace the first team player. Liverpool still has a lot to learn especially how to deal with away games matches. It seems Rafa was tinkering too much and put Ranieri the creator of the word tinkering in football into shame. It was the pressure from media and fans for him not to tinker with his team for consecutive 100 times! Wow... I hope Rafa learned something last sesaon.
Arsenal in the mean time is very good team with thin squad. One more thing, Arsenal do not win ugly. Obviously you want to win pretty, but some of the time you have to win it ugly. They want to walk the ball into the net and you can hear fans crying 'shoot, shoot, shoot' when Arsenal player have the ball just outside penalty box.
Totenham? They bought wholesale last year, few years back and still doing it now. They could not hold on to their price asset and I guess they are doing the job they always do, rebuilding. If Modric do well this season, I could see him playing the big four.
Champion League? I could not see another two English clubs playing in the final, and Real Madrid has a knack of getting into final once a while, so Real Madrid vs. Chelsea in the final.
FA Cup? Chelsea vs. Manchester United. Classic competition with classic performance.
Devil's fan must doubt about Scolari credential, but Fergie is quirking in his pants claiming Chelsea would not be title contender. Let's the game begin!!
