After England’s humiliation at the hands of Iceland, the attention from fans has switched firmly back to their clubs, and what a season next year promises to be. The year we have just witnessed will go down in history after Leicester shocked not just England, but the world, to be crowned Premier League champions. You can never write them off after they defied the odds last season, but there has been a lot of change at the bigger clubs who will be determined to get back to the top of the league.
The early favourites are Manchester City, primarily because they have appointed Pep Guardiola who will hope to bring his consistent domestic success to England. City are expected to make big moves in the transfer window too, with Spaniard Nolito reportedly close to joining from Celta Vigo. However, whilst they possess an excellent squad and manager, the same can be said about a lot of teams and you can go to Betway to find all the to win the league odds, and try and pick a winner. Another favourite is Chelsea, the Londoners had an abysmal campaign last year and failed to make Europe, but that disappointment could work in their favour this year, with less games to worry about and a bigger focus on the league. Throw in the new manager, Antonio Conte, who has worked wonders with Italy at Euro 2016 and you can see them posing a real threat at the top of the table.
Elsewhere, Arsenal finally seem set to spend big after signing Granit Xhaka for around £35m as well as bidding for Jamie Vardy. An addition to the back four, and a proven goalscorer up front and the Gunners would look the real deal, given their undoubted quality from deep. Of course, we cannot forget Manchester United, who have announced the signing of Zlatan Ibrahimović to their ranks. His confidence combined with Jose Mourinho’s behaviour could make United the most hated club in the country, but they are both serial winners and you think it won’t be too long before the Portuguese manager has United back to where they feel they belong. As an outside bet, Tottenham and Liverpool will be hopeful they can push the winners close. In Mauricio Pochettino and Jürgen Klopp they boast two of the better managers in the league, so with the right additions it would be naïve to rule them out, although the depth of the sides mentioned previously looks too much at the minute.
Overall, whilst it will be hard to pip last year for sheer drama, the upcoming season is more intriguing than ever. You can argue about the quality of the players in the league, but in terms of managers, next season is frighteningly good in England’s top flight and some of them will have to fail. The historically bigger clubs look geared up for a real scrap to take the crown away from Leicester, but after their heroics last season it really is impossible to call.