Preview Season 2010-11

I'm so thankful the new season is finally here after that defensive and boring World Cup! I can now savor the fast and feisty English league again. Overall, one should feel the new season will have a lot to offer : The top four demarcation has gotten more hazier than ever thanks to the likes of Tottenham and City. City have bought a host of new talent - Silva, Toure and with Balotelli seemingly on his way, they definitely seem stronger on the paper. Liverpool will definitely do better than last season, under Roy Hodgson while Chelsea and United think they are good to go without too many changes to their squads.

From United's perspective, I am quit OK with the squad with the only exception being the fact that we have not added a quality central midfielder. Everybody has been talking of the importance of us buying an attacking midfielder all through the summer. With Anderson and Hargreaves indefinitely out, and Scholes aging, it's only Fletcher and Carrick that we have as established midfielders. Cleverly and Gibson are still young and untested on the league scene (though Gibson has shown promise). I think Sir Alex is taking a bit of risk by not adding a decent midfielder. For us to do well we will need most, if not all of these things to happen - Scholes should play at least 20 league games at the top of his game (he definitely showed he can do that in the Community Shield!), Carrick needs to rediscover his form, Fletcher will have to play week-in week-out as well as he did last season, if not better. Gibson and Cleverly will have to come up with impact performances whenever required to do so. Else we might struggle!

Midfield apart, I am quite happy with our forces in the other departments, especially the forward line. With Hernandez oozing so much promise and confidence and Berbatov looking more determined than I have seen him all my life, we won't have to rely on Rooney as much as we did last season.

Favourites: Though most people are favouring Chelsea to start with, I am not sure any team can feel overtly confident about winning the league outright and it is true about Chelsea as well. I foresee another topsy turvy title race involving mainly Chelsea, United and Arsenal. I actually feel Chelsea could struggle more than they did last season, their aging side being the cause! Also, I see Tottenham doing better than City, since I feel they will be on a high following last season and will only grow stronger under Harry Rednapp. I watched City a few times last season and I feel that under a man like Mancini, they almost look scared to play free-flowing attacking football inspite of the resources they have. Don't think that will change much - Italian defensive mentality the reason? May be.