LONDON: Barely six weeks ago English soccer was plunged into crisis. The national team had suffered an ignominious defeat against Iceland in the European Championships and the sky was falling in.
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England boss Roy Hodgson quit, players were derided for being soft and lacking mental strength, and the quality, or otherwise, of the English Premier League was put under the microscope.
But soccer people have short memories in England, especially when the biggest show on Planet Football is due to start.
The EPL kicks off this weekend, and the nightmares of the European Championship seem to have been forgotten. Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola are ensconced at Manchester United and Manchester City, while the world's most expensive player, Paul Pogba, has also moved to the "Theatre of Dreams" but he's suspended for United's opening match against Bournemouth.
Strap in and fasten your seatbelts for another roller-coaster ride over the next nine months when the world's most-watched league will offer its regular diet of thrills and disappointments, scandal and feel good stories that will captivate its global audience.
Saturday, 13 August
9.30pm:
Hull City v Leicester City 9:30 pm
Sunday, 14 August
12 am:
Crystal Palace v West Bromwich Albion
Burnley v Swansea City
Everton v Tottenham
Middlesbrough v Stoke City
Southampton v Watford
2.30am:
Mancester City v Sunderland
10.30pm:
Bournemouth v Manchester United
Monday, 15 August
1am:
Arsenal v Liverpool
Tuesday, 16 August
5am
Chelsea v West Ham
* All times in AET
ARSENAL
Squeezed past a capitulating Spurs to snatch second place last season but face a difficult start to the new campaign following injury to Brazilian centre-back Gabriel, exposing their dearth of defensive cover.
Arsene Wenger has been defying the critics who have been yelling for his head for seasons, but failure to secure Champions League soccer this time round would surely mean the end of the road for the Frenchman.
The Gunners will inevitably look like potential champions at some point of the campaign, but if true to form will fade when the whips are cracking.
BOURNEMOUTH
Bournemouth players celebrate their team's first goal against Manchester United last season. Photo: Getty Images
Tipped by almost everyone to be relegation fodder last year, the Cherries defied the pundits and probably surprised even their own most optimistic supporters with the style and verve in which they adapted to the Premier League.
They rarely looked likely to go down, and impressed many with some cracking wins over the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea. Manager Eddie Howe and his core of players now know much more about the job that faces them, and can consolidate if those lessons have been learned. The south coast is the new home for Socceroo left-back Brad Smith, who has joined from Liverpool in the hope of securing regular first-team football.
BURNLEY
The "Ginger Mourinho", Sean Dyche, is back in the top flight with the Lancastrian club to once more face the real Special One, who will be operating just down the road in Manchester. Dyche led Burnley to the Championship title last year, despite having sold a couple of the key players who had impressed during their spell in the Premier League a season earlier. Burnley are a tight-knit squad who play to their strengths, but they have invested little and may lack the strength in depth required for this division. Survival this time round will be an achievement.
CHELSEA
Chelsea's coach Antonio Conte before the pre-season game against Werder Bremen. Photo: AP
A season of turmoil began badly for the champions when then manager Jose Mourinho clashed with the team doctor in the opening game and then went steadily downhill. Mourinho was sacked and the Blues bumped along in the bottom half of the table for months before finally ending up 10th, a terrible return for a team with such talents where such vast amounts of money have been spent.
Antonio Conte, late of the Azzurri, Juventus and various other Serie A ports of call, is now at the helm of the listing ship. He will surely plug the leaks and make Chelsea fitter, harder working and defensively more solid. If they can buy back Romelu Lukaku to add menace to the forward line Chelsea should be back in the hunt for the title. Impossible to see them struggling so badly again.
CRYSTAL PALACE
A real season of two halves for the men from Selhurst. Alan Pardew's side started the campaign with a bang and were one of the frontrunners in the early months of the 2015-16 season before falling into a dreadful hole.
Palace were winless in the league for nearly four months, a shocking run that brought them to the edge of the relegation zone. That was redeemed by a great FA Cup run that took them to Wembley, where they only lost to Manchester United in extra time. Pardew has brought in former Tottenham and England winger Andros Townsend and defender James Tomkins from West Ham, as well as French goalkeeper Steve Mandanda, all of whom look good signings. The club of Socceroo skipper Mile Jedinak will hope to find the consistency in the league they lacked last year.
EVERTON
An interesting off-season for the Toffees after the expected departure of Roberto Martinez (now managing Belgium), with his replacement Ronald Koeman regarded by most fans as an upgrade given his exploits at Southampton, whom he made a competitive and hard to beat unit.
Much will depend on how the Merseysiders can strengthen in the last weeks of the transfer window. Coveted centre-back John Stones has gone to Manchester City, while Romelu Lukaku continues to be a Chelsea target. Koeman has cleared out a lot of the old faces at Goodison and brought in several newcomers, so it might take a while for the new squad to gel.
HULL CITY
Back in the Premier League again after a season in the Championship, things are looking decidedly dodgy on Humberside.
Steve Bruce quit as manager in the off-season, and several men approached about the job – including Gianfranco Zola – have rebuffed the Tigers inquiry, while Chris Coleman, who did such a sterling job in taking Wales to the European Championship semi-final, was ruled untouchable by his employers at the Welsh FA.
One of the best players from the promotion campaign, Mohamed Diame, has been sold, and precious few have been brought in. It looks like a season of struggle for East Yorkshire's finest.
LEICESTER CITY
Claudio Ranieri Manager lifts the Premier League trophy with his players. Photo: Getty Images
One of the greatest fairy tales sport has seen when they confounded pundits, experts, bookmakers, fans and just about everyone in the global game by winning the English Premiership, Leicester will surely find things much harder this time round.
They have refined their low-possession, fast-breaking, counter-punching game but are unlikely to find the stars aligning in quite the same manner this time round. This season Leicester will have Champions League football to contend with – a major distraction as well as drain on resources – and have to do without their talismanic midfielder N'Golo Kante, who has been sold to Chelsea.
Still, they have retained Riyad Mahrez, their best player – although he is said to be a Chelsea target – and have signed exciting forward Ahmad Musa from CSKA Moscow and will surely be competitive again.
LIVERPOOL
Juergen Klopp, right and Ragnar Klavan look happy after they won the International Champions Cup game against Barcelona. Photo: AP
Year two of the Klopp experiment, and the German, having shipped out many old squad players and signed some new talent, now has a group much more in his image than that which he inherited from Brendan Rogers.
Liverpool certainly showed plenty of improvement under Jurgen Klopp and reaching the finals of the Europa League and the League Cup were significant achievements.
But Klopp's success will be determined by Liverpool's performance in the Premier League, a competition they have not won since the "breakaway" of the top division in the early 1990s. The Anfield side has strengthened, but has to prove its consistency in the Premiership can match its exploits in cup football.
MANCHESTER CITY
Last year was a disappointing one for the Citizens, who for a while looked as though they might even miss out on Champions League football. A fourth-placed finish ensured that new boss Pep Guardiola will at least get the chance to test himself and his new charges against the cream of the European game.
Guardiola's debut in the EPL is the most eagerly anticipated managerial introduction in years. The Barcelona and Bayern Munich maestro will love clashing tactics with Jose Mourinho across the road at Manchester United, although he might not be as keen on the mind games that the Portuguese loves to play.
City will inevitably take time to get the Guardiola message and refine their tactics and game style, but given the talent at his disposal, the Spaniard will surely make them, at the very least, contenders for every competition in which they are involved and they do look potential champions.
MANCHESTER UNITED
Jose Mourinho is back. But is he bigger and better than in his previous managerial incarnations at Chelsea? Mourinho will not fail because of a lack of confidence or self-belief, and United have, in the off-season, given him pretty much everything he wants in terms of a transfer budget.
The arrival, just before the new season kicks off, of Paul Pogba should be the icing on the cake for the self-appointed Special One. The Frenchman's fee is a world record and heralds a galactico-style splurge at Old Trafford, designed to convince the world's top players that United are still a huge club, despite the fact that they will be playing in the Europa League for the second season in a row.
Others to arrive include the brooding talent that is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the mercurial Swede who has ruled the roost wherever he has played, most recently at Paris St Germain, and former Borussia Dortmund star, Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Have to be real contenders.
MIDDLESBROUGH
Back among the top flight again, Boro got promotion as runners-up in the Championship under Spanish manager Aitor Karanka, a man who at one stage last season walked out on the club before returning.
Karanka has rung the changes and sought to strengthen in several areas, as he needs to if the club from the north-east is to consolidate its position in the Premiership. Boro will be tough and competitive, but one man who won't be playing in the Premiership is long-serving defender Rhys Williams, the former Socceroo having opted to return home to join Perth Glory in the A-League. Williams was a real talent whose career both in England and at international level was cruelly disrupted by injuries at all the wrong times.
SOUTHAMPTON
Another season, another new manager, but hopefully for Saints fans the system that has served them so well in recent seasons will continue to work in similar style.
Claude Puel, the Frenchman who had spent the previous 17 years coaching in his native country's Ligue Un, has succeeded Ronald Koeman at St Mary's Stadium following the latter's departure to Everton in the off-season.
Southampton have been well organised, tactically flexible and technically sound in recent seasons and have been in the mix for a top-four spot on several occasions before falling short. They have lost several well-known stars, includingSadio Mane to Liverpool and Victor Wanyama to Tottenham. But Saints have been here before, losing the likes of Adam Lallana and others to Liverpool in the past without missing a beat. No reason why they should not be competitive again.
STOKE CITY
Have undergone something of a transformation under Mark Hughes in recent years, evolving in a far more entertaining footballing side under the former Manchester United striker than they were under his predecessor, Tony Pulis, whose concentration of tough defence and organisation did a lot to help establish the men from the Potteries as Premiership regulars.
Hughes has signed one of the surprise stars of the European Championship, the former Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen who starred for Wales and is looking to continue building a fluent passing team.
However, goals have been hard to come by, so their pursuit of disgruntled West Bromwich Albion frontman Said Berahino could prove pivotal to their hopes this campaign.
SUNDERLAND
Hamburg's Cleber Reis, right, and Stoke City's Mame Diouf contest the ball in a preseason game. Photo: AP
Sam Allardyce pulled off the great escape in the most perfect of circumstances for the Mackems last year, securing their future and sending Newcastle down with that late-season victory in the Tyne and Wear derby.
Now Big Sam is the man charged with rescuing England following their disastrous Euro 2016 campaign, and the hot seat at the Stadium of Light is being occupied by former Everton and Manchester United boss David Moyes.
Can Moyes build on that momentum? It's hard to see how given the paucity of transfer activity at the club in the off-season and their seeming reluctance to spend to consolidate their status in the top division. Survival will be their first priority – again.
SWANSEA CITY
Mark Birighitti at training. Photo: Jonathan Carroll
New home for sometime fringe Socceroo goalkeeper Mark Birighitti, the Swans have continued to build on their reputation for being a footballing team and have turned themselves into solid Premier League citizens.
Can they take the next step under new-ish manager Francesco Guidolin? Well, if selling one of your top strikers (they offloaded Andre Ayew to West Ham this week) is an indication, that's unlikely, although they have replaced the Ghanaian with Spanish international Fernando Llorente and former Norwich and QPR man Leroy Fer, a Dutch international.
Swansea flirted with the drop zone for a little while last season but their class prevailed and they recovered to finish mid-table. It's likely that they will do so once again, especially as they have retained the services of Icelandic talisman Gylfi Sigurdsson.
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
For the last two months of the EPL season Mauricio Pochettino's dynamic young side looked the only team likely to derail Leicester City's unlikely premiership charge.
In the end they came up short, failing to cope with the pressure in that combustible game when they blew a 2-0 lead against Chelsea to draw, putting the title out of the question.
Pochettino has held on to his stars Harry Kane, Dele Ali, Christian Erikson, Hugo Lloris and Belgian defenders Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen and added Dutch striker Vincent Janssen and former Southampton midfielder Victor Wanyama. Have to cope with Champions League challenge this time rather than Europe League, but should manage: championship chance although it will be tough.
WATFORD
Impressive return to the Premiership last season when they rarely looked in any danger of going down and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
But, as with all clubs owned by the Italian Pozzo family, there has been plenty of change in the off season.
In comes a new manager, Italian Walter Mazzarri, a coach who had tremendous success in Serie A with Napoli but rather less at Inter, where he was sacked in his second season.
Several new players, including the intriguingly named Isaac Success, have come in while many others have gone. Importantly Watford retained the services of goal-scorer Troy Deeney, who was a target for champions Leicester.
WEST BROMWICH ALBION
Under Tony Pulis, the Baggies have become synonymous with defensive, dogged, determined and organised soccer. Well drilled, competitive and uncompromising, West Brom get results but are not exactly easy on the eye.
There has been little transfer activity at The Hawthorns during the summer break, although that could change if frontman Said Berahino is sold before the transfer window shuts in early September.
Hard to see WBA being much different this season, so a grim winter of little content probably awaits in the West Midlands.
WEST HAM
Dimitri Payet celebrates scoring a goal Newcastle United. Photo: Getty Images
Dimitri Payet was fantastic for the Hammers last season, his first in the Premier League, and excellent for France in Euro 2016. Much will depend on his form this season if Slaven Bilic's side is to improve on the progress they made last year, when they finished seventh.
There has been plenty of movement at the team who formerly played at the Boleyn ground, with numerous comings and goings. The biggest of those is the arrival of Andre Ayew from Swansea, who will be expected to give the side a cutting edge.
West Ham move to the Olympic Stadium at Stratford this season, a much bigger ground that could give them the supporter base they need to boost revenues and become one of the biggest clubs in the country – if they can achieve on-field success. Much is riding on the way they start the new campaign.
