Our Rivals' summer

[LeTallecWiz]

Arsenal:
Tierney - potential class LB, problem position for them last year
Luiz - meh
Pepe - could make their attacking unit as deadly as ours or city.
Ceballos - loan

City:
Rodri - Fernandinho's replacement
Canelo

Manure:
Bissaka - potential class RB, problem position for them last year.
Maguire - solid CB worst case scenario, problem position for them last year.

Spurs:
Ndombele - class MF
Lo Celso - good AM (Eriksen replacement?)
Sessegnon - Bale MK II?

Chelsea:
Pulisic
Lampard - a young manger who will give their talented yoofs a go

These teams, bar maybe Chelsea, have got much better - and we've not even mentioned Wolves & Everton, who've also improved drastically imo.

Going to be a really tough season ...

 

[keniget]

City have also swapped Danilo for Cancelo as well which gives them better options.

 

[tombrown]

 

[RedStar]

Arsenal have also brought in Ceballos from Madrid on loan. Objectively speaking I think theyve done the best business of all the teams in the league, followed by Spurs then Everton.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

City have also swapped Danilo for Cancelo as well which gives them better options.

Adjusted - but I think they've fucked up by not giving Laporte a better partner than Stones or Otamendi.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Arsenal have also brought in Ceballos from Madrid on loan. Objectively speaking I think theyve done the best business of all the teams in the league, followed by Spurs then Everton.

Yup, and they're rumored to be going after Rugani (I rate him) and that young French CB @ Leipzig (whom supposedly is good but I know zilch about!)

 

[Hansern]

Arsenal have done well to get Ceballos and Pepe. But they still havent solved their biggest issues. The only deal still alive for them regarding CB is appaz Luiz. That doesnt help them one bit.

Chelsea have regressed.

Spurs have improved a bit, but not enough.
Sessegnon is not Bale.

City have signed a Fernandinho replacement and a full back that Juve didnt want anymore.

Utd have improved their defence. They’ll still be shite.

Everton have signed everyone for loads of money. But when you look at their team its still a 6-8th team.
They’ve also still got T-Rex arms in goal.

We should have signed 1-2 new players. Left back and a forward/winger.

Things havent changed that much, and it will be between City and us again.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Spurs have improved a bit, but not enough.
Sessegnon is not Bale.

They've signed 3 really good players - and if they find a way to get Dybala, you cannot tell me it's 'improved a bit'.

City have signed a Fernandinho replacement and a full back that Juve didnt want anymore.

and that compares to us? So basically, they improved (as Canelo > Danilo) and Rodri is class ...

Let's be honest, every team has improved by adding talent ... we haven't as of yet.

Have we improved though? Sure - experience, Ox, Keita, Shaq, Lallana etc but as you say, we needed a LB back up and a player to give Salah/Mane a rest ...

 

[Mystic]

I think people are over playing Arsenals front three, Auba and Laca didn't start together as often as you'd expect last season, and I think all three of them will start together less. They're too forward focused, and they don't have the right team behind them to play with a narrow front three like us.

The thing that makes ours, and City's, attack so potent is how well it works for each other, are we going to see the same from Arsenal's attack? I'm not so sure, maybe.

I'm also not as convinced how good it'll be without the quality the aforementioned two have behind it. We rely heavily on the brilliance of Robbo and TAA to make our attack purr, City rely on the Silvas, and KDB to make theirs purr, I think Arsenal's team struggles to meow, yet alone purr.

I think they'll score goals, and they might just nick a place for fourth, but that's all I see, they won't come close to us and City as an attacking threat.

 

[Mystic]

For me, the jury's out on Spurs until we see if they lose anyone. If they don't, they've strengthened well, arguably cementing third place. If they lose Eriksen, arguably they've stood still.

 

[dee]

I don’t think Citeh have improved. A minor upgrade at FB and Rodri has a tough job matching Fernandinho who was top class. If he is as good then they haven’t regressed

Chelsea are going rapidly backwards without Hazard

Arse are shit

Spurs have done ok

Scum have had a mix of good and shit signings. Good at the back, shit up front

 

[Markeh]

Adjusted - but I think they've fucked up by not giving Laporte a better partner than Stones or Otamendi.

I think the partner may be Fernandinho if those two are having problems. One of the BBC journalists said that Fernandinho was saying Guardiola told him he'd be playing at center back this season.

Not sure if it's a now and again, in case of emergency or regular thing though.

 

[mark1975]

What's the deal with Moise Kean? Is he that good? He's not played loads of football and his videos show he scored a few goals from inside the box but nothing out the ordinary or particularly special. Admittedly I'm basing this opinion on that, but anyway. Anyone?

 

[hmmmmm1]

He is similar to lukaku but can also control a football

 

[mark1975]

He is similar to lukaku but can also control a football

Based on what though? 14 games in a different league?

 

[Frogfish]

Adjusted - but I think they've fucked up by not giving Laporte a better partner than Stones or Otamendi.

Otamendi was excellent last season. Looked their best defender at Wembley too.

 

[hmmmmm1]

Based on what though? 14 games in a different league?

Well they are buying potential clearly. That said, you wouldn’t be starting games for Juve if you didn’t have some technical ability. Whether Everton are the right club for him is open for debate

 

[mark1975]

Otamendi was excellent last season. Looked their best defender at Wembley too.

He was, but he's got a mistake in him and so has Stones, which is why Kompany was (again) crucial to their title challenge last season, when he could step in and provide a cool experienced head. They're clearly trying to replicate that with Fernandinho, so the results will be interesting.

 

[hmmmmm1]

The Sessegnon fee is just 25 million. Worth a punt at the price given his age

 

[LeTallecWiz]

I think the partner may be Fernandinho if those two are having problems. One of the BBC journalists said that Fernandinho was saying Guardiola told him he'd be playing at center back this season.

Not sure if it's a now and again, in case of emergency or regular thing though.

Ah that old strategy ... Javi Martinez at CB Bayern, or Mascherano at CB at Barca

 

[Mors]

City - Slight improvement with Cancelo at LB.
Arse - Improved their attack and midfield, defence as weak as usual, if not weaker with Luiz in
Utd - Had so many problems across the board, their defence is now a bit better, but their attack and midfield is terrible.
Chelsea - Weakened due to their best player leaving
Spurs - Improvements in midfield, and maybe attack yet. Sessegnon was not good at all in the top division but maybe Poch can sort him out.
Everton - Getting Gomes and Kean in is a real result for them, and if they can get Zaha they're going to be a really good unit.
West Ham - Signed a couple of relatively unknown players for big bucks, but let Arnuatovic go. Kept their best players apart from that.
Leicester - Getting in Tielemans and Praet is a bit of a steal for them, they'll be a handful next season if Vardy stays fit.
Us - Stood still and gave everyone a go at catching up, which it looks like Spurs and the Arse were more than happy to take advantage of

 

[Halmeister]

Will be tough for us this year. Everyone else, bar Chelsea, has improved.

Let's hope we were so much better than everyone else that standing still means we'll be ahead of them. I'm not banking on it though.

I fancy Spurs to have a great season and finish 2nd.

 

[Y1]

Hopefully everyone improved enough to take points off City and not us!

 

[MomoWASright]

Will be tough for us this year. Everyone else, bar Chelsea, has improved.

Let's hope we were so much better than everyone else that standing still means we'll be ahead of them. I'm not banking on it though.

I fancy Spurs to have a great season and finish 2nd.

I agree with most of what you say. I think we will improve providing we get more out of Shaqiri and Keita which isn’t impossible. We may even get 25 games out of Oxlade-Chamberlain. Add Brewster I think we’ll be better than last season.

I still fancy spurs to do a spurs and fuck it up.

 

[Halmeister]

I agree with most of what you say. I think we will improve providing we get more out of Shaqiri and Keita which isn’t impossible. We may even get 25 games out of Oxlade-Chamberlain. Add Brewster I think we’ll be better than last season.

I still fancy spurs to do a spurs and fuck it up.

I understand the temptation (not necessarily you, but other posters) to say we'll have Ox, Shaq, Keita (I really like him), Lallana longer for this season. But I think that's a bit naive. Lallana and Ox could just as easily be write offs again, Keita didn't pull up any trees and had a few niggly injuries, same as Shaq. They could just as easily have similar seasons.

Brewster is a bit of an unknown quantity. Not really what you want when you're trying to kick on. I don't think he'll be as utterly useless as Solanke, but I can't see him being a Michael Owen waiting in the wings either.

 

[Frogfish]

Will be tough for us this year. Everyone else, bar Chelsea, has improved.

Let's hope we were so much better than everyone else that standing still means we'll be ahead of them. I'm not banking on it though.

I fancy Spurs to have a great season and finish 2nd.

So you reckon they can make up 26 points on us and have an incredible improvement on losing 13 games last season ? Or we will drop off so much from losing 1 game and keeping the same team but with more squad support this time?

 

[Frogfish]

BBC SPORT

Tottenham’s proposed move for Paulo Dybala is OFF after Juventus ultimately decided not to sell the 25-year-old Argentina forward.

 

[Frogfish]

I understand the temptation (not necessarily you, but other posters) to say we'll have Ox, Shaq, Keita (I really like him), Lallana longer for this season. But I think that's a bit naive. Lallana and Ox could just as easily be write offs again, Keita didn't pull up any trees and had a few niggly injuries, same as Shaq. They could just as easily have similar seasons.

Brewster is a bit of an unknown quantity. Not really what you want when you're trying to kick on. I don't think he'll be as utterly useless as Solanke, but I can't see him being a Michael Owen waiting in the wings either.

So in other words the same as last season ... when we finished 1 point off the top with 1 defeat and 97 points ?

 

[Silver Sean]

Arsenal:
Tierney - potential class LB, problem position for them last year
Luiz - meh
Pepe - could make their attacking unit as deadly as ours or city.
Ceballos - loan

City:
Rodri - Fernandinho's replacement
Canelo

Manure:
Bissaka - potential class RB, problem position for them last year.
Maguire - solid CB worst case scenario, problem position for them last year.

Spurs:
Ndombele - class MF
Lo Celso - good AM (Eriksen replacement?)
Sessegnon - Bale MK II?

Chelsea:
Pulisic
Lampard - a young manger who will give their talented yoofs a go

These teams, bar maybe Chelsea, have got much better - and we've not even mentioned Wolves & Everton, who've also improved drastically imo.

Going to be a really tough season ...

I like how you think any of those bar Citeh are a rival. We'll snot the shit out of them all.

 

[MomoWASright]

I understand the temptation (not necessarily you, but other posters) to say we'll have Ox, Shaq, Keita (I really like him), Lallana longer for this season. But I think that's a bit naive. Lallana and Ox could just as easily be write offs again, Keita didn't pull up any trees and had a few niggly injuries, same as Shaq. They could just as easily have similar seasons.

Brewster is a bit of an unknown quantity. Not really what you want when you're trying to kick on. I don't think he'll be as utterly useless as Solanke, but I can't see him being a Michael Owen waiting in the wings either.

I left Lallana out because I don’t think he’ll contribute at all. I do expect more from Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain cannot do any worse than last season. Surely not.

Brewster will score more than Origi. That’s my call for this season.