Who will be your Premier League champions in the 2021-2022 season?

[JoJones14]

liverpool look so strong but dont know if they have the depth of chelsea or city. city need a new LB and ST but kinda doing it by committee right now.

[Farraj90]

Great win for Liverpool over MU, even Ronaldo couldn't help them

[blackswan]

Man U bounced back with that win over Tottenham, but Spurs were absolutely awful. I reckon United fans will be nervous ahead of their City clash this weekend.

Crystal Palace v Wolves should be a good game. Both sides are in confident form.

Southampton will kick themselves if they can't see of the injury-hit Aston Villa. Likewise Leicester City will hope to take advantage of the injuries at Leeds.

Everton v Tottenham will be interesting. Benitez is under pressure and Tottenham begin life under Conte.

West Ham v Liverpool should have some goals in it.

Arsenal have made a good habit of beating teams that they're expected to beat, so I expect they'll see off Watford.

[Farraj90]

I don't like national team breaks, but what can you do, waiting for the next round of the Premier League

[blackswan]

I know your pain Farraj90! I have no interest in the international break fixtures either.

We have an interesting round coming up given the new managerial appointments. Norwich, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Tottenham are all at home this weekend, which adds extra spice.

I'm also interested in the Burnley v Crystal Palace fixture because both are in season-best form.

Arsenal are on a long unbeaten streak but they didn't play the likes of Liverpool during that run. Chelsea and Man City both swatted Arsenal aside at the beginning of the season so it will be interesting to see whether they suffer the same fate at Anfield, or whether Arsenal's improved confidence will pay dividends.

[DavisT]

Personally, I plan to bet on Chealsea. In my opinion they have a good chance. Plus, I've been a Chealsea fan since I was a kid.

[blackswan]

The title race is shaping up nicely between Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool. I backed Chelsea at the start of the season but now I couldn't pick the winner out of those three.

The race for fourth is intriguing too, given the expected boost at Man Utd and Tottenham with their new managers. Will Arsenal and West Ham be able to keep pace?

The battle to avoid relegation is also interesting. By my count there are nine clubs that could possibly drop. Given the smaller teams have less squad depth, injuries could play a big role. Just look at the struggles at the injury-plagued Leeds compared to last season. Newcastle are expected to be boosted in the January transfer window, which will spice things up.

All in all, I'm loving this season!

[casper]

What are your thoughts for the midweek games? I reckon Newcastle could be on the end of a hiding at Anfield!

[blackswan]

They've been made harder to predict by covid. The Brentford v Man Utd game has been postponed while Brighton, Tottenham, Leicester, Aston Villa and Norwich have all had confirmed cases.

Yeah, Newcastle could get pummelled. Looking at their recent defeats at Anfield (the last four), all were by 2+ goals, so Liverpool -1.5 could be the go.

Everton could get thrashed too when they visit Chelsea. They were appalling against Crystal Palace. Everton might be the next team to see a change in manager.

Brighton v Wolves looks like it will be a low scoring affair. Wolves' last five games have seen 1, 0, 0, 1 and 1 total goals. Brighton are well-known draw machines so 0-0 or 1-1 at fulltime?

Leeds remain banged up which isn't a great thing for their visit to Man City.

Burnley v Watford is interesting. Burnley love to shut up shop and play for 0-0 draws against better teams, but against weaker teams when at home they have a go, which has resulted in higher scores (3-3 v Palace, 3-1 v Brentford). Watford concede goals aplenty but they score too (both teams scored in their last five games), so the game could end up with a surprising number of goals.

[Farraj90]

Back in September I was talking about how sorry I felt for Arsenal and how bad they were doing, but it's only been two months since they got back into the race for the top 4 xD

[blackswan]

Yeah and not long ago Tottenham were rubbish too. City, Liverpool and Chelsea look a cut above, then Arsenal & Tottenham look competitive in the race for fourth.

The covid disruptions will be rough for a few sides later in the season. Burnley have only played 15 games! Later on they'll be playing twice a week for ages in an attempt to make up for the postponements.

The January transfer window for Newcastle will be interesting. With just 10 points from 18 games so far, can they spend their away out of that hole?

One interesting spanner in the works is the African Cup of Nations, which starts in January. As one example, Crystal Palace have lost Wilfried Zaha (Ivory Coast), Jordan Ayew (Ghana) and Cheikhou Kouyate (Senegal) to their preliminary national team squads.

[blackswan]

I thoroughly enjoyed the FA Cup action last weekend. Nothing beats a good cup upset!

This EPL round looks fantastic on paper. The games I have my eye on are:

Brighton v Crystal Palace
Great rivalry game. Palace are understrength due to the Africa Cup of Nations so my lean is Brighton +0.5. Palace have only won one away game this season.

Man City v Chelsea
A top of the table clash but Man City have a whopping ten-point lead over Chelsea. I have to lean towards City given Chelsea's stumbles over the last month.

Norwich v Everton
Two teams desperate for a win. Norwich haven't scored in six games and lost all six of them. Everton have been dreadful too but at least they've been scoring. My lean is Everton to win, but with not much confidence.

Newcastle v Watford
Another game featuring two teams desperate for a win. With trepidation I have to lean towards Newcastle given their new signings and the fact that Watford have lost six straight and conceded 16 goals in the process.

Aston Villa v Man Utd
A rematch of their FA Cup game last weekend except Aston Villa host this time. I'm leaning towards Villa +0.5 in this one.

Tottenham v Arsenal
Tottenham will be relishing the fact that Arsenal were reduced to 10 men for much of their midweek EFL Cup semi-final against Liverpool. Spurs should be the fresher of the two sides. Both teams are definitely on the up at the moment. Arsenal did immensely well to hold Liverpool to a 0-0 at Anfield with ten men.

[Burgessfrus]

You know, I think Australian football has reached a new level now. They have very interesting players, and there is every chance these guys will show the Europeans what real football is. On this site, I found a very interesting topic discussing one of the players of the Australian league Griffin Logue. After learning more about him, I realized that this guy would soon become known in the outside world. Does anyone know who else of the young footballers has every chance of becoming a rising football star?