WHY SAY ANYTHING?

Ah, the wonderful art of mathematics! Or should that be the wonderful science of mathematics?

Whichever it is, next season will see the Premier League’s top teams set about proving what every five year old already knows, that eight into four does not go. Higher up the title-chasing ladder and Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United will prove that three into one does not go either.

In other words it is widely expected that the title will be a three horse race but the top four will be an eight horse race.

This theory may well be taken apart by the likes of Leicester City, Southampton or even a rejuvenated Newcastle United and, to an extent, we hope that it is. The Premier League does not need to be as predictable as we think it is going to be next season.

At least we have moved away from the days when the top two were always the same and now even a competition between eight teams is a welcome change from what we became accustomed to.

Thankfully the Premier League remains the most competitive league in Europe and is where Neymar would have chosen to go if he was really leaving Barcelona “for the challenge”, as he says he is.

What challenge does he face at PSG? Overcoming Monaco to regain the Ligue 1 title? Winning the Champion’s League? He had the same challenges at Barcelona where he had to overcome Real Madrid to regain La Liga title and win the Champion’s League! So nothing much changes there then. He says he isn’t interested in being the star player or in the money. So why has he moved at all?

But we digress. Who, realistically, can stop one of the big three winning the Premier League next season?

Arsenal won’t be able to do so because they still have Arséne Wenger pulling the ever more threadbare strings and he no longer has what it takes to keep up with the younger managers. Nowadays, not only is football a young man’s game but so is football management and Wenger is in danger of being left in the starting blocks by the rest.

Tottenham have not signed any new players yet and even the ever-optimistic Mauricio Pochettino is starting to sound a little concerned by their inactivity in the market. He has watched enviously as Chelsea, City and United have spent millions, waiting patiently to be told by Dastardly Daniel Levy that he has a budget of £100 million to spend on new players. He is still waiting!

Liverpool have signed some good players and have had a decent pre-season but still look a little light. Their title chances would be greatly improved if they could sign Virgil van Dijk and Naby Keita but getting both deals across the line is looking difficult.

All of this offers a very decent chance for one of the others to slip, unnoticed, into the top four.

Everton are another team having a decent run and also have the advantage in that they have already played two competitive games in the Europa League. The fact that Ross Barkley wants to leave makes the signing of Gylfi Sigurdsson even more important if they are to challenge for a top four place.

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilić will be hoping for better luck with injuries and on the goalscoring front. Any sign of a marked improvement in these two aspects of their game and they, like Everton, could sneak into the top four at the expense of one of their more illustrious neighbours.

So it promises to be a less predictable season through sheer weight of numbers challenging for the top spots but, at the end of the day, the final table will probably have an all too familiar ring about the top three, if not the rest.