WHY SAY ANYTHING?

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Having boldly predicted that Manchester City would be the team to catch this season we also boldly predicted that Liverpool were probably the best equipped to catch them.

Having also written off Chelsea and Arsenal because of “new manager syndrome”, whatever that may be, and Tottenham Hotspur because, well, they won nothing last year and they have the same players this year so how can they win anything with that blasé approach to life in the Premier League, we were left with Manchester United as the only other possible challengers to City’s crown.

Our doubt about them, quite reasonably, surrounded their narcissistic manager and whether he could actually deem his team to be as important as himself. The answer to our question was a resounding NO!!! He is the greatest manager of all time, ever, and certainly better than the other 19 Premier League managers all put together and made into one big one.

How do we know this? Because HE told us and anybody else prepared to listen to his recent rants.

Having explained what a good manager he used to be he has put himself in the situation of actually having to prove that he still is quite good at telling football players what to do. This was probably not his intention but, now he has realised the full import of his words, he needs to get on with it.

So with Mourinho needing to prove a point, Klopp needing to justify spending hundreds of millions of pounds that he totally disagreed with spending in the first place and Guardiola just needing to prove he can win the title again, it should be between these three so why do we get the impression that there may be one or two others involved in the race this time out?

A crazed Watford supporter just about manages to keep his hair on as his team score against Tottenham

To be fair to Watford and their amazing start to the season we don’t expect them to “do a Leicester” and go on and win the title so we can immediately relieve some of the pressure Javi Gracia must be feeling now that he has seen Sir Elton John jumping up and down in the director’s box. No, mid-table or even top ten will represent a tidy season for The Hornets.

Now we have seen Arsenal and Chelsea in action has our opinion changed on what they can achieve? The short answer for Arsenal is no, it hasn’t. They have beaten the two bottom clubs and it would seem that Unai Emery does have an idea about what he wants from his team. The problem is that it will take a couple of transfer windows for him to get it.

Chelsea are a different proposition. Maurizio Sarri appears to have settled in seamlessly and has the players on board immediately. They have impressed by winning their opening four games albeit against opposition who haven’t particularly impressed, but they still had to beat them.

Whether this run of good results will continue when Chelsea are facing better teams remains to be seen and, judging by recent comments made by their manager, he still has some work to do before he can be confident of positive results against the top sides.

On this basis Chelsea must be considered to be a work in progress.

So, to recap, after four games Liverpool are the early pacesetters but, in truth, only have a 100% record because they have been fortunate in three of their four games. Chelsea have looked good but haven’t played anybody of note as yet. Tottenham were fortunate in beating United and got their comeuppance at Watford, which means they are still not the finished article and United themselves seem to be getting things on track, we shall see.

In the pink! A headline you won’t see anywhere else due to it’s originality

Manchester City, the reigning champions, are playing the best football and winning their games in style. Even their draw against Wolves was achieved with some panache given that they hit the post once and the crossbar twice!

They remain the team to beat and we still maintain that anybody who finishes above them will win the title but we are no wiser as to who that may be.