FOUR DAYS TO GO

UNTIL THE 2009-2010 ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE KICKS OFF!

After one of the most ridiculous yet somehow boring transfer windows/off season, i can hardly wait for the action to start!

Of course, Cristiano Ronaldo finally moved to Real Madrid (boo!) for a whopping 80 million pounds!
Carlos Tevez left MUFC for cross-town rivals Manchester City, with all the grace and aplomb of a bull in a china shop.
City, who also bought Arsenal's Adebayor and Kolo Toure, along with Aston Villa and England midfielder Gareth Barry and Blackburn's Roque Santa Cruz, seem to have no hesitation in splashing out their newly-acquired Middle Eastern oil money, the bastards.

Arsenal seem to be falling before the season, having sold two big names to City and only bringing in one defender, an untried Dane. Wenger's tight budget and reliance on youth could be their undoing, though a certain MUFC youthful team of 1999 shows there are always exceptions to the rules.

Chelsea's biggest coup of the off season seems to have been recruiting AC Milan's Carlo Ancelotti to be the new manager. As a Manchester United fan, this seems to be my biggest worry; he has been a proven winner for some time now with the Italian giants, beating United on occasion in European fixtures.

New boys Burnley, Wigan and Birmingham have everything to prove, and with Newcastle United finally being relegated last season, some other established EPL teams may find themselves flirting with the bottom of the table, along with the newly promoted sides.

I wouldn't be surprised if Birmingham stayed up, they've been in and out of the EPL in the past few years, and have an astute manager in Alex McLeish. It's always interesting to see him come up against Sir Alex Ferguson, what with their (somewhat) friendly history and past Rangers/United European battles.

My money's on Rooney to come up big this year, leading United on after the high-profile exit of Ronaldo. The signing of Michael Owen will unfold a truly entertaining story, hopefully one laden with goalscoring feats. Let's see if Liverpool can contend with Chelsea and push for the title...though losing Alonso to Madrid is good news for United fans, and could prove to be bad business for the Reds.

My predictions for top 3:
1-Machester United
2- Chelsea
3- Liverpool

With Manchester City fighting Arsenal and Aston Villa in the 4-6 spots.
Out of the three new teams this season, I can only see Birmingham having the slimmest of chances of staying up, with perhaps Hull, Wolverhampton and Brunley taking their places in the drop. Burnley, ya'll were FIFTH in the Championship last year and only the brilliantly entertaining concept of the EPL playoffs saw you get in by the skin of your teeth. Prove me wrong by not being the worst team in the league. Hey, you can't be as bad as Derby County!

The only thing for certain is that this season will be epic. Thank God there's only 3 months of the off-season to endure! I barely survived on rations of YouTube goal compliations and football humor!

UNITED! UNITED!

-J