The countdown to August 15

Premier league predictions:
1. Manchester United
2. Chelsea
3. Liverpool
4.Arsenal
5. Manchester City
...
18. Portsmouth
19. Hull City
20. Wolves

THERE will be question marks hanging over Fergie's side as kick off approaches and rightly so. Any team is bound to miss that smarmy Portuguese winger who scored 42 goals last term. Michael Owen is a gamble. No one's heard of Gabriel Obertan. And Antonio Valencia stood out in an unexceptional Wigan team.
But for me, they'll get more out of Wayne Rooney this year and I fancy Owen to be fit and full of goals. They'll get great service from a trusted midfield. The only possible shortcoming I see is if Rooney picks up a major injury or a lack of goals from the midfield - are any two of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Anderson, Owen Hargreaves, Michael Carrick, Ji-Sung Park, Darren Fletcher, Valencia and Nani, really likely to score ten league goals each?
Despite the Liver-bird upon my chest, I hate to say I see this lot claiming an unprecedented fourth successive league title, with Owen contributing to the season Man Utd go one better than Liverpool in the top division trophy count.

It's not that my faith in the Messiah is waivering. Rafa's got a tactically well-drilled squad who will benefit from a title race last season. Stevie Gerrard and Fernando Torres should play more games together this year. Israeli schemer Yossi Benayoun's shown he's top-four class. Glen Johnson should be an exciting foil for Dirk Kuyt on the right. Spanish wideman Albert Riera has his first season in English football under his belt and should kick on. But at the time of writing this, Xabi Alonso looks all but a Real Madrid player.

A player of his guile, belief, positional strength and range of passing is extremely hard to replace. His disciplined play is only comparable to two Liverpool central midfield players that I've witnessed in my 15 years following the club: Jamie Redknapp and Dietmar Hamann. Look around the PL at the moment and there's players comparable to the Xabi mould in Scholes and Cesc Fabregas, further afield I'd draw comparisons to Xavi - the man blocking Alonso's way to a regular starting place for Spain. They are few and far between and highly-prized by their clubs.

Wesley Sneijder and Rafael Van Der Vaart have been mentioned in a swap deal with the La Liga runners up, but I get the impression Rafa isn't keen on either. The constant links with David Silva make sense in that his arrival would bring Gerrard back to fill the gap left by Alonso, but I'd rather see Gerrard continue his partnership with Torres in that more advanced position.

In Rafa we trust though, and he may well have a rabbit up his sleeve - it just won't be called Gareth as he had hoped. Only a major centre forward signing would convince me to pull back Gerrard and I'm not ruling out David Villa's arrival. I sense a deal involving one of Valencia's top stars may happen - not necessarily with Liverpool - at the end of the transfer window when the money men at the Mestella get a bit twitchy. But as an adopted Yorkshireman my glass is half full and I worry Carlo Ancelotti will bring a new dimension to Chelsea.

As Guus Hiddink showed, their squad isn't in as bad knick as it looked under Big Phil,
the hapless Brazilian who had the confusing expressions without the funnyman, Thunderbird impressions of the legendary humourous Claudio Ranieri (where have all the charismatic, slightly mental managers gone? At least Ian Holloway's back in management at Blackpool!)

Arsenal won't have as bad a season as everyone makes out. Andrey Arshavin will be crucial to them but they also welcome back the crafty Tomas Rosicky, the predatory Eduardo and have a potential replacement for Kolo Toure in Thomas Vermaelen. It would be good to see Patrick Vieira return, if just to hear the Gunners fans sing Viiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeira Woooooho.

Man City will be more consistent than last season, but only sporadically I reckon. There's bound to be player unrest. Can't see the thumb sucking 'it's a pleasure to sign for Chelsea' Robinho, Craig 'last chance saloon' Bellamy, Roque Santa Cruz, poor 'I'm so unloved' Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor fitting into one team. It's only a matter of time before one of them pipes up and waps out the golf club.

At the other end, it's going to take major investment from Pompey's new owners to give Paul Hart a fighting chance of keeping the South Coast side up. With Peter Crouch and Johnson gone they've lost their best players, which was only enough to help them survive last season. Hull's attempts to persuade a striker to join them is like convincing Gordon Brown to do a handstand in the House of Commons, and without the same start as they enjoyed last year I just doubt they'll have enough, especially with the competition I expect to see from an experienced Birmingham side marshalled by a decent manager and the tenacity of the likeable, never-say-die Burnley boys. Wolves on the other hand will be toothless. Sorry Mick. They look lightweight and by their fans' own admission are quite a few players short of PL quality.

Roll on August 15...

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