Premier League title race takes shape

Now that the cries of “it’s coming home” and the nation’s patriotic fervour for Euro 2020 has settled down (which as a Welshman was quite peaceful), everyone’s attention is firmly focused on club football – specifically the Premier League.

Before the season started, one could tell that this year’s edition of the Premier League was certainly going to be one for the history books. The transfer market was extremely active with big money moves happening left, right and centre. As an Arsenal fan it was great seeing us splashing the cash (£50m) on a defender in the form of Ben White, but the Gunners weren’t the only London club to spend big. Arsenal’s spending was overshadowed by Chelsea when they brought in Romelu Lukaku for £97.5m, though it was Manchester City who ultimately made the transfer headlines, paying Aston Villa £100m for the man who had impressed in the past few Premier League seasons as well as Euro 2020 this summer – Jack Grealish.

Meanwhile, at Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo’s return has helped them return towards the top of the Premier League table in the first few weeks of the season. They are joined by the usual suspects at the top of the table, Liverpool and Chelsea. Looking at the rest of the teams in the top five, there is of course Manchester City who have recently been perennial title contenders, with their continuous ability to attract the worlds best players and put them all into one team.

Surprisingly, Brighton are also keeping up with the so-called ‘big teams’, but Brighton’s surge into the top five appears to have more to do with their relatively favourable schedule rather than showing any real top-four potential, and it is doubtful that they’ll still be in the mix by Christmas.

The Premier League has many ups and downs – who knows where we will be when the final whistle blows?

Aston Villa have been impressive considering they lost their talisman and captain Jack Grealish to Manchester City in the summer transfer window. In a similar fashion to Tottenham Hotspur after losing Gareth Bale in 2013, Aston Villa may have been tempted to use Grealish’s £100m transfer fee to buy seven somewhat mediocre players. Instead, they bought a player who, after a 30-minute cameo against Everton, appears to be a direct, and adequate replacement for Grealish – Leon Bailey.

Villa have also invested in Emi Buendia, an attacking midfielder from Argentina who has Premier League experience from his time at Norwich. The purchase of Danny Ings was a great piece of business, as Ings can replace Grealish’s stats when it comes to the teams goal contributions. Ings is also used to playing in a system with two strikers, and will consequently be able to complement Ollie Watkins perfectly. Now, Aston Villa sit tenth in the Premier League table and I would expect them to climb the table as the season goes on, and they could even be dark horses for European football at the end of the season.

With the start of the season, fantasy football is also in full swing, and, as a keen fantasy football player, I’m sure some of you are not only concerned with your favourite teams performance, but also how certain players perform on the pitch. We are five games into the season and happily Mohammed Salah is looking on fire.

He is tied with Michail Antonio and Bruno Fernandes at the peak of the goalscorer list in the Premier League with four goals, and if he continues in this rich vein of form, we could see him return to the same goal-scoring heights as in the 2017/18 season when he bagged 32 goals.

The Premier League is one of world football’s most exciting leagues to watch. As a fan it has its ups and downs (mostly downs as an Arsenal fan) so who knows where we will be when the final whistle blows on the Premier League on 22 May 2022. Will my predictions be wrong and Brighton end up doing a Leicester winning it all? Will Villa completely disappoint me and get relegated? Who knows: Arsenal could even win the league.