Welcome to The North?

With the start of the new Premiership season less than a week away, we thought it would be best to sit around the 4-4-2 table with a pot of tea & some cornish scones & take a look @ who we feel will be making the headlines come May next year.

PART ONE: THE TITLE

With a massive £252,725,000 spent already on players, The likes of United & City have strengthened wisely. With the pair going head to head with each other in the race to sign 'The Dutchman' Wesley Sneijder, there's gonna be a lot of talented players playing their trade up in Manchester this season.

In North London it's a different story for Spurs & Arsenal, with the pair of them struggling to keep hold of their prized assets. Cesc Fabregas will be a massive loss to Arsenal and many believe that the likes of Van Persie & Samir Nasri will also follow Cesc out of the door. With Gervinho the only Notable Signing made, it could be the first time in a while that Arsenal fail to make The Champions League spots!

@ White Hart Lane it's a similar story, With Modric being tipped to move before the end of the window, the likes of Bale, Defoe & Sandro have also voiced concerns over the lack of money available for Harry to strengthen the team ahead of the new season.

Liverpool have been busy bringing back the British core to their team, Adams, Henderson & Downing all being added to the squad over the summer. It remains to be seen if they have enough quality to get back into Europe next season.

Chelsea meanwhile have gone about their business unsettling players like usual in trying to regain the tag of the biggest spenders! Talk of Kaka being the last piece of the jigsaw. With the new manager under pressure even before the first balls been kicked, it will be interesting to see how Chelsea and Torres cope this time around.

So who's gonna finish top?

Although The Midweeker would like QPR to finish top as he has stuck a pony on them! Realistically only 3 teams have a chance of lifting the title come May. With United, City & Chelsea being the most likely to do it! Out of the 3 Chelsea still look a fair bit short of the pace. With aging players, no real leadership, lack of discipline & spiraling costs Abramovich's pet project might not get the full attention needed.

A shift in the waters looks possible, but not the in the way many fans would of liked. The likes of Arsenal, Spurs & Liverpool are miles behind the big 3, in spending terms, in quality terms and in footballing terms. This gap will only get bigger & bigger over the next few years. With none of them being able to match wages or transfer prices that the big 3 can. Spurs for example had a fantastic chance last season of cementing their place in the top 4, but without being able to offer mega bucks the players in question went elsewhere. Arsenal looked like title contenders @ the start of the season...... they were lucky to finish 4th in the end! Liverpool have brought too many mediocre players over the last few years and disposing of them is proving tricky. Another season without a trophy while watching United win another could prove a step to far for some of their loyal fans.

So with each member of the team undecided who will finish top next season, all we can say is that it will be between United, City or if The Midweeker is lucky QPR.