Marcelo Bielsa's side were given a tough opening hand, with Liverpool and Manchester City - last season's top two - and a trip to Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United among their first four games. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Leicester and Manchester City have put enough daylight between themselves and the chasing posse to suggest they will occupy two of the berths available, but the chase for fourth spot looks to be between Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham and Wolves. Chelsea’s results haven’t matched their investment just yet, and the problem with a big influx of players is finding your best team and system, something Lampard is going through. Burnley finished 10th last season as a team spirit envied by most in the Premier League took them into the top half for the second time in three years. Carlo Ancelotti has overseen a Goodison Park revolution, with summer signings Abdoulaye Doucoure, Allan and James Rodriguez all hitting the ground running. James Rodriguez. Even though he’s only on loan, it’s a blockbuster. Things got worse in a 6-1 home defeat to Tottenham - United's joint-heaviest of the Premier League era. “I’m trying to do the same modelling and forecasting as mathematicians are doing with coronavirus – but within a person,” he said. Premier League » Champions. He did not clarify which comment had been “taken out of context” but emphasised that he had lived in the “very multinational” UK for the last decade and enjoyed his time with “different ages, nationalities, races”. Aston Villa’s signing of Ollie Watkins and Ross Barkley look master strokes, but the biggest winners of all this summer could well be Everton, who have been turned into table-toppers by Carlo Ancelotti’s clever shopping. There is no doubt that the bigger clubs are the biggest drivers of interest in the Premier League, domestically and internationally. Antonov did not respond to requests for comment, but in a YouTube video he said he had not cheated. The Premier League takes a two-week break as international football returns with a rare triple-header for the British nations. The proposals for major structural changes to English football revealed over the weekend have resulted in much debate, but the proposals are neither all good nor all bad. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. Godfrey: Ancelotti will help me get to the next level, The winners and losers from the Premier League so far, What has happened to the Premier League? This year I decided I would take it seriously and try and beat her. Seventh on Christmas Day in 1995, Norwich ended up being relegated and that should prove a cautionary tale for any team outside the current top six suffering delusions of adequacy. With millions of players around the world, the Fantasy Premier League is meant to recreate the competitive excitement and experience of managing a football team in England’s top division. Brighton’s Dale Stephens being his only real signing. This time last season Brighton were 10 points clear of the relegation zone but still needed to rely on the charity and shortcomings of others to finish just above the thick black line. Fantasy Premier League has created a thriving online culture, with competitors regularly swapping tips in an attempt to outperform friends, family and workmates. Concerns off the pitch over a summer of slow transfer activity at Old Trafford have been matched by events on it. Who are winners and losers of radical Premier League plans? Jose Mourinho being at Spurs already elevates them as a club, but now having a global superstar and a multiple Champions League winner around the place gives the club’s stature a huge boost in the game. I would never say anything like that to a player with the intent to offend them, it’s a small chat with friends, in a different language and different culture.”. The Sporting Life football team look at the winners and losers in the Premier League from the 2020 summer transfer window. Alex Telles may do well at left-back, while their two youngsters could be good in the future, but United needed a statement, after finishing third last season they needed to signal that they were out to catch the top two. “I would never in a million years say to the player what I said in a small chat to friends … I would likely ask them for an autograph if I ever met them.”. Arsenal’s best signing of the summer could well be keeping hold of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang given his importance to the team, but the late, late signing of Thomas Partey was the icing on the cake of a decent summer for the Gunners. Can Jamie Vardy keep scoring to win the golden boot? Instead, it has triggered an off-pitch row after this year’s champion was disqualified for allegedly offensive comments made “in a moment of frustration” about a Premier League player, understood to be the Manchester City striker Raheem Sterling. The early signs are showing that it could well be one of the Premier League's best signings for the price. Leeds' transfer window was a really positive one and we could point to any of their major additions as being great value. The game involves picking a squad of players from across the Premier League and hoping their real-life on-field performances are good enough to earn virtual points. Still fewer than 10 points off the pace for fourth with a little under half the season to go, a reinvigorated Arsenal under the new management of Mikel Arteta might still fancy their chances of swooping with a sustained challenge while a place in the Europa League would have been beyond the wildest dreams of fans of Crystal Palace and Sheffield United before the season commenced. Some last-minute transfer window shopping is likely, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's mood will not be eased with Chelsea, Paris St Germain, RB Leipzig and Arsenal looming on the fixture list. The argument put forward is that this differential is insufficient and should be greater. The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Bale will also make the players around him better, and more confident, while if he can get anywhere near his best then he could form a devastating three-pronged attack alongside Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. Liverpool lead their nearest rivals, Leicester, whom they demolished on Boxing Day, by 13 points with a game in hand. But how long can a team punch above its weight? Although Frank Lampard’s side have not strung back-to-back league wins together since the first week of November, their grip on fourth has barely been loosened but a winning streak from any of the teams behind them would prompt some serious jitters. Phil Blanche. Only three teams in the Premier League’s 27 full seasons – West Brom, Sunderland and Leicester – have been bottom of the table on Christmas Day and avoided relegation but after steering the Foxes to unlikely survival in 2015 Nigel Pearson looks set fair to repeat the feat with Watford. They have proved similarly impervious to injuries to key personnel such as Fabinho, Joël Matip and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and, even if their current form turns out to be unsustainable, it seems utterly inconceivable that they might suffer the kind of collapse that would allow a rival in full flight to remain anything other than a speck in their rearview mirror. Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines. He said there was some crossover with his day job specialising in mathematical oncology. For now, here’s our 2020-21 Premier League standings prediction and how we think the table will look when the final whistle blows on May 23, 2021. Some crazy results and impressive performers in the early weeks of 20/21. Fantasy Premier League winner disqualified over 'player comments' This article is more than 1 month old.