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ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE 2014/2015 PREVIEW: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

 

With seven main teams highlighted to compete for the top 4 positions in the league, the remaining 13 teams in the Premier League will probably end up in a mid-table position while some will have to battle for survival.

The trio of new teams Leicester city, Burnley and Queens Park Ranger (QPR) will be determined to find their feet in the Premier League early and get minimum of 40 points to stay in the league.

This desire has already been shown by QPR boss, Harry Redknapp whose team have made major signings in Rio Ferdinand and Steven Caulker with Loic Remy back in the team after a Newcastle loan spell last season and they are still willing to spend more.

Leicester City who blew the championship apart last season will hope to secure a survival spot in the EPL while Burnley will also want to get a spot with both teams signing quite a number of players to bring depth and experience to their respective squad.

Swansea city will hope to improve on their 12th place finish last time out. Gary Monk’s added Bafetimbi Gomis, Lukasz Fabianski, Jefferson Montero and Gylfi Sigurdsson to his team despite losing Michu, Davies and Vorm.

Sunderland were 14th last season and will put all they can into the new campaign to better their performance.

Steven Fletcher’s fitness will boost the confidence of Gustavo Poyet’s team as well as the club’s acquisition of Jordi Gomez, Billy Jones, Patrick van Aanholt and Jack Rodwell.

Poyet will hope to strengthen the squad by signing of Borini and probably Zouma to stay in the EPL this season.

A surprise package of 2013/2014 season, Southampton finished 8th on the log.

Despite losing 5 key members of the squad, Southampton will want to hold on to the duo of Schneiderlin and Rodriguez despite the addition of Fraser Forster, Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle and bringing in Ryan Bertrand and Saphir Taider.

New Southampton manager, Ronald Koeman will also hope to wrap up a deal for Feynoord captain, Jordy Clasie as he looks to build his team for the upcoming season.

In all there will be a bit of pressure on Koeman as the team were over-achievers last season and it will be difficult attaining that height with the loss of 5 key players.

9th placed team in 2013/2014, Stoke city will be one of the teams to look out for in the current group of teams.

Stoke City will be happy with the addition of former Barcelona promising striker Bojan and former Manchester United player Mame Diouf but how they will fit into the team is still yet to be solved.

With the presence of Peter Odemwingie, Steven Ireland and Arnautovic, Stoke city can pose threat with their attack line hoping they can deliver when it matters most.

West Bromwich Albion made a record transfer signing of £10 million this summer with the signature of Nigerian striker Brown Ideye from Dynamo Kyiev.

Together with 7 new players, Pepe Mel’s replacement Alan Irvine will have to show up good with his team to bring back the believe in the team as they narrowly avoided relegation last season. With notable signings as Ideye, Lescott, Wisdom and Gardner, West Brom should have enough to stay in the EPL.

With a 10th place finish last season, Newcastle added Rémy Cabella, Siem de Jong, Emmanuel Rivière, Facundo Ferreyra, Jack Colback and Daryl Janmaat and they will have to fit in as soon as possible if the team will get farther than they did last year.

Crystal Palace and Hull city will also want to improve on their impressive showing last season and addition of some key players may still be on the way before the end of transfer activities with Crystal Palace strongly linked with Manchester United Wilfred Zaha and Hull city linked with Danny Welbeck also of Manchester United.

Aston Villa and West Ham will also hope to do enough to retain a Premier League status with the later having to battle with the recent long layoff of striker Andy Caroll.

 

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