Preview of English Premier League

The Premier League returns today....yes! So I thought I would share with you guys my expectations and predictions for this season. 

For the first time in about thirteen years I am actually excited about the Arsenal team. Arsene Wenger has spent some money and now Arsenal can realistically challenge for the title.

I say this but with a caveat I am still not sure about the defence and only time will tell if this defence is good enough. 

To be frank I have no idea whether Manchester United will even finish in the top four. The experience defenders like Rio and Vidic have gone and I am not entirely sure who they have been replaced with. 

It not enough to have a world class manager like Van Gaal you also need the players that can perform on the pitch. 

Liverpool will have an interesting season and now Luis Suarez has been sold to Barcelona this has reduced their fire power. 

Last season Liverpool where very close to winning the league but they did not have the distraction of European games so it will be interesting to see how they cope. 

Chelsea will always be favourites to win the title but to be fair they have not spent to much money this season. 

Last champions Manchester City should get a top four finish if they are consistent as they where last year. 

They where a bit fortunate to win last season but it was primarily down to their consistency which no other team had. 

Ok so with my analysis complete the following teams will finish in the top five:

1. Arsenal !!!

2. Chelsea 

3. Manchester City

4. Manchester United

5. Liverpool

Okay who is your top five? 

Southern & Western Open - Cincinnati - Day four

Day four of the Southern & Western Open and Agnieszka Radwanska beat Sabine Lisicki in straight sets.

 This was a good win for Agnieszka but I still don't believe she has the talent to get past Maria Sharapova or Serena Williams. 

Jelena Jankovic beat Sloane Stephens in straight sets and Sloane's summer just gets worse. She has been hardly able to string more than two wins together and if she is not careful she will be dropping out of the top thirty. 

Caroline Wozniacki beat Angelique Kerber in straight sets and this was a good win for Caroline and will be heading back to the top ten very soon. 

Serena Williams beat Flavia Pennetta in straight sets and for Serena she is hoping to win this Southern & Western title for the first time ever. 

Southern & Western Open - Cincinnati -Day three

Day three at the Southern & Western Open and Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Eugenie Bouchard in three sets.

 This was a good win for Svetlana whilst Eugenie is now realising that she has to live up to the hype that has formed around her and it will not be easy. 

Flavia Penetta beat Taylor Townsend in straight sets and this would have been a disappointing loss for Taylor. But at the same time she is young and building some valuable on-court experience. 

Serena Williams beat Samantha Stosur in straight sets but these sets were very close and Serena had to play very well to win both tie breaks to win. 

This was the first real test that Serena has had to face in this tournament and she came out of it with flying colours. 

Southern & Western - Cincinnati - Day Two

Day two of the Southern and Western Open and Maria Sharapova beat Madison Keys in three sets.

 I thought this match was going to be difficult for Maria but in the third set Maria showed her true championship quality. 

Lucie Safarova beat Venus Williams in three sets and whilst Lucie has improved her game. 

Venus simply ran out of energy and this would have been her third consecutive tournament which is probably too much when factor in the medical condition that she has got 

I hoping she will get lots of rest from now until the US Open and show some of the form that got her to the Montreal final. 

Sloane Stephens beat Andrea Petkovic in straight sets and this was a very good win for Sloane. 

Who has had a very indifferent summer and is hoping for a good run in this tournament. 

Southern & Western Open - Cincinnati - Day one

Day one of the Southern and Western Open and Taylor Townsend beat Klara Koukalova in straight sets and this was an excellent win for Taylor who is getting closer to being in the top one hundred . 

Taylor has a good summer and did especially at French Open and she is hoping to have a similar run at the US Open. 

Shuai Zhang beat Heather Watson in three sets and Heather did not play well for a lot of this match. 

She also looked very tired and was struggling with her serve. These days she she is able to get a lot of cheap points from her serve but today her serve let her down badly. 

Whilst it was a disappointing exit I think the rest will do Heather the world of good to prepare for the US Open. 

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets and so far it's been a poor US Open serious for Dominika who should be doing alot better than going out in first and second rounds. 

She is hoping that her form will pick up before the US Open which starts in under two weeks time. 

Rogers Cup - Montreal - Day seven

Day seven of the Rogers Cup and in the final Agnieszka Radwanska beat Venus Williams in straight sets. Venus looked worn out and made over forty unforced errors. 

But credit where credit is due Agnieszka had a game plan excuted  it to perfection to win the match and the title. 

The positives for Venus are that she made the final which was probably beyond her own expectations and she banked some ranking points and she is now back into the top twenty. 

Rogers Cup - Montreal - Day six

Day six at the Rogers Cup and It's semi-finals day and Venus Williams beat her sister Serena Williams in three sets. 

It was a high quality match and to be fair I did not see how Venus was going to be able to get pass Serena. But some how she kept unforced errors down and was able to win the match. 

It is hard watching Venus and Serena play against each other because I want them both to win. 

So it's nice that they play each other but at the same time it's all rather bittersweet for me. 

Agnieszka Radwanska beat Ekaterina Makarova in three sets and this was a match that I was expecting Ekaterina to win so I was surprised that Agnieszka was able to win.