Ask Thabane Sutu: The Premiership Race

Good afternoon Ntate Sutu, seeing the release of the fixtures list for the 2011/12 English Premiership season really whet my appetitive. I know it’s still really early but what do you make of the coming title race? And what are your thoughts on Arsenal?

I still think Manchester United will win the league again.

Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool will make the top four too. Arsenal haven’t strengthened yet and to compound matters they’re in real danger of losing their best players, Fabregas and Nasri, as well. Clichy is already gone, but luckily they do have Kieran Gibbs who is just as good.

Manchester United

Ferguson is way too experienced and he knows exactly what he needs to do to keep his team going. He has sold John O’Shea and Wes Brown to Sunderland. In came Phil Jones and Chris Smalling had a decent start to his Old Trafford career. So defensively United are set.

They just need to replace Paul Scholes. Not easy! He was arguably the best midfielder in England, and possibly Europe, for the past 15 years or so. A great player!

I like Liverpool’s chances of breaking into the top four. They have signed shrewdly... even if the money they paid for Jordan Henderson is a little exorbitant. Charlie Adam will prove to be a major signing for them. He will play with better players and will see the ball a lot more than he did at Blackpool. His delivery from set pieces is top drawer; Liverpool didn’t score too many goals from set pieces last year, so Adam’s addition is already a major plus in that sense. Also, he is left-footed and he provides Liverpool better balance in the middle.

For Arsenal Vermaelen will be back at the heart of defence... I think they missed him badly last season. Samba and Cahill have also been talked about as possible signings but they don’t fit the Arsenal profile... they’re both very good defenders but not Wenger’s type.

Wenger prefers ball playing defenders, not rough and robust ones like Samba for instance.

Unfortunately you need a bit of both worlds for an effective centre-back partnership. Man United have Ferdinand who is good on the ball and Vidic who isn’t necessarily great technically, but is a terrific defender who sticks to the principles very well. It’s a good combination. I think Arsenal’s defensive pairing of Kolo Toure and Sol Campbell was the best they’ve had in a while. They need something like that if they’re to be successful again.

Thabane