I wrote a few notes on all 20 teams last week and wanted to expand on a few things I touched upon. There were glowing reports for Villa and Brighton and we saw little from either in the US Summer Series to sway us from that thinking and both could easily replicate or even better last season's respective 7th and 6th place finishes. However, both will be playing in Europe and that is a concern of sorts, as it is all new territory for most and with a Thursday/Sunday schedule to deal with.It might be less of a concern for Villa as Unai Emery has as much experience of that turnaround as any coach in Europe and also has a very deep squad now at his disposal. But that is certainly something to think about.

 

Forget about the order of the respective teams for now, I see the EPL in five groups.......

 

Title contenders: City/Arsenal/Liverpool.

 

Top 4-6 : Newcastle/ Chelsea/ Man United.

 

Other European spot contention: Tottenham/ Brighton/Villa/Brentford.

 

Mid table: West Ham/Bournemouth/Fulham

 

In the relegation discussion: Burnley/Luton/ Sheffield United/Wolves/Palace/ Forest/Everton

 

Almost any team could move up or down a group, by which I mean, Villa could play above themselves and push for top 6 or even a Champions League place, or they could struggle with the schedule and fall into mid-table, but I do not see any team making a two group swing. The relegation group is the biggest, because it always is, the Big 6, which might now be a 7 are secure from those sort of fears and possible 1-2 others, but everyone else "could" get sucked into the relegation scrap and they all come into the season with first priority being survival, despite what some might say publicly.

 

Brighton are ..................... I wrote another 1,500 words in this preview and suggested three bets at odds of circa 150/1, 80/1 and 9/1 , but they will have to be kept for subscribers, some of whom have already backed a clubgowi winner at odds of over 300-1 in the last two weeks!

 

Good luck!