Manchester United is the new Arsenal and Chelsea is the new United

Arsenal is the new way for David Moyes

The English Premier League is undergoing big changes this season. Manchester United, Chelsea & Manchester City have appointed new managers. Liverpool & Tottenham are entering a crucial season of their development with their young and promising managers.

Arsenal, for a change, is looking to invest large sums of money on its transfer targets hoping to end their painful trophy drought. The smaller clubs are looking to capitalize on this and make a jump in stature by investing large sums of money on transfers.

In fact, with the new found financial muscle due to the new broadcasting rights deal, the smallest of the clubs in the Premier League are spending much more than most Champions League playing clubs of other leagues. With so much happening all over the league table, the Premier League could see some dramatic role reversals amidst the dawn of a new era.

Manchester United has been the most successful club in the Premier League era by some distance. However, they owe a lot of this success to Sir Alex Ferguson. It was not just his tactical & motivational acumen that made them so successful. United have been signing the best of talents despite spending much lesser than a lot of other big clubs.

SAF’s stature would ensure that many players longed to play for United for lesser salaries. In the last few years it had become difficult for him to compete in the market with teams like PSG, Manchester City, Chelsea, Anzhi and now Monaco paying ridiculously over the odds for players.

With the departure of Sir Alex and the arrival of David Moyes, they have lost that edge and are now struggling to attract top players. Moyes is yet to prove his mettle on the big stage and players outside the Premier League have no idea about his reputation.

United are not in a position to compete with the big spenders due to a burgeoning debt and interest payments. This has made them take the Arsenal role in this transfer window with their transfer targets snubbing them and deciding to go to other clubs one by one. Moreover, Moyes doesn’t even have the stature to have that intimidating effect on the match officials and media which Sir Alex had.

Chelsea, on the other hand, has been displaying a very calm and assured look this transfer window. They have been quick in snapping up Andre Schurrle and Marco Van Ginkel in the early part of the window. There were a few creeping rumors about the departure of Juan Mata and David Luiz initially but all that has now died down.

Jose Mourinho – Busy making a new United

Jose Mourinho has clearly declared that Wayne Rooney remains the only player on his wish-list now. Moreover, after winning every trophy on offer under his ownership, Roman Abramovich is now more focused on working on the foundations of the club. A strong youth development set-up and stability in the management is the objective behind bringing Mourinho back to the club.

The coaching staff at Stamford Bridge has been instructed to focus on creating a club with an attacking philosophy and an excellent youth set-up. After all these hiring and firing of managers, Jose Mourinho is now clearly the one biggest in stature in the whole league.

Top players want to play for his teams. The ‘Special One’ is also very popular with the British media. And now, with Sir Alex gone, he’s going to be the undisputed darling of the media. Stability at the club would enable Chelsea to create the same aura as of Sir Alex Ferguson at United.

However, unpredictability is an inherent attribute of sports and hence, there are many other significant clubs ready to play spoilsport and carve out their own roles in the scheme of things. Manchester City, as always, is busy splashing some oil change. Manuel Pellegrini has a glowing reputation from his time with the Yellow Submarine and Malaga. It is to be seen whether he can move up a level and win titles for a highly ambitious club.

Arsenal, well, is still Arsenal. Though, this was the year they had been waiting for. With the imposition of the FFP, Arsenal and Bayern Munich, the two best managed clubs in Europe, will be the clubs with the biggest financial muscle (It’ll be a slightly different story though with the loopholes in the FFP). The Gooners have significant money to spend but are not able to come out of the prudent mentality of all these years. Prudence in the mad transfer market is a tough stance to take.

Tottenham and Liverpool have two former assistants of the ‘Special One’ battling it out to make it to the big league. It is a make or break season for both of them.

This season has all the ingredients to make it a highly entertaining and unpredictable league. The title race is wide open and the performances this season could define the hierarchy for the next era of the Premier League.