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

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.