Who will set the standards for the Premier League?

While I’m intrigued to see how the calm Moyes reacts to pressure from Stamford Bridge, I’m not looking forward to seeing that behaviour. We can probably expect more behaviour in the pattern of making up lies about Reading paramedics and poking opposing coaches in the eye, or more examples of his melodramatic, so-called wit. He claims not to have heard of Roma manager Zdenek Zeman or Catania Director of Football Pietro Lo Monaco! Lo Monaco sounds like Monaco! Arsene Wenger is a pervert! Given the understated nature of his press conference, Mourinho may actually decide to act like a decent human being this time around, though I wouldn’t bet on it.

What I am interested in is seeing how a team built around Mata and Hazard performs, and whether Romeleu Lukaku can be transformed into the world-class centre forward he has the potential to be. While his teams have always had an underlying physicality, Mourinho can be relied on to build an incredible desire to win, with their physicality and skill intertwined. Despite my dislike of their manager, I’ve actually found myself hoping that the ludicrously counter-productive rumours that Mata will be sold and Wesley Sneijder signed are untrue. With so much talent united, Chelsea should be great to watch if they put together a squad that matches the number of games they’re required to play.

Manuel Pellegrini is charged with reinvigorating Manchester City, and the signings of Jesus Navas and Fernandinho look an impressive start.

During Pellegrini’s sole season in charge of Real Madrid, his side picked up 95 points, at the time a club record, and he seemed unruffled by the media speculation that he’d be replaced with Mourinho. At both Villareal and Malaga, he led mid-sized clubs into the Champions League quarter finals for the first time – while Malaga spent big at first, key players were sold from under him as Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani withdrew most of his backing, but Pellegrini kept his cool the whole time and kept his squad performing as they were slowly picked apart. His record in itself is impressive, but it was all achieved while playing an attractive style. It should be fun to see if Pellegrini can translate his record to England. Though he’s a bit of an outside bet, I can imagine Pellegrini, with his calm approach and oil billions at his disposal, being the man to come out on top.

After a long time when Arsenal have hovered around fourth and sold their stand out player, this summer looks set to break the pattern. The rumoured loss of Podolski looks to be the closest this summer, but he’s more of a squad player rather than a vital player, and some fans seem to believe they could do more with his wages. There’s the possibility that Cazorla and Podolski could step up their game in their second season at Arsenal, Jack Wilshere should play more often, and Aaron Ramsey looked to be finally getting back to his best at the end of the season. There are also the rumoured arrivals of Fabregas and Fellaini. Admittedly, I’m more jaded about Arsenal’s possibilities than any of the other clubs, and I don’t believe that they will do anything special next year. The possibility remains though, as always, that next year will be the year when everything comes together.

TalkSport presenter Adrian Durham, in an impressive combination of stupidity, stubbornness and jingoism, has been sticking to his argument that Vilas-Boas has failed, compared to Harry Redknapp. While I’d agree that Redknapp did a good job at White Hart Lane, his success was largely a result of clearing his players’ heads of doubts, filling them with self-confidence and sending them out to play in a more or less freeform way. Vilas-Boas has worked out a more sophisticated way of attacking, with Gareth Bale being moved around the forward line to the point designed to hurt the opposition most, whereas he was more or less left to run wherever he felt like under Redknapp. It’s a style of football Scott Parker’s looked out of place in, and the absence of Sandro through injury had a major impact on the team. The loss of Luka Modric, too late in pre-season to replace him with a player of equivalent ability, also hit Spurs hard. The abysmal form of Emmanuel Adebayor, one of only two senior strikers and their only real option as a focal point, was also a major problem. The fact that Spurs did so well with so many weaknesses is pretty impressive, and bodes well for what they can do if those weaknesses are fixed. The addition of a deeper playmaker, defensive midfielder and a decent forward or two, should give a massive lift to Spurs given the ludicrous weaknesses in those areas, probably pushing them back into the competition for Champions’ League places.