Football Season Guide

Manchester City start the season with renewed ambition to get the title back at the Etihad after enduring a disappointing campaign last season. It is a measure of how far the club have gone and how lofty the ambitions are when a second-place finish and a FA Cup final are deemed a failure for the Sky Blues who barely broke into the top places only a few years ago. Yet, with such massive investment put into the project, Roberto Mancini was always facing the risk of sacking if he failed to defend the title and he was not even offered the courtesy of seeing out the previous season and was sacked with two games to spare. Chilean Manuel Pellegrini was the main chosen by the new head honchos at City and he will relish the chance to lock horns with the man that replaced him in the Real Madrid job four seasons ago, Jose Mourimho. Pellegrini proved in his one season in Madrid that he is capable of leading a team in a title-chasing campaign and that is why he should not be out of his depth. He ha been properly backed in the transfer market too and there is an argument to be made that City have most substantially improved their squad from all teams in the Premier League this season. Jesus Navas, Fernandinho, Alvaro Negredo and Stevan Jovetic are all superb signings, albeit signed for pretty exorbitant fees, who offer variety and will be hungry for success. They were also all signed quickly and without fuss which has given the manager a team to bed them into the squad. Jovetic is possibly the best of the four signings as he is already on a world class level and is only going to get better with superb midfield around him, having excelled at an inferior Fiorentina team in recent years. Thus, it all looks in place for City to push on and give it a better go at getting the title this season. It will be also vital for players like Joe Hart, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero to get back to the form of the title-winning season while Matija Nastasic will be expected to at least maintain his standards after a stunningly impressive first campaign in English football. The other main issue for City is to improve in the Champions League after a dismal campaign last year. Pellegrini did very well with both Villarreal and Malaga in that competition and that is why the hopes are that he will manage to lead the team to at least the knockout stages, something that Mancini failed to do in the last two years. All in all, City look well-placed to be among the leaders in the table and may have the best chance of getting their hands of the trophy if United struggle with a new man in the dugout and Chelsea are not as effective as they used to be during Mourinho's first spell in charge.