With just seven weeks to go before the kick-off of the 2017/18 Premier League season, the talk is already beginning of who could be the possible title winners. The favourites are pretty obvious as champions Chelsea and contenders Manchester City have already been strengthening their squads, while Manchester United are rumoured to be ready to splash insane money on some of the world’s top talents once again in the summer.
But as Leicester City proved in 2015/16, the Premier League is massively unpredictable and so it could be anyone’s league. Sure, it might be unrealistic to take Rafa Benitez’s claim of Newcastle as title contenders seriously, but let’s look beyond the three favourites – these are the five dark horses to claim the Premier League title once May 2018 rolls around.
#1 Arsenal
The Gunners almost became a laughing stock at times last season, with their Champions League capitulation against Bayern Munich and then their first non-top four finish since 1995/96. Manager Arsene Wenger seemed under enormous pressure at times, but he’s since signed a contract extension until 2019.
So why could Arsenal be legitimate title contenders this season? A few reasons come to mind. Firstly, while some would argue, Wenger’s methods are past their prime, at least there’s no speculation around his future this time. That adds much-needed stability to the ship.
Secondly, they’ve already signed highly-rated Bosnian defender Sead Kolasinac from Schalke to shore up their defence, and they’re currently being heavily linked with French goal machine Alexandre Lacazette. Those two signings could fill a couple of glaring holes in Arsenal’s squad and if they do lose Alexis Sanchez, then the goals that Lacazette is likely to provide would make up for the.
Thirdly and perhaps most importantly, they don’t have the Champions League to distract them next season. While they are in the Europa League, which has sapped sides like Spurs in the past, Wenger may decide not to focus on that competition and go all-out for the Premier League. And it’s notable that Chelsea and Leicester – the last two sides to win the title – reached the pinnacle without Champions League football.
With a mix of talented young players like Rob Holding and veterans like Nacho Monreal, Arsenal could find themselves in another title fight come next season.
#2 Everton
Most observers now talk about the Premier League’s ‘big six’ – meaning the two Manchester clubs, plus Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool – and leave Everton outside of that bubble. And while it’s true that they finished in seventh – eight points behind Man United in sixth – could this be the season that they really rise to the top?
Possibly. Like Arsenal, they don’t have the Champions League to distract them from the league, which means less games and fresher players. And after the past years saw them keep a tight belt financially, this time the board seem to be willing to match boss Ronald Koeman’s ambitions. Already, they’ve spent £30m on goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and almost £24m on attacking midfielder Davy Klaassen.
Granted, they may yet lose their current stars Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley, but the hope is that Klaassen will replace Barkley like-for-like, and if Lukaku does go, it’ll be for a huge fee that should allow them to purchase a worthy replacement.
Then there’s the fact that the Toffees already have a talented young squad. Tom Davies broke through last season and the summer has seen defenders Mason Holgate and Jonjoe Kenny, midfielder Keiran Dowell, winger Ademola Lookman and striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin star for England’s successful U20 and U21 sides. These are players who will be chomping at the bit to get a real chance in the Premier League.
With a talented young squad and a manager willing to spend money to develop, Everton define the term “dark horse” in 2017/18.
#3 Tottenham Hotspur
It seems odd to be calling Spurs a ‘dark horse’ given they finished 2nd last season and pushed Chelsea all the way, but in the Premier League – where money speaks louder than actual success – people seem to be once again ignoring Mauricio Pochettino’s side, which is insane.
They arguably have the best starting eleven on paper already and while they haven’t strengthened in their weaker areas just yet – backups for Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen for instance – we’ve seen in the past that players who have been written off (Son Heung-Min for instance) can come good under Pochettino, so who knows whether someone like Vincent Janssen or Georges-Kevin N’Koudou could suddenly explode back onto the scene?
Also read: 5 reasons why Tottenham Hotspur will light up the Champions League in 2017-18
A couple of question marks do hang over them – the move to Wembley and the distractions of the Champions League – but if they can hang onto all their players, it’d be crazy to write them off.
Tottenham finished as the strongest team in the Premier League last season with multi-goal slaughters of Leicester and Hull, and if they can carry that form into the 2017/18 season, there’s no reason why they can’t go all the way this time.
#4 Liverpool
Liverpool finished 4th last season but seemed to be flying under the radar as title contenders, largely because a handful of bad results kept them out of the actual title race for the most part. Next season, Jurgen Klopp’s men could definitely change that.
Klopp has been making steady improvements to his side ever since taking over, and we’ve seen the likes of Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson come on by leaps and bounds under his stewardship. He has also seemingly recognised the deficiencies in the side – mainly the lack of a proven goalscorer as midfielder Philippe Coutinho finished as their top scorer in 2016/17 – and is already strengthening, bringing in Egyptian Mohamed Salah for a club-record fee. They’ve also snapped up England U20 wonderkid Dominic Solanke from Chelsea.
Also read: Ranking all of Liverpool's summer transfer targets
While their attempt to sign Virgil van Dijk from Southampton went awry a couple of weeks ago, the current word is that another try may be more successful and could finally bring the highly-rated Dutch defender to Anfield, shoring up an already solid defence.
With a front four of Salah, Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane to go along with the likes of Lallana and Georginio Wijnaldum, if Liverpool can manage to break down the deeper-lying sides – a problem thus far under Klopp – then that elusive Premier League title could be theirs.
#5 Crystal Palace
While the Premier League is trickier to predict than say, La Liga or the Bundesliga, it is true to say that it’s usually one of the bigger sides that wins it. That theory was blown apart by Leicester in 2015/16, and so every season the question is now “which smaller side could do a Leicester?”
My pick for next season? Crystal Palace. Their 2016/17 was somewhat disappointing – after replacing manager Alan Pardew with Sam Allardyce in December, they finished 14th in the league although they safely avoided relegation. But Allardyce – a strong, dependable Premier League manager but never a world-beater – has since left and today the club have appointed Frank de Boer as their new manager.
While de Boer has had mixed results in his career as a manager, he could be a good fit for Palace, particularly as the squad is still pretty strong – they’ve still got the likes of Yohan Cabaye, Christian Benteke, Andros Townsend and Wilfried Zaha on their books – and their board have proven in the past that they’re willing to splash big money if it’s needed.
If de Boer can shore up a somewhat shoddy defence – Palace leaked 63 goals, but actually scored 50, more than all but the top seven and Bournemouth – and keep the likes of Benteke and Zaha ticking over, then a miracle could well be possible, ala Leicester just two seasons ago.
