It’s back! Forget everything else this weekend – the new English Premier League season gets underway on Saturday in what could well be the most intriguing title race in the 22-year history of the competition.
After Manchester City stole the title from Liverpool in the final three weeks last season, there are a myriad of questions to be answered over the coming months following an off-season in which the World Cup impacted heavily on transfers. Can Liverpool mount another title challenge without their talisman Luis Suarez? Can City defend their title despite staying surprisingly quiet in the transfer window? Can Luis van Gaal turn Manchester United’s fortunes around? And what can we expect from London duo Chelsea and Arsenal who were among the busiest in the player market?
The season kicks off at Old Trafford on Saturday with United hosting Swansea while other interesting clashes include Liverpool hosting Southampton and Man City heading to Newcastle. We’ll take the big three in those games.
The latest warm-up event to the US Open continues in Cincinnati and world number one Novak Djokovic continues to struggle for form after narrowly surviving a three-set scare against Gilles Simon in his opening match of the tournament. Having been bundled out early by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Canada last week, Djokovic will play the winner of Sam Querrey and Tommy Robredo in the next round.
Spain’s Marc Marquez will continue his quest to go through the entire season undefeated when he lines up in the Czech Republic Grand Prix on Sunday. Marquez has won 10 races from 10 starts so far in 2014 and can move into elite territory with his 11th this weekend.
And the Bledisloe Cup rugby is back as Australia’s Wallabies try to win the trophy back from New Zealand for the first time in 11 years. The Kiwis have been the dominant side in the world for some time now but the good mail is that this could finally be Australia’s year. Whether they can actually win the series or not remains to be seen but given the great performance of the NSW Waratahs in winning the Super Rugby title a fortnight ago we like the value the Wallabies are offering in Saturday night’s clash.
Good luck and good punting.
