With just one gameweek left in the England’s top soccer division, the Premier League, many clubs are looking forward to off-season. Here’s what each of the top 5 teams needs going into next season.
Going alphabetically, we begin with Arsenal. A team with talent who never seem to make that final push for the title. They are going to finish either 4th or 5th out of the 20 teams in the league, depending on results in the last gameweek. It looks good on paper, but it’s been a mediocre season. They don’t show up and big games and take criticism for it. As Squawka Football outlines, as of March 4th, they captured the least points in head-to-head games between the top 6 teams. They may also lose Chilean superstar Alexis Sanchez in the summer. He’s their top-scorer and the 2nd highest scorer in the league. He has also been involved in the most goals in the league, per Squawka. They need a strong defensive midfielder and a high-quality attacker. 2 people who are options are William Carvalho and Alexandre Lacazette, respectively.
Next, we have the champions, Chelsea. After a dominating season in which they clinched the Premier League title with 2 games to go, they are looking to improve in the summer to have a successful defense of it. It seems almost certain that leading scorer Diego Costa is going to leave to China in the summer. Backup goalkeeper Asmir Begovic also deserves to start, and he may want to leave for more game time. Captain and legend John Terry also announced that he was leaving the club when the season ended. Chelsea needs another striker to replace Costa, and depth signings to push players to be at their best or in case of injury. I see the blues signing the league’s top scorer Romelu Lukaku, as well as Virgil Van Dijk to solidify their defence. I see them also looking at Jack Butland of Stoke City to replace Begovic.
Liverpool come next. Either finishing 4th or 5th, their season began pleasant. They were in first place for a while, but tailed off in the second half of the the year. Liverpool’s weakness lies in their defense. Although they have been plagued with injuries, their season will be looked at as disappointing. I believe that Liverpool will be in the hunt with Chelsea to sign Virgil Van Dijk, as well as looking at Naby Keita to be a box-to-box midfielder. Their star Philippe Coutinho is unsure about his future and if he leaves, Liverpool will get a lot of money. One guy who can replace Coutinho and actually improve their squad is Isco of Real Madrid, who has an expiring contract in 2018 and may be leaving. If they stay healthy, get good signings and manager Jurgen Klopp can work his magic, Liverpool can be a sleeper next season.
3rd place Manchester City follow Liverpool alphabetically. A new era under Pep Guardiola began and it didn’t go according to the script. A season which sees them 15 points behind leader Chelsea on the Premier League table will be viewed as a transition year for Pep. City’s weakness is in their defense and lack of finishing. An aging defense combined with club legend Pablo Zabaleta’s departure means that City needs defense. They are looking at Kyle Walker, who plays for Tottenham, and this would be a good signing. The other player City are watching is Alexis Sanchez. Sanchez may be looking to reunite with former manager Pep, but these signings won’t be easy, as rival teams won’t sell their players at a cheap price. If they can pull off both signings though and Pep gets his tactics right, this team can be unplayable.
2nd place Tottenham Hotspur had a great campaign. They had the best defense, a dominant midfield and an offense that was free-flowing. Although, some lackluster performances meant that they came up short of Chelsea. Going into next season, Tottenham will look to keep hold of top players, as many European teams are watching them. People such as Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Kyle Walker, and Christian Eriksen are in high demand. If they keep hold of their stars and sign depth players, they will again be title challengers . Some players that fit in well are Wilfried Zaha and Andre Gray. If they do lose star Kyle Walker, a perfect replacement would be superstar Dani Alves. A player such as him, although aging, would be great to see in the Premier League and would offer Spurs so much going forward as well as tracking back.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the summer. If the top teams get what they want, it will be a great title race next season.
