Day: August 10, 2018

Huddersfield begins their bid to avoid the second season syndrome when they host Chelsea in this opening game of the Premier League season.

The Terriers made a lucky escape from the Premier League last season when they picked up a valuable draw at Stamford Bridge. Much of their survival last season is owed to a solid start to the season that even saw them top the Premier League table at some point.

They have made some good new signings including Eric Durm who won the 2014 World Cup with Germany and David Wagner would be looking to start the season on a bright note again.

Chelsea have had a tough preseason and their fans would hope that they are finally ready for the season after the end of the transfer window.

The Blues had to fire Antonio after he fell out with the board despite the Italian winning the FA Cup last season. Maurizio Sarri implemented an exciting brand of football at Napoli last season, but he has never won a trophy in his professional career and may find life much more difficult in England than it was at Naples.

The Blues have signed Jorginho and Matteo Kovacic to bolster their midfield, while a £71 million signing of Kepa Arrizabalaga as a replacement for Thibaut Courtois is a gamble that they hope would pay off.

Chelsea have won four and drawn two of their last six meetings with Huddersfield, but have conceded at least one goal in all of these encounters.

This match pitches two teams who have endured frustrating summers to some degree against each other and they would both be looking to get a good start to the new season.

It has been another frustrating summer for Rafa Benitez as Mike Ashley continues to fail in his promise to provide funds for Newcastle to sign new players.

However, the former Liverpool manager would be happy he was able to land Salomon Rondon, Yoshinori Muto, Kenedy, Fabian Schar among others at last and we expect this to be another season of struggling for the Magpies.

Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham became the first team not to sign a single player in a transfer window since it was introduced in 2003 and their fans would be wondering if they have the players to help them compete in four competitions this season.

The Lilywhites would have a small squad ready for this game as the likes of Harry Kane, Toby Alderweireld, Mousa Dembele all came back from holiday this week and would need more training to be ready for the new season.

Tottenham have won four and lost two of their last six meetings with Newcastle, including winning both league meetings last season.

However, two of the three goals Spurs scored in those matches came from Dele Alli and Harry Kane, both of whom are likely to be rested here.

This Wolves team is so hyped that even if they end up winning the Premier League this season, it would come as a surprise to only a few people, despite the fact that they just got promoted to the Premier League.

They stormed to the top of the Championship table last season with 99 points and scored 81 goals along the way.

Winning the Championship came as a surprise to only a few people considering that they signed so many top quality players on loan from Portugal, the likes of Diogo Jota and Ruben Neves have since made their loan moves permanent.

They have also added the experienced likes of Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio so they have huge expectations to live up, and their preseason form shows that they won’t struggle much. They won 3 and drew 3 of their seven preseason games which included wins over Basel and Villarreal.

Their fans would be expecting a good start here.

Everton are also expected to make an impact in the league this season after they signed Marcos Silva as their manager and brought in some exciting players from Europe. The Toffees has signed Yerry Mina, Andre Gomes and Lucas Digne from Barcelona, they have also added Richarlison and Bernard to their team and their fans are expecting an exciting brand of football.

However, they may struggle at first as most of their signings came late and they have allowed Funes Ramiro Mori and Ashley Williams leave the club this summer, leaving them thin at the back.

The Toffees also did not have the best of preseasons as they lost 4 and drew 2 of their last 6 preseason games, conceding 12 goals along the way.