The revived Liverpool

Liverpool has not won an English championship since 1990, and has for some years been in the shadow of other English clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Even though they still have a record of 18 titles, they are hungering for renewed success in the English league. In 2012 Brendan Rogers became manager, and in his first season Liverpool ended 7th, not even qualifying for the Champions League. At the same time there were stories of their record signing, the ever-controversial Luis Suarez, wanted to leave, so expectations high but not exuberant as the new season started. But Liverpool has indeed been on fire, and today they impressed everyone when the destroyed another ambitious team, Tottenham, 0-5 in London. The Liverpool team played brilliantly, even without Stephen Gerrard and Daniel Sturridge. Luis Suarez cemented his position as the most scoring player in the Premier League with two beautiful goals; he is as controversial as ever, but his footballing quality is unquestionable. At the same time young players Jon Flanagan and Raheem Sterling also scored, showing that Liverpool already has outstanding young players for the future. If they can play like this every week, Liverpool is a very serious title contender in what is becoming one of the most exciting Premier League seasons ever, with brilliant teams facing one another every week!
One word about Tottenham would be that Andre Villas Boas is surely not performing as a coach, and I believe he is unlikely to stay there much longer.

London derby

Tottenham and Chelsea are two great sides with two very unlikeable coaches (and I am not saying they are bad coaches). Today's derby in London was more about the two Portuguese coaches, Mourinho and Villas-Boas, than about the two great sides facing one another. It was a pity, since there was so much to be excited about in the match!
Tottenham started as by far the best side, dominating the match against Chelsea, who were not finding their way. It was a good combination between Christian Eriksen and Roberto Soldado which led to Gylfi Sigurdsson's goal, and Paulinho also had chances to bring Tottenham further ahead. In the second half Chelsea started putting pressure on Tottenham, who had to pull back. The deserved equalizer came from John Terry in what was a great match.
Both teams will be in the fight for the title, and both coaches will continue being unlikeable.

"Interim" Chelsea

Chelsea has been up and down over the last few years. In 2011 Carlo Ancelotti was fired as the club "only" made it to second place in the Premier League (the previous year he had led them to their first "Double"). For the start of the 2011-12 season Andre Villas-Boas became manager, and under him team performance dipped with a string of defeats. Villas-Boas was fired in March 2012, and was replaced by "interim" coach Roberto Di Matteo, who in the subsequent months pulled the side up to win the FA Cup and the Champions League in May 2012. One could have been led to think that this would be enough to keep him in the club, but Chelsea's elimination in the first round of the 2012-13 Champions League season (as the first defending champions ever) led Di Matteo to lose his job in November 2012, and a new "interim" manager took over: Rafa Benitez.

And Rafa Benitez stayed as "interim" in spite of continued controversies and criticism, and eventually he announced that he would be leaving at the end of the season in spite of securing a CL spot in the Premier League. In the meantime the team progressed in the Europa League and last night Rafa Benitez led Chelsea to the Europa League title when defeating Benfica 2-1 in Amsterdam. It wasn't pretty: only Benfica inefficiency and an excellent late header by Branislav Ivanovic gave them a victory that must surely have felt somewhat bittersweet for Benitez, who will nevertheless probably not have to look much around for a more steady job.

And Chelsea? Rumors abound about a certain Portuguese gentleman returning to Chelsea. He will probably not have the title "interim", although that may always be the case in Chelsea anyway.

The best league in the world

The Premier League starts today, and every football fan should be looking forward to it. Last season ended spectacularly when Manchester City took the title in the final seconds of the last match ahead of their rivals of Manchester United. And City already took a title by winning the Super Cup match against Chelsea 3-2 last week and will still be hungry this season. But it will surely not be easy. Manchester United has bought a couple of high profile players to strengthen their side: firstly Shinji Kagawa, who was bought from Borussia Dortmund, will greatly strengthen United's midfield and attack; and secondly, Robbie Van Persie, the Arsenal captain has joined United and will contribute to their attacking power.
In the meantime there will also be other sides going for the title. The Champions League winners of Chelsea have lost their greatest superstar, Didier Drogba, but will be hoping that Fernando Torres can take over, while some interesting new players have joined the side, such as the Brazilian youngster Oscar and and the gifted Marko Marin from Werder Bremen.
With Arsenal losing Van Persie it would seem doubtful that Arsenal would be able to go for the title, but Arsene Wenger's side has purchased strong new players, such as the Spanish international Santi Cazorla, the French international Olivier Giroud and the German star Lukas Podolski.
Tottenham ended in fourth place last season, and keep the ambitions for more. Their most high profile purchase has been the strong Belgian defender Jan Verthongen, but most interesting will be to see whether their new coach Andre Villas-Boas can swipe away the fiasco he had at Chelsea.
Liverpool's main change has also been the coach, where Kenny Dalglish was fired and replaced with Brendan Rogers, who will have to try to continue the success he had at Swansea at Liverpool.
The best thing about the Premier League is that there are many "small" teams with strong sides that all can win against any of the giants, and that is what makes the league so exciting! Quality, drama, fight and great fans.
On a personal level I might say that unfortunately I have never had an English favourite team, which of course takes the passion a bit away, but at the same time it permits me to say objectively that it is certainly the best league in the world!