Premier League: Three things likely to happen in the 2017/18 season

Spurs will find things hard at Wembley

In many ways the move to the new White Hart Lane Stadium couldn't have come at a worse time for Tottenham.

They were excellent in the league last season, finishing second. The intimate atmosphere at WHL brought out the best in the likes of Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli. With a few question marks about the other title contenders, who's to say they couldn't go one better this time round?

But having to play all their home matches at Wembley this season as the stadium is finished may just be a bump on the road they could have done without. When they did so last season in the Champions League, they were dumped out of the group stages and then unceremoniously knocked out by Gent at the first time of asking when they moved over to the Europa League.

West Ham found the transition tough when they switched to the London Stadium with all the changes that brought and the 1.90 on a Spurs Top 4 finish may just be one to lay.


Gabriel Jesus set for a super season

Poor old Pep Guardiola. Whereas most Managers would love to have one world-class striker, he has two. And he has the painful decision to make as to how to fit in both Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus in his side. He'll probably adopt a 'horses for courses' approach, sometimes playing one, sometimes the other, sometimes both.

The first bit of bad news for City's opponents is that the presence of Jesus might just bring out the best in Aguero. The second bit is that Jesus might just be brilliant this season.

With a proper pre-season under his belt and some experience of the Premier League from last season, he might just be the outstanding player in 2017/18. No wonder he's no bigger than 12/1 to be PFA Player of the Year.


Liverpool will carry on being the team to watch

Sometimes you wonder what Directors of Football and Heads of Recruitment do all day.

Liverpool's big downfall last season was their inability to keep clean sheets. Which shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone. Neither of their keepers ever look settled, career midfielder James Milner played at left-back all year and no decent partnership was ever established in the middle. So whereas the squad was crying out for a composed centre-back like the one rivals Everton bought- Michael Keane of Burnley- or a proper left-back that would allow Milner to play in a more familiar role...they went out and bought Mohamed Salah. Obviously.

Now, Salah is a fine player and Chelsea made a big mistake in not giving him a proper chance before his move to Serie A. He's a good addition to the squad (well, you'd hope so at 34 million quid) because he can play in several attacking positions and adds pace, assists and goals. But is he vastly different to Philippe Coutinho, Sadio Mane and Adam Lallana?

The result of all this is that Liverpool are likely to be involved in plenty of matches ending 2-2, 3-1, 4-2 and other similar scorelines. Good for backers of over 3.5 goals, not so good for Liverpool's chances of being title contenders.