With this edition of the Premier League promising to be a genuinely compelling season as Manchester United’s cross town rivals Pep Guardiola’s Citizens are defending champions and will be looking to successfully retain the title for the 1st time since the Red-Devils pulled it off back in 2009.
Unai Emery is succeeding Arsene Wenger and he starts his competitive tenure with a crunch first Premier League game against reigning champions Manchester City while Chelsea are also under new management as Maurizio Sarri takes over at Chelsea replacing his outgoing compatriot Antonio Conte.
Other new PL bosses include Marco Silva at Everton and Manuel Pellegrini at West Ham who have both been heavily backed in the transfer market by their boards with both clubs spending massively to retool their squads.
To celebrate this new 2018-19 Premier League season we encourage you to raise the intensity and register to play our awesome new Predictor game by clicking Premier Picks to get started.
It’s very straight-forward to play and is open to all – simply predict the score of each match in the Premier League.
Points are awarded for predicting the match outcomes and correct scores with some amazing prizes available for the highest cumulative score including tickets to attend the stunning “Icons of Football” event to be held in Spain in 2019.
Jose Mourinho’s squad have endured a tough preseason with so many players returning late from extended World Cup campaigns and preparations have been further hindered by a 7 player United injury list including key men Nemanja Matic and Antonio Valencia with 3 players missing for the long-term.
United have only added Brazilian midfielder Fred plus young Portuguese full-back 19 year old Diogo Dalat from Porto where he played just 6 first team games last season (he is now injured at least until mid-September).
The other United signing was 35 year old stopper Lee Grant from Stoke City who was really an enforced signing due to United’s number 2 and Argentina’s number one goalkeeper Sergio Romero being a long term absentee after suffering a serious knee injury.
The big positives for the Red-Devils are Alexis Sanchez who had the summer off after Chile missed out on the World Cup and he is now fully fit and acclimatised to his surroundings at Old Trafford plus the impressive looking Samba star Fred who was signed on a 5 year contract from Shaktar Donetsk for a reported £52million fee, plus add-ons. Midfielder Fred has looked good so far and has impressed Sanchez in preseason with his ability to get forward and his energetic style.
The best odds for all results of the match are a United win at 8-15 favourites, a draw at 10-3 and a Leicester City win at 36-5. After such a mixed preseason where United had a bit part squad and lost to Liverpool and Bayern Munich while beating Real Madrid, it is hard to predict how the Red-Devils will get on against Claude Puel’s Leicester City who will likely start England man Harry Maguire even though he seemingly wanted to join United.
The clubs could not agree a fee with the Foxes reportedly looking for a world record fee for central defender Maguire which United clearly did not agree with.
To make the Friday night Premier League first match more intense and exciting, why not get involved by simply clicking to register to play the hot new game Premier Picks.
We think United will somehow pull it together, despite the disappointment from the transfer window and indifferent preseason fortunes with so many injuries, Jose will rally his troops and get a solid performance from them and come out on top with a 2-1 win as Romelu Lukaku will pick up from his red-hot World Cup form and deliver the goods for the Red-Devils.