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Five in Five: Title rivals

The countdown continues...

Jan Kruger

Parts one and two are already up (links are at the bottom of this article). Moving along, today we look at "What do you make of City's title rivals."

KhokanDATTA: Every club is better than last season!! Arsenal have another marquee signing in Alexis Sanchez, but still need a top holding midfielder, minimum, to challenge consistently at top. Liverpool has depth to their side now, but Suarez will be a big miss and integrating 5 players could be a challenge for Brendan Rodgers. Excited to watch Lazar Markovic though.

Among City's title rivals, it's Chelsea who has strengthened the most by adding three stellar & proven players in Costa, Cesc & Luis. All these are not Roman signings but Mourinho signings. Concern for Chelsea would be: if Costa takes too much time to acclimatize to PL or misses too many games due to injury, Mourinho would be in last season's situation where his ST's don't score enough.

Harkiano: Chelsea have strengthened considerably with Costa and Fabregas arriving and have somehow managed to balance the books more or less with some staggering fees for outgoing players (David Luiz £50million). They will be the biggest concern this season.

Arsenal have bought well but still appear a little light in certain areas, while an influx of players at Liverpool will surely take time to settle.  Managing  a Champions League campaign with increased expectations in the EPL without their talisman last season Luis Suarez may be too much for them.  As for United, the biggest transfer has been in the dugout and they'll certainly be in better shape than last year but still lack quality in defence and midfield.

kmoney2405: Well, you can start with Southampton north, I guess! It will be interesting to see how Liverpool, who pretty much took all of the top talent players from Southampton this summer. The loss of Suarez is a big one and they haven't, and will not, be able to replace his goal scoring prowess, which will hurt them this season. Chelsea will be an interesting team this year, with a midfield jam packed with talent, it will be up to new EPL-er Diego Costa and grandpa Drogba to take some pressure off of that midfield. Either way, they will be a popular choice for EPL title winners this season, unless Mourinho rubs his players the wrong way, which is inevitable. The other two have also made some high profile signings, most prevalent the signing of Sanchez by Arsenal. We'll see.

A J Howard: While the transfer window obviously isn't complete for everyone, Chelsea appear to have enjoyed the best transfer window of City's competitors for the title. Mourinho's team finished just four points from the top last season, and they've added Diego Costa, Filipe Luis, and Cesc Fabregas as marquee signings, along with the season of testimonials that is Didier Drogba. Though Chelsea don't have much depth at this point, Mourinho has just two options if Chelsea can stay healthy: Win, or get very creative with his excuses, as "little horse" just won't be sufficient this season.

Luis Suarez's exit to Barcelona means evaluating Liverpool's summer must wait until further notice, as this season could play out like a better version of ‘13-14 Spurs, especially with European play entering the equation. For Arsenal, the signing of Alexis Sanchez (reported to be around £32 million) was the sort of spending the fans have been begging for, but Wenger needs to add another defender and defensive midfielder before this window could be a true success. Manchester United, too, are still seemingly in the process of officially completing their transfer haul, likely due to new manager Louis van Gaal's World Cup run with the Dutch. They'll need a strong close to the window to really get the rebuilding process underway.

Zac MacPhee: Chelsea have improved drastically, addressing their primary areas of weakness. Arsenal have spent - and seemingly spent well - but still have yet to address weakness at DM and striker. And Liverpool have added depth to a small squad, but might still struggle replacing Suarez (ala Tottenham and Bale). United's summer has progressed more slowly, with van Gaal seemingly giving every player a chance to prove themselves. Herrera might be the answer to a midfield that was run off the pitch in every important match they played last year but there's more to do be done for them to again challenge at the top.

Suffering Bruin: Chelsea: I thought they did quite well; there is a boatload of talent on that squad. Arsenal: A notch under Chelsea and City in team development which is saying a lot. Man United: They sure seem excited, don't they? I don't see them finishing top three. Liverpool: Losing Suarez is worse for Liverpool than losing Bale was for Tottenham.