United will be the team to beat - again

Well then, another Premiership season about to get under way and there's is a certain sense of deja vu about the whole thing. For those of you who remember my preview at around this time last year, I'm sorry for appearing to repeat myself, but it's got to be said. Manchester United will be the team to beat, three teams appear to have a serious chance of doing it and another couple may just do well enough to figure in the final shake down.

What's worse the six teams who seem to have a prayer of lifting this title come next May are precisely the same six that finished at the top of the table at the start of this summer. There's precious little romance involved but that's the reality of the way the game has developed in England in recent years.

Most clear cut of all during those years has been the emergence of United as the main force in English football. Alex Ferguson has bought well, brought through youngsters and then played his cards better than any of his rivals.

This year he has not done too much on the transfer front but the arrival of Teddy Sheringham in place of the departed Eric Cantona is not a bad piece of business at all (the Englishman's style is slightly different but he will fulfil the same role ably) while the pre-season form shown by Jordi Cruyff will sharpen the competition for places up front.

As it is, I feel Ferguson will switch things around a bit this year. We may see a shift in emphasis towards a 4-3-3 formation with Roy Keane being joined by Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes in midfield with the likes of Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Karol Poborsky all being left to battle it out for the extra place up front.

Beckham, in particular, looks like he is in a for a tough start to the season with Ferguson appearing anxious to bring him back to earth a little after the euphoria of the last campaign.

In the longer term, though, he is bound to figure because, with all of the commitments United face, the manager will be delighted to have as many options as possible and if those players bought last summer, notably Cruyff and Poborsky, make more of an impact at the second attempt, then so much the better for the Old Trafford club.

Add to that the fact that there is rumoured to be a whole new batch of kids waiting to break through, that the current team beat off their rivals last season without ever managing to play as well as we know they are capable of and that the aura around the club's stadium itself (it has become a far more formidable place to visit than Anfield, Highbury or St James's Park) and you get the feeling that United are kicking off this weekend with a bit of a headstart on the rest of the Premiership. It won't be easy for the others to make up.

The team which looks best equipped for the task is Liverpool. Roy Evans has bought very well during the summer with Paul Ince adding steel where they needed it, in front of the defence, Oyvind Leonhardsen giving the club what they have not possessed in several years - a player who can move from one box to the other and score goals from midfield and Karlheinz Riedle, a steal for the price they paid, a perfect striking partner for Robbie Fowler. This looks to be a far better balanced line-up than the one Evans had at his disposal last season.

All of the new recruits, including Danny Murphy, look to be good value but Ince could be the one that really prompts the breakthrough. The England international has matured greatly since departing for Italy. He is not so rash when trying to win possession and a far better distributor of the ball than before.

Arsenal also look to have bought some nice players over the summer although whether Arsene Wenger can successfully integrate so many of them at once remains to be seen.

The team still retains a spine - Seaman, Adams, Vieira, Bergkamp and Wright - that just about any manager would be delighted to have and they will undoubtedly be in the running but there are some question marks.

Whether Marc Overmars is fully recovered from a knee injury is doubtful although, if he has, his speed own both wings will further enhance the club's already potent strike force.

The greatest risk is that, in the event things do not go well, there will be divisions in the dressing room where the old guard may resent the arrival of the continental contingent. If cracks do start to appear then it will take all of Wenger's considerable man management skills to keep the team on the rails.

Prior to Alan Shearer's injury, I would have genuinely rated Newcastle's chances of winning a first championship since 1927 but after selling Les Ferdinand they now find themselves in desperate need of a new striker if they are maintain their hopes.

Brian Little, on the other hand, has plenty of strikers although new signing Stan Collymore, on whom so much seems to depend, is as unpredictable as he can be brilliant. Villa's defence is very good and Little is a clever manager but he may still be a step away from the magic formula.

Likewise Ruud Gullit whose primary problem appears to be the continued absence of a striker on whom a team can count for 25 or 30 goals. If Zola plays for a whole season like he did for the latter half of last year's one, then they will certainly be serious contenders but otherwise teams will work out how to play against the Londoners, falling back and inviting them forward, and the cracks may begin to appear.

At the other end most of the usual suspects will be in trouble again with Southampton perhaps being the team whose luck finally runs out. Buying players from Stockport hardly seems to compensate for the loss of Eyal Berkovic and, early on, Matthew Le Tissier. Manager David Jones will find himself under a great deal of pressure from very early on if things do not start well at the Dell.

By the sound of their chairman, manager and fans, Barnsley intend to enjoy their time in the Premiership but they don't have the players to survive while their style, unlike Wimbledon's, is not the sort that transforms team spirit into points.

Last season they lost a good few games to mediocre opposition and this time around it seems they will still have their poor days while their better ones will simply not be good enough often enough.

Bolton should do better, West Ham have potential match winners for the first time in years and Coventry might just scrape it again so I would pick Palace to go straight back down again with not even the addition of Attilio Lombardo enough to save a generally mediocre team from the drop.

In an interview with Emmet Malone)