The Premier League of England, the most competitive tournament in the world, in which seven Argentine footballers and a coach, Marcelo Bielsa, will participate in Leeds United, will begin this Friday, in what will be its twenty-ninth edition under this format, with the meeting to be held in London between Brentford, recently promoted, and Arsenal.
Among the Argentine players, goalkeeper Emiliano MartÃnez (Aston Villa) is the most prominent as a figure of the selected team that won the Copa América in Brazil last month, while the arrival of Cristian “Cuti” Romero to Tottenham is the most brilliant pass of national players. Meanwhile, among the technicians, Bielsa captures a lot of interest for his particular style and his great task in Leeds, With which he developed a very good campaign last season on his return to first class, finishing ninth and far from the relegation zone.
Brentford and Arsenal will play this Friday from Argentina at 16 at Craven Cottage Stadium, located in the London neighborhood of Fulham, while reigning champion Manchester City, led by Spaniard Pep Guardiola, will just make his debut on Sunday visiting Tottenham Hotspur in London at 12.
For his part Bielsa’s Leeds United will have a difficult debut when visiting Manchester United at Old Trafford, in something that seems to be common currency for those led by the former coach of the Argentine national team, since last season they played on the initial date at Anfield Road, falling 4 to 3 against Liverpool, which was the current champion.
Foreign and Argentine figures
The seasons go by in European football and The Premier is the most relevant tournament, due to the offensive spirit of its teams, where most of them seek the rival goal with conviction, and with great figures such as Harry Kane (Tottenham), Belgian Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), Dutchman Virgil Van Dijk and Egyptian Mahamed Salah (both from Liverpol), Uruguayan Edinson Cavani, (Manchester United) and Belgian Romelu Lukaku, about to sign with Chelsea after winning Serie A with Inter.
In addition to Draw Martinez at Aston Villa and Rosemary newcomer to Tottenham, the Argentines who will play in the Premier League are Giovani Lo Celso (Tottenham), Manuel Lanzini (West Ham), Emiliano BuendÃa (Aston Villa), Alexis MacAllister (Brighton) and Federico Fernández (Newcastle).
New names in banks
The most important changes of coaches occurred in Everton, with the Spanish Rafa BenÃtez for Carlos Ancelotti, who went to Real Madrid, the Portuguese Nuno Espiritu Santo instead of the English Ryan Mason in Tottenham, the French Patrick Vieira replaced Englishman Roy Hodgson at Crystal Palace and portuguese Bruno Lage to Nuno Espirito Santo in Wolverhampton.
Among Argentines, the only name will once again be that of Marcelo Bielsa, who will face his fourth season at the helm of Leeds, an unprecedented event in his entire coaching career. The 65-year-old from Rosario played two seasons in the Championship, with frustration in the first season and the title and promotion in the second. And in the premiere in the Premier he got a creditable ninth place, very comfortable to maintain the category.
The usual candidates
There will be a difference in preparation between the teams in this Premier start, as there are many clubs that have loaned players for the recent European Championship, in which England suffered a new frustration when they lost the final at Wembley against Italy, in definition with shots from the penalty spot. The same thing happened with the South American stars in the Copa América.
In the past season Sheffield United, West Bromwich Albion and Fulham were relegated to the Championship and Norwich City, Watford and Brentford were promoted in the list of 20 teams that make up the Premier.
Among the teams that will have double competition when playing European competitions are Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea in the Champions Leaguand; while Leicester City and West Ham United will play the Europa League, and Tottenham joins the new continental competition, the Conference League, the third tournament in importance for UEFA, qualifying the champion for the Europa League the following year.
The candidates, beyond the appearance of some unexpected occupant of the vanguard positions, will be the City to retain the title, Chelsea, current champion of the Champions League, with the German Thomas Tuchel as coach, the United with Norwegian Ole Solskjaer, Liverpool with the German Jurgen Klopp, and Tottenham, several teams with remarkable potential that will give a tough fight for the title of an exciting league.
A little history
The Premier as such began to be held from the 1992/1993 season and was won by Alex Fergusson’s Manchester United. Precisely the Red Devils are the team with the most titles with 13, followed by Chelsea and Manchester City with five, Arsenal with three, Blackburn Rovers, Leicester and Liverpool with one.
The historic scorer is Alan Shearer with 260 goals, followed by Wayne Rooney with 208, Andy Cole with 187 and Argentine Sergio Agüero with 184, who went to Barcelona and thus deprived himself of the possibility of placing second behind Shearer in a season or two.
As for the top winners, Fergusson is the coach with the most titles, with 13, and Wales’ Ryan Riggs is among footballers with 13, both in the same cycle with United, while the French Arsene Wegner, with 828 matches, is the coach who managed the most, all at Arsenal.
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