Premiership Preview--6. Portsmouth

6. This is the most improved team in all of the Premiership, there's no question about it in my mind. Portsmouth finished 9th last season, just 2 points out of a UEFA Cup spot, but this team is the best seen on the South Coast since the sides that won the old Football League in 1948-1949 and again in 1949-1950. Portsmouth, under one of the finest current managers in England, Harry Redknapp, have come from almost-certain relegation in 2005-2006 to 9th place last season, and this year will be even better. They started off last season like a house on fire with 5 consecutive clean sheets, and though they cooled off towards the end of the year, it was a dream finish for Portsmouth fans. It's going to be a huge, huge mistake to underestimate this team in 2007-2008.

One paragraph can't even begin to summarize the players Portsmouth brought in this summer. Franco-Russian chairman Alexandre Gaydamak has spent more than $40 million US to improve this up-and-coming team. Most notably, strikers David Nugent and John Utaka (from Preston North End and Rennes, respectively), midfielders Sulley Muntari and Arnold Mvuemba (Udinese and Rennes), and defenders Hermann Hreidarsson and Sylvain Distin (Charlton and Manchester City) are all new signings that will greatly impact this team. They lost only Andy Griffin and Svetoslav Todorov, two players that would've played no role for Portsmouth this season anyway. There are no glaring weaknesses anywhere on the team; Portsmouth have a great goalie in David James, a solid, if not outstanding, back line and incredible roster depth there, a midfield that is young but extremely gifted, and an attacking corps that will more than get the job done. Kanu led the team last year with 10 league goals; I guarantee that 10 will be nowhere near the team lead this season with the players Portsmouth brought in.

Portsmouth have the most ridiculously difficult stretch of games to start the season out of any team in the Premiership. After opening the year at newly promoted Derby County, it's home against Manchester United and Bolton, away to Chelsea and Arsenal, back home against Liverpool, at Blackburn, and then home against Reading. Insane! With that schedule, Portsmouth won't start the season as well as they did last season, but I guarantee they'll bounce back. Obviously seeing all of the tough teams the first time around at the beginning of the year means Portsmouth will only see teams they should beat for the rest of the first half. Another tough run of games in December (Everton at home, Aston Villa away, Tottenham home, Liverpool away, and then Arsenal home) will be tricky as well. However by my estimation, the season ends with 13 winnable games in a row, the toughest of which is at Tottenham.

Bottom Line: Portsmouth's main problem last year, the one that kept them from playing in Europe this season, was an inability to win away from Fratton Park. They recorded just 3 road wins in 2006-2007, along with 7 draws and 9 losses. At the very least, I believe Portsmouth will have to get that road record to .500 (even in wins and losses) to have a chance of finishing higher than 6th this year. If they do that, this team certainly has the talent to join Tottenham and the "Big Four" in breaking away from the rest of the Premier League. Finishing in a UEFA Cup spot should be a given for Portsmouth. Harry Redknapp has built a great roster on the South Coast, one that is a class above the teams I predicted to finish lower. The question is, can they climb that next step up the ladder? We'll see.

Setanta is Coming to Dish Network

I'm sure everyone has heard the news by now, but Setanta Sports has reached an agreement with satellite provider Dish Network to have their channel carried to subscribing customers.

This is great news for me personally as I have Dish Network at the house, and coupled with Fox Soccer Channel, I'll have more of the Premier League than ever before.

As The Gaffer over on epltalk.com wrote, a relatively inexpensive basic package is available for those who don't have Dish Network and want it, including Setanta. Go to www.soccerondish.com for that package, and visit dishnetwork.com for their other programming packages.

I definitely recommend Dish Network to anyone who doesn't have it. As far as sports packages go, Dish has NHL Center Ice, College Gameplan (football), ESPN Full Court (college basketball), and MLS Direct Kick. Unfortunately, they lost out on NFL Sunday Ticket and MLB Extra Innings to DirecTV, but Dish Network is worth the money in my opinion.

Premiership Preview--7. Aston Villa

7. Aston Villa finishing 7th place this season is going to be predicated on one thing--scoring more goals. Their total of 43 league goals in 38 games was good for just 12th best last season (they finished 11th overall), and was a major contributing factor to not finishing in a UEFA Cup spot. Villa closed out the season unbeaten in their last 9 games and in 10 of their last 11, but 6 of those games were draws, 5 of which were either 0-0 or 1-1. Winning just 3 of those 6 (while still getting a draw in the other 3) would've resulted in a 7th place finish and a place in Europe, but they couldn't score enough goals to get it done.

Aston Villa was raided for players this summer; Fulham and Bolton each signed two players who played for Villa last season, and Lee Hendrie went to Sheffield United. However, with all respect to the players that left Villa, none of them was the kind of player who left a gaping void in the club. Midfielder Steven Davis rejoined his former national team manager Lawrie Sanchez at Fulham, but he wasn't really factoring into Aston Villa's plans under manager Martin O'Neill. Another midfielder, Gavin McCann, is a reliable player when healthy, but numerous injury setbacks marred his time at Aston Villa and he made a move to Bolton. A reduction in playing time led defender Jlloyd Samuel to also leave for Bolton after playing for Villa since 1998, but he, too, was struck by the injury bug over the past couple seasons and the emergence of Wilfred Bouma at left back signaled the way out for Samuel. Aaron Hughes, Davis' teammate with Northern Ireland and that team's captain, also went to Fulham. Hughes is a very versatile player who can play anywhere in the back or in midfield and out of any of the players who left Villa, his departure hurts the club the most. However, full credit to Martin O'Neill and billionaire American chairman Randy Lerner for going out and spending some money to bring in two big-name, proven players to help address the club's weak areas. The addition of Marlon Harewood gives O'Neill four extremely capable striking options to choose from (Gabriel Agbonlahor, Harewood, Luke Moore, and John Carew). With West Ham since 2003, Harewood scored only 3 league goals last season, but averaged a goal every three games for them in his time there (47 goals in 142 league appearances). Nigel Reo-Coker looked disinterested at times with West Ham last season, but the former England U-21 captain is still only 23 years of age and possesses both excellent defensive and attacking qualities. He joins a midfield that is one of the best in the Premiership, maybe even the best of the teams that aren't part of the "Big Four". Captain Gareth Barry, the "Beast of "Birmingham" is a supremely talented ball-server from the left side, Stiliyan Petrov is solid, Patrik Berger revived his career with Villa last season after some outstanding play towards the end of the season, young players Craig Gardner, Isaiah Osbourne, and Shaun Maloney all have great potential, but the player who could turn out to be the best of the bunch is Ashley Young, who can operate as a striker or as a winger and has exceptional pace and quickness.

No month in the schedule stands out as being exceptionally difficult, but there's only one month that shouldn't give Aston Villa much trouble (November; home against Derby County, away to Birmingham and Middlesbrough). That game at Birmingham is the first Birmingham Derby of the season, and Villa will host Birmingham at Villa Park on April 20, the fourth-to-last game of the year. In the first three months of the season, Aston Villa will play three of the "Big Four", one in each month, but they all come to Villa Park (Liverpool, then Chelsea, then Manchester United). The last 6 games of the season are all winnable, with an away game at Everton the toughest of the bunch.

Bottom Line: Scoring goals shouldn't be a problem this season for Villa with the strikers that they have, coupled with no Juan Pablo Angel to give playing time to (he scored only 4 goals in 23 league appearances last season before moving to MLS). Villa allowed only 41 goals last season, but the defense has a few question marks aside from Olof Mellberg and Bouma. Goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen had to be helped off the field with an injury in a friendly at Toronto FC last week, and Villa will really need him healthy enough to start the season as they have to get out to a good start. I can't see Aston Villa finishing much higher than 7th, certainly no higher than 6th, and if they don't score like they should they could play their way out of a UEFA Cup spot.

Premier League Unveils New Website

The new, official website of the Barclays Premier League was launched this morning. It's still at the same address (www.premierleague.com), but the rest of the site is completely different and considerably more modern.

Check it out if you get a chance, it's definitely an improvement over the old site.