by Mihail Matikov

Created on: April 11, 2009   Last Updated: April 15, 2009

In the last decade the English Premiership race has become a competition with only four "horses" racing. Manchester United won six titles, Chelsea-2 and Arsenal -2 as well. Liverpool is yet to win its first title since the late 1989. It is quite unfair for the first three team to include Liverpool in the top four, since Liverpool failed to achieve any trophies, except the UEFA Champions League in 2005. That is why it is more appropriate to discuss who will be the team, which will break the top three in Premiership.

Undoubtedly, Everton is the team which has the players, the manager and the resources to get among the Big ones. Their manager David Moyes has been in charge of the team for already six seasons and proved to be one of the best and most progressive, young managers in England. Since he came on Goodison Park, he achieved to build a very strong team with low-budget players, which is always causing troubles for the big clubs in their title race. The young Scotsman surprised everyone with his consistency and the pleasant football his men play. He never bought any expensive players and always tried to find the potential in his men and develop it. Mikel Arteta, the Australian Tim Cahill, Marouane Fellaini, the former Manchester United striker Louise Saha and Joleon Lesscott are the core on the team and all season long they show magnificent play and prove that Everton is not a middle-class English team anymore. If Everton remains with its present team for the next season, they will definitely be strong enough to fight for the fourth place in Premiership.

Aston Villa is the other team, which showed very consistent performance this season. For about a month they even moved Arsenal out the fourth place in the table. Martin O'Neill is a manager who proved to have the ability to build a team out of nothing. The former Celtic manager has a similar type of coaching to Moyes and the results didn't get late. For the first two season on Villa Park, the team was struggling to find the right tempo, but this season their performance is brilliant. They key players of the team like Stilian Petrov, a guy who used to play in Celtic with O'Neill as a coach, Gabriel Agbonlahor, James Milner and the veteran John Carew, are all contributing to the success of the team. It will not be surprising if Aston Villa is the main pretender for the Champions League spot in Premiership the next season.

This may come as a surprise, but another team which will cause a lot of trouble to the

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>