Who is the best equipped to challenge chelsea in the coming years..

I'd say the usual suspects: Arse, Man Utd, Liverpool with the addition of Newcastle, ESPECIALLY if Shearer hangs around one more year. In this league, there exists a level of parity at the top of the table, with occasional incursions by teams like Blackburn ('93) and now Everton. With the possibility of injuries having an effect, it has never taken much of a blip for the title to be hotly contested.

 

Man Utd have the better overall squad (compared to Arsenal) and with a better keeper they should be fine. You need to remember that Man Utd has missed two key players (Rio and Ruud) for large portions of the season. If it wasn't for that, then the gap would not be as great.

 

Rio? Since when is 5 games "large portions" of the season?

 

Not to mention the fact that our greatest offensve threat (Robben) has been injured for most of the season as well...

 

how do you figure? Theres yet to be replacements for your aging midfield that Milan completely dominated, nor possibly any transfer budget this summer. And the whole well we were missing Ruud for a large portion of the season thing is getting tiresome. Chelsea has had many more injuries:Robben twice, Drogba at least twice, Parker, Carvalho, Bridge, Huth

 

I was gonna say...all u guys cryin about injuries...thank god someone said Liverpool. I've never seen injury reports so full!

 

I dont really remember giggs, scholes, cronaldo, heinze, rooney, hack neville, getting hurt much....but its been a long season and I admit I could be wrong.

 

again 1 or 2 games is not a big injury problem.

 

You mean the same game where we were missing Duff and Robben?

 

Please don't be silly. Robben has played a lot more games than RVN. Drogba can be easily replaced as he is no where near as good as all these new Chelsea supporters seem to think he is. Plus he had about 5 weeks out and that's it and was playing his usual nothingness anyway.

Parker? Hahahahahahah. There's times he doesn't even make the subs bench. Carvalho's had a couple of injuries but he's pretty much always been around. And Bridge only got injured 3 weeks ago. Huth? See Parker for an explanation.

Man Utd supporters may whinge a lot about RVN's absence, but if you fail to see the significance of it, they you show a lack of knowledge. Certain players cannot be replaced. Liverpool without Gerrard, Chelsea without Robben, Man Utd without RVN. They are not the same teams

 

if a TEAM is going to bglame the standings on one injury, maybe that team is not good enough. The same team that its dellusional fans claimed to be playing as well as Chelsea now with RVN back, then went out and got dominated by Milan, and struggled against Palace and Fulham.

 

Robben has started two more games than RvN, actually.

 

The obivious answer is Arsenal then Man Utd and Liverpool, Arsenal if they buy the right players (centre back, midfielder) and continue to integrate there brilliant youngsters into the first team i can see no reason why they wont be up there, Utd need to get rid of the mediocre players as they have way to many and spend there tiny summer transfer budget wisely i.e. A NEW KEEPER and I look forward to seeing what Benitez can do at Liverpool without such injuries and some additional signings in the summer

 

The obvious answer is Chelsea's B squad.

 

I'm not touting Utd's keepers, as they have shown to be shakey this year at best, and when a keeper makes a mistake, it's like a neon sign. But I wouldn't prioritize that as highly as some others do.

Utd have dropped 19 pts this year in Prem games where their opponents have scored 1 goal or less, including 10 pts in 0 - 0 draws. In the last year, they've bought Saha, Smith and Rooney (~40 mil) to bolster RVN. I would think that most would consider that record unacceptable given their talent at the front. They have scored just over 1.5 goals per game, and have the second best goals against average. Figuring out the scoring problem is a much more pressing issue than spending gobs on a keeper, although that changes should Carroll really go.

 

How can a team be confident with a crappy keeper. All the top performing sides have the best keeprs (with a few exceptions of course, like us and the Arse bandits). Chelsea, even before Cech, had cudicini performing, Arsenal, last season, when Lehman was good were so much better than this season. AC and Juve have top class keepers as do Bayern. Look who we had in goal the last time we won the champions league! Fair enough it is about scoring just as much as conceding, but knowing you have a goaley behind you who rarley makes mistakes gives the team the confidence to push up without the worry keeps is gonna let in a howler.

 

It doesnt help that your midfield can no longer dominate the top sides of Europe anymore like they used to.

 

Sort of like Given, Schwarzer and Sorensen this past weekend, two of whom are on Utds list of targets. The top class keepers are all pretty rooted where they are, and for the same reasons their tieams will be loathe to part with them. Other than within the Prem, the best hope for a keeper would be what they tried with Howard, a top prospect from somewhere that given a chance in the right team could shine brightly. Grow him and the winning will start.

 

Surely the the obvious answer would be the Russian Government.