If you are a football fan, then every week from now is going to be exciting because the season starts this weekend. Some of the best football clubs around the world from different leagues take to the field to battle it out for a year for the coveted title. With the English Premier League being among the most exciting and popular football competitions in the world, they have garnered the support of many fans around the world including Mumbai, which has fans supporting the Top 6 – Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.   
 
Fan groups have been buzzing in the interim period as they discuss transfers, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis, a yearly ritual which shows their love for the game beyond match days. The last two seasons have been a tough battle between Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Both of the successful managers known for their tactics and persona, have managed to bring out quality sides over the years. The hunger to win titles can be seen in the fact that the last three seasons has seen City win the last two years consecutively after the Reds won it in 2019-2020 at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. 
 
Squads, signings and results 
As the first matchday weekend approaches, fans are as excited as can be and with such a rich football culture, Mid-day Online spoke to three football fans in the city to get their predictions. City-based football fan Rudolph D’souza, who grew up watching the sport and supporting Manchester United, shares, “I feel Liverpool and Manchester City have a shot at the title.” Ask him why and he talks about the changes made during the recent transfer window. “Liverpool have made some good signings. Darwin Nunez is an aggressive player in terms of offense and defense, Fabio (Carvalho) is a good player with sound technical sense and adapts well to positions,” he explains.   

With both the teams performing at the top level through the season, Dahisar-based D’souza adds, “Manchester City always had choices in terms of players, their squad has great versatility in terms of players, and Pep really plays them well to their strengths.” The fact that they have very good midfielders, he says, helps them supplement well with the forwards. With Erling Haaland being one of the top signings of the season, the 29-year-old says it will be exciting to see how they use him this season. However, he has made a prediction. “From a win probability between Manchester City and Liverpool, I feel City has a 60 per cent chance of taking the title.” The Mumbaikar says the key this season will be to see how Pep and Klopp use their squad against tougher fixtures. 
 
As for the fortunes of his favourite team, he is still skeptical about their performance this season. “Manchester United is yet to be tested on their new signings both easier and stronger fixtures. The squad is relatively young with bits of experienced players. I feel the squad depends on a few players to run their game,” he raises his concerns.