Premier League preview: Who will survive from W

The former Newcastle boss arrived at Selhurst Park mid-season in 2014/15 and not only steered Palace away from the drop zone, but led them to their highest-ever Premier League finish. Now, if you ask a player to write a cheque for £100,000, they hand over two weeks’ pay.

The lengthy injury list will likely see debuts handed to Richards, Amavi, Veretout and Gueye. “If you play one way to get out of the Championship and then have to rip it up and start again in the Premier League, I think you would struggle”, he added back in April.

It’s fascinating to listen to Brady speak about a game that nearly everyone has an opinion on, considering how much of an input he has at a club of Villa’s size and that he was a wide-eyed student with nothing more than a dream just a few years ago.

Only 31 goals were scored and that was just about as bad as it gets for a team that stays up so it remains to be seen if either Ayew or Gestede can adequately replace Benteke, who flourished when it mattered at the business end of the season. This weekend, you will all claim dugout seats as Premier League managers for the first time. He remains a manager of limited experience.

Similarly, Cardiff’s acquisition of 14 players in 2013-14 did not serve them well and Crystal Palace’s transfer-market activity the same year was so ludicrous they could not fit some of their new signings into their 25-man Premier League squad.

But, considering how far this club has come, and what they went through to get to the top flight of English soccer, this season can be looked at as nothing less than a massive success. At 3/1 they’re a perfectly fair bet to go down. “We expect a very hard first game”. After a disastrous second half to last season which almost saw the team relegated under John Carver following Alan Pardew’s departure, Steve McClaren has been tasked with rebuilding the squad. “Hopefully we can move his game onto the next level”. Can the south coast club maintain their attractive – and effective – style of play when they come up against the heavyweights of the Premier League?

The title race looks wide open, a host of fresh talent has been shipped in to strengthen the mid-table and both Watford and Bournemouth are signing talent left, right and centre to make sure they push away from the bottom three.

The club’s record signing, Callum Wilson, cost Bournemouth £3 million.

From assistant managers (Liverpool’s Sean O’Driscoll and West Bromwich Albion’s Mark O’Connor) to goalkeeping coaches (Arsenal’s Gerry Peyton and Norwich City’s Dean Kiely), shots of team benches will provide a who’s who of Irish staff members.

The 26-year-old, who can also play in midfield, scored 10 goals for Boro last season, and was one of the key players who took the club to a spot in the play-off final.

In stark contrast to Howe, Reid and Flores, Ranieri is out of touch and his last act in football was to oversee a home worldwide defeat for Greece against the Faroe Islands.

What an excellent management team they have turned out to be. Sherwood’s short term work can’t really been questioned given what he done with Villa last year as well as at previous club Tottenham, however it will be interesting to see how he fares across the duration of a longer campaign.