Champions Manchester City kick off this year’s English Premier League season with a trip to Burnley in the first match of what hopes to be a season full of ups and downs.
We caught up with Bet9ja Ambassador Victor Ikpeba who gave us his thoughts on the upcoming season, along with who he thinks will be raising the trophy at the end of it.
After competing so tightly for the EPL last season, how do you rate Arsenal and Manchester City’s chances this year?
VI: Arsenal will definitely be disappointed with how they finished last season after such a strong campaign, but Manchester City were so good as they won the treble. It’s important to remember that winning a league title is a marathon and not a sprint, and experience comes into play a lot of the time.
City are the reigning champions and have made some big moves in the transfer market. They’ve added some good players in Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol to replace guys like Ilkay Gundogan who was amazing for them last year, and were unlucky to not win against Arsenal in the FA Community Shield.
After winning the treble last season, do you think that Manchester City will have the same hunger to compete for the title?
VI: That’s a very good question – you see with a lot of teams that they drop off after a big season, like Liverpool and Chelsea in recent memory, but I think that Pep Guardiola is the type of manager to keep his players motivated and focused on continuing to improve. What they achieved last season was incredible, but that’s in the past now and Pep will know this.
Guardiola is coming up against his former captain Vincent Kompany in the Burnley dugout. How do you see this going?
VI: It’s judgment day for Vincent Kompany. I’m sure he’s learnt a lot as a manager over the past few years, but the Premier League is on a different level to the EFL Championship. He knows this though, and I’m sure that Kompany will get the best out of his players. His job is to keep Burnley in the league, and if he achieves this it will be a successful season for them.
The Premier League is a marathon, not a sprint. It doesn’t matter how you start if you drop in quality later on in the season. As a smaller club you have to fight for every point that you can get. It should be a comfortable City win tonight but you never know in the EPL.
Bet on Burnley vs Man City at Bet9ja
