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Once seen as akin to a loveable little cub in the Premier League, a friendly away ground to visit and a team who often struggled away from home, Fulham are back. This time, though, under Slavisa Jokanovic, they carry a different kind of bite. They score a lot of goals, concede a fair few along the way and generally entertain far more than previous entities the Cottagers brought to the Premier League.

This time around, it all feels like a little more like when Fulham first came on the scene as a top flight team. They look wild-eyed, ambitious and entirely fearless of a challenge. They look like the kind of promoted team that, if they can keep their momentum and their playing ethos that got them promoted, they could easily fly forward into the new season.

More teams are put off by a playing style that’s as offensive and as aggressive as Fulham. With the likes of Ryan Sessegnon, Tom Cairney and Aleksander Mitrovic, they have a pretty serviceable amount of firepower for a newly promoted side.

2018/19 Prediction

The defence is the main concern, with the likes of Time Ream and Tomas Kalas – with all due respect – not really up to it at the very top end of English domestic football. They might need to replace some of the players who were so key last year, and how that impacts on a tightly knit and harmonious squad will be quite interesting.
They’ll stay up, though, defence or not.

Once the very personification of a well-run top-flight football club, Swansea City are a bit of a mess at the moment. There’s not a lot to be said for the decisions made ever since they changed hands to American ownership. With the once revered Huw Jenkins under fire from a fanbase who feel like the club has lost its soul, Swansea City are certainly no longer the same ethos-driven club they once were under the likes of Roberto Martinez.

Change is very much needed in Wales, and it’s hard to see it coming. The one thing in their favour, though, is the interesting appointment of Graham Potter. The ex-Ostersunds coach has done a tremendous job in Sweden, building a club up from nothing under massive constraints. He’s now in a position where he could restore a very cool football club to its previous glories, but it all depends on the balance of funding provided.

2018/19 Prediction

The fans aren’t too happy with how the club has been managed in the past few years, with a succession of contrasting appointments creating an uneven and rather ill-thought out playing staff. If Potter is to make an impact in England, that’ll need to change.

The club might struggle in season one, though. They have similar echoes to Aston Villa in terms of it was one squad transformation too many. It may take a year or two to restore the club’ culture, and this could mean a transformative and much-needed season of consolidation.

After much talk and chatter, the UEFA Nationa League has got under way and already seen some interesting match-ups. England endured a chastising, reality-checking 2-1 defeat to Spain, and now welcome a Switzerland side who enjoyed an impressive FIFA World Cup campaign. Can England get back to winning ways against a Swiss side with a whole lot to prove?

England News

After enjoying a pretty decent starting point to their post-World Cup campaign, England soon returned to the same old story. A loss at home to Spain is never the worst, but it’s certainly not the best available result either.

With expected changes to come from the Spain match, we might expect to see England go a bit more out there with how they attack. A more offensive line-up is expected, with Marcus Rashford looking to really step it up following his goal against Spain on Saturday.

Switzerland News

Few results are more likely to get you in the mood for a big game than a 6-0 win – which the Swiss doled out to Iceland in stupendous fashion. After hammering the Icelandic side, Switzerland might go for a touch more continuity in a bid to really help them find that much-needed swagger.

The Swiss seemed a touch rocked after the loss to Sweden in the summer; they look to have recovered their self-belief in quite wonderful fashion. If they can pick a similar line-up to the last game, they should be able to cause England some problems.

Verdict

We can see this being a tight but enjoyable game, with England and Switzerland sharing the points. While we could see England getting a home win, they’ve struggled against teams like Switzerland for some time; that makes us think this could be a tight, tense yet enjoyable score draw.

With both teams picking up three wins from three, this is about as unlikely a ‘big game’ clash as you would expect in early season. Widely tipped to struggle to stay up and to make the top four again, both clubs have quickly put down a lot of the pre-season negativity revolving around their squads.

Spurs come into this one with a very impressive record against Watford, winning five of the last six games against the Hornets. Can they make it six out of seven?

 

Watford News

 

Playing in a rather interesting 4-2-2-2 formation, similar to old-school Brazilian teams, Watford are causing confusion with their style of play. The buzzy nature of Andre Grey appears to have revived Troy Deeney, while the creativity of Will Hughes and Roberto Pereyra is having a hugely positive impact on their attacking play.

Midfield duo Etienne Capoue – formerly of Spurs – and Abdoulaye Doucoure provide a shield for defensive duo Christian Kabasele and Craig Cathcart. Not much is expected to change from that tried and tested setup.

 

Spurs News

 

The same goes for Spurs with regards to selection: don’t expect much in the way of changes. Eric Dier and Mousa Dembele will continue to provide a midfield screen, while Dele Alli and Harry Kane play off one another to perfection.

Lucas Moura looks back to his Sao Paulo days, while the hugely impressive full-backs Kieran Trippier and Ben Davies provide width all-day long. Expect Spurs to stick to a similar line-up, especially with Erik Lamela and Victor Wanyama both missing out.

 

Verdict

A draw feels like a likely result; Spurs are excellent through the middle, but will find a congested Watford team harder to play through. They should pose a very interesting test for Spurs, though, with the physicality of Watford likely to outmatch their own strength. We can see this being a tight, congested but well-contested affair.

The time has finally come for Stoke City to stop dead in their mightily impressive tracks. The Potters done well to stay in the top flight for so long, and even managed to semi rebrand themselves under Mark Hughes. The Tony Pulis era brought stability with some pensive performances along the way, but the fan wanted more. With the money on offer, why not aim a bit higher in terms of player profile and aesthetics?

Sadly, the squad rebuild seemed to hit the wall. For each of the impressive signings like Xherdan Shaqiri, many more would shuffle through soon to vanish. Paul Lambert, the most recent coach to take the job in their doomed Premier League run, found a team with some very serious issues. They could make chances, yet failed to score them. They would concede chances, and goals, at key points in the matches and then the season. That’ll be hard to weed out in the short space of time between now and the new season beginning.

2018/19 Prediction

New coach Gary Rowett comes in after being another coach who was unable to bring Derby County past the finishing line and reach promotion. With a squad that needs a lot of change soon, and there’s not a great deal to say about the players who might stick around.
Stoke have a pretty strong structure bar the last 24-months or so, though, and could easily recover if they back Rowett in a mini revolution here.