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Premier League title contenders: BBC pundits' first impressions

Premier League title contenders: BBC pundits' first impressions
18.08.2014 10:45
Four of the title contenders enjoyed mixed fortunes at the start of the 2014-15 Premier League season.

Champions Manchester City, big summer spenders Arsenal and Liverpool - minus Luis Suarez - all enjoyed victories on the opening weekend.The big spotlight was on how decorated Dutch manager Louis van Gaal would fare in the his first league match in charge of Manchester United - it did not go quite according to plan.Here, BBC's array of pundits from television and radio share their first impressions of the title challengers.'Man Utd need three world-class players'Van Gaal's Man Utd reign starts with defeatUnited's first opening-day loss at home since 1972Swansea's first league win at Man UtdThe first game: Louis van Gaal's first league game in charge of Manchester United sees his team stumble to a 2-1 defeat at home by Swansea. Having finished seventh last season, the 20-time champions have already spent almost £60m on bringing in England full-back Luke Shaw and Spanish midfielder Ander Herrera and hired a new manager - will that be enough to make them title challengers again?Former Newcastle and England striker Alan Shearer: "As poor a result as that was, it could be a blessing. It says to the money men they need three world-class players and big money needs to be spent to get back into top four, never mind challenge for the championship. They left it so late to sign players last season, they were found wanting."Whether they were playing three, four or five at the back they weren't good enough against the Welsh side."Former Red Devils player and coach Phil Neville: "Manchester United's defeat by Swansea didn't surprise me. This is a team that finished seventh last season and were without nine players. Yesterday only confirmed that United need to invest and invest well."Former Netherlands midfielder and Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit: "Fellow Dutchman Van Gaal has a big job. The Premier League is different. You can see during the game the United players were thinking about where they had to be. When he played 3-5-2 for Netherlands it was necessity because we had bad defenders. He played 4-3-3 at Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, but always played attacking football. It was a surprise he played 3-5-2 to start with against Swansea, but then he changed it. If you were a Swansea player would you have been afraid of that line-up?"Former Manchester City defender Danny Mills: "They're miles off the Champions League. I made my predictions that United will do well to finish fifth if they make signings. The quality simply is not there. Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Juan Mata yes, but what is behind them?"Executive vice-president Ed Woodward took an awful lot of flak last year for not getting the signings in. Surely they are not going to make the same mistake again?"Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy: "They had injuries for this game, but they haven't replaced their big characters like Ryan Giggs, Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand yet. The quality they bring now is imperative. It will cost them a lot of money."(BBC)Bakudaily.Az

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