Is The Prem Stronger This Season?

[White Noise]

And are Fulham a better side than last season?

Do you think that the early performances of teams in the division suggest it is a stronger, more competitive environment than last time or do you sense there are more opportunities for success now?

Also, do you think Fulham look like a stronger more competitive side this time and therefore more likely to succeed?

[WhiteJC]

with the best 3 of our 5 strikers crocked
Danny not getting any younger and no obvious replacement
Johnny Pantsil's gone walkabout
Black Mark looking decidedly iffy...

we should all be worried and the pundits marking us for relegation

However 2 of the new signings look very, very good, we're playing more attacking football (at least it seams as if we are)
I'm no longer worried for the entire last 10 minutes of a game

At this moment I'm quite happy with Fulham, I can't help wondering what we would be like if we had signed a striker

As for the other teams, its interesting, the "big boys" can score 4, 5, 6 without breaking a sweat or give winning margins away against teams they shouldn't.

When we get our 1st away win I might become over confident, especially if we get our 2nd away win shortly after  :045:

[TonyGilroy]

Chelsea, sadly, seem to be in a class of their own but every other team seems to be capable of beating any other on their day.

I suspect that we're more consistent than most of our competitors but it may be that this season there won't be a small sub class of inadequates which should keep the season interesting.

I'm surprised that the promoted teams are all doing well which might suggest a lowering of standards generally.

At the top there's clearly no reason to be frightened of anyone other than Chelsea.

[FatFreddysCat]

I think the bracket we're in the 8th to 14th place sort of teams like Brum, Stoke, Sunderland get stronger every year, Manure and Liverpool seen a lot weaker. The Filth are monsterous at the moment. Good to see The Arse looking good, one of the few teams i might watch on the box, lovely football.

[FC Silver Fox]

I would say we have shifted focus rather than be stronger. We are a more attacking side but trying to retain the strong defensive composure which was our strength last year. However it is a risk as we will be more exposed at times. If I'm right, we should be winning/losing more games. That's somewhat ironic given all our draws so far.  Shows how much I know, doesn't it?
I think we are stronger mentally and this has come from the Europa league run last season.

As for the other teams in the Premiership, I agree about the dark side being phenomenal at the moment. There are also more teams pushing to get into the top 4 (e.g. Man City, Spurs). There aren't any teams that you can say are dead certs to go down. Anybody in the bottom half of the table can be sucked into a relegation battle.

Can we get into a Europa league place this season?   Quite possibly, but it'll be a hard, exciting campaign.
Can we be sucked into a relegation battle?   Perhaps, if we get a lot of injuries and a bad run.

[Jimpav]

It's certainly more open if you write off Chelksi as the overall winners.

Liverpool and Man U are a shadow of their former selves and will struggle to keep pace with the Squatters.

Spurs will not get back into the top four on their performances so far, leaving Man City as the team most likely to fill the 4th spot.

I don't think we will be relegated because there are at least three worse sides than us in the league. Blackpool, West Ham and Wigan spring to mind. There is a possibility that we could get caught up in a dog fight because Zamora is a huge loss for us and we have been having to come from behind in a lot of games recently. We have a had a lot of draws - but argubaly the fixture list has been challenging.

We now have a very experienced side (Duff, Murphy, Gera, Schwarz, Salcidio) combined with some very talented players (Dembele, Hughes, Hangeland, Dempsey, Stockdale, AJ) which as proven last season would not look out of place in Europe.

Getting there could be tricky but with Zamora back in February he is going to be back at the top of his game for our last 6-8 matches - this is when we will need fresh legs the most. Remember the impact that Bullard and McBride had on the team when they returned to the team. They revived our hopes of survival.

Not only that but pernennial European candidates Everton and Villa have both made slow starts. If we take 3 points off Everton on Saturday then we will have further extended our lead over one of our competitors for 6th/7th place.

Villa are on the verge of becoming has beens. They have lost the star player (Milner) and with O'Neill gone I can't see them upping their game at all. Ashley Young is their star man but there is no telling if he will be there come January.

If we can maintain the good start we have had then there is no reason why we can't finish top ten or above.