Wednesday 2 September 2015 14:26, UK
Sky Sports pundit Thierry Henry thinks the race for the Premier League will be more tightly contested than last season.
Chelsea cruised to the title after losing just three games, with Jose Mourinho’s side leading the table from start to finish.
However, Henry - who stars in Sky Sports’ TV advert for the new football campaign - believes that unlike in his playing days, the competition to win next season's title will be fierce, with several teams now capable of challenging the champions.
“In my time, before Chelsea came along to battle with us and Manchester United, you guys knew it was all going to be Arsenal or United winning the league,” he said.
“So the competition was within those two teams. That is why I think it is harsh, because when you think about it, before this year Chelsea hadn’t won the league for four years, and we all know the amount of time that Arsenal did not win the league.
“So Chelsea win it and we are all like: ‘United are going to come back for sure, Manchester City are going to come back for sure and Arsenal are going to come back for sure'. What about Liverpool? You think they are going to stay out?
“Have a look at the competition now to win the league. It is very, very, very difficult, so I expect everyone is going to challenge them, everyone is going to try to make sure they can win the title.
“Because if I said to you: ‘City cannot have the same season again, Arsenal cannot stay another year without winning the league, United won’t accept not winning the league two years in a row' - that does not go down too well over there. What about Liverpool? So I expect everyone to challenge them.”
And while Henry does not predict too many surprises in the final composition of next season’s top four, the former Arsenal striker has also not discounted a side coming out of left field to challenge, as Liverpool did in 2013/14.
“You would like to point at the usual subjects - United, Arsenal and City - but who would have said Liverpool a year ago would have nearly won the league? No one saw that coming,” he added.
“So you always have a surprise and you don’t know when that is going to happen and maybe it is going to be a team that is going to surprise the other teams next season. But you would like to think it will be the same kind of top four.”
Henry, who scored 175 league goals for Arsenal, claimed the greatest Premier League moment during his glittering career in England was when Arsene Wenger’s side went a whole season unbeaten in 2003/04.
“My personal one has to be us being invincible, because it is an achievement,” he said.
“I know we didn’t win the league eight, nine times, like United did, but it will go down in the history of the league as an achievement and something really special.
“At the time when we did it - I am not going to talk about it even more as we all know the story - we didn’t think people were still going to talk about it and talk about it the way they are talking about it. But yes it is my personal one and obviously I am going to mention us going unbeaten.”
However, the Frenchman does feel the Gunners’ unbeaten league campaign can be matched in the future, and in more style too.
“Yes I think it will happen again. A team can do it in a better way: less draws, more goals, less goals conceded.”
Next season, 116 Barclays Premier League fixtures are to be shown exclusively live on Sky Sports with unrivalled analysis from Thierry Henry alongside Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Jamie Redknapp and Graeme Souness.
