Sky Sports host David Jones believes Manchester City are the favourites to win the Premier League title ahead of Liverpool this season. Pep Guardiola’s side have had a busy transfer window, landing Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez and Kalvin Phillips so far while offloading Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko. Yet Jones thinks they’ve upgraded, though does believe Jesus represents a good signing for Arsenal.
Express Sport recently visited the Sky Sports studios in London to talk about the new Premier League season.
And Jones suggests City remain favourites for the country’s ultimate prize, saying: “I think the favourites are Manchester City.
“They have to be, they’ve won the title four of the last five seasons, you look at the business they’ve done and the way they received £50m more than what they’ve actually spent. Extraordinary.
“They are stronger and I don’t think their business is done.
“If they sign a left-back that will be interesting, because Joao Cancelo can then left on the other side.”
It has, however, been a summer of change over at the Etihad.
Gone are Sterling, Zinchenko and Jesus – with Alvarez, Haaland and Phillips touching down from River Plate, Borussia Dortmund and Leeds respectively.
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Some believe City, by offloading Sterling and Jesus in particular, are now weaker.
But Jones isn’t among them and he thinks they’re now stronger than ever before as they look to win a third title on the trot.
He does, though, back Jesus to now shine at Arsenal – where he’s set to become the main man over at the Emirates Stadium.
“I think they’ve upgraded,” he said.
“Zinchenko was never able to make his mark, though I will say he had a huge impact on the final day of last season when he came off the bench.
“That gave them a real spark and impetus going forward, Jesus the same – he’d play more on the right-hand side than through the middle.
“When he came, we were told this was Brazil’s next No 9 we were watching here. It never quite worked for him at Manchester City and, of course, that can happen when it’s not a natural fit.
“For him, obviously, he’s gone to Arsenal and hit the ground running in pre-season. But the team is going to be built around him, providing him chances, which wasn’t always the case at Manchester City.
“This guy’s an interesting one, because he’s a guarantee of goals.
“When you have Foden, Grealish on the left hand side somebody was always going to miss out on game time so, naturally, was going to leave.”
This season will be a unique one for Jones and the rest of the Sky Sports team, however.
The World Cup in Qatar is poised to break up the campaign in November before then resuming the following month.
Yet Jones thinks it will be a ‘novelty’ for himself and his fellow pundits, claiming it will be ‘quite fun’.
“I think we’ll enjoy the novelty of it,” he said. “We have a 16 game season first of all and what I quite like about that is nothing is going to be decided before Christmas.
“So even if there’s one outstanding team, no one is going to win it early and naturally there’s going to be that break.
“So we can then carry that interest into the New Year, have a normal exciting Christmas.
“I think the players will actually be quite rested because they’re not all going to going to the World Cup, a lot of them will have a couple of weeks break.
“So I don’t anticipate a dip in quality. There might be some tiredness at the back end of the season, a few injuries, anything can happen. Bit of a level playing field.
“But I think the novelty of it will actually be quite fun.”
And Jones is also excited for the upcoming season, after taking some time off to recharge his batteries.
“I’m really excited,” he stated.
“I was saying earlier I was a little bit jaded I think towards the end of last season, just because by the end of May you’re a little jaded.
“Just a couple of months to twiddle my thumbs, spend some time on the beach with the family, on the golf course.
“Then you start reading the transfer news. ‘Oh, he’s signed from here’. It starts the cogs turning again and then I’ve got the mental freshness back and can’t wait to get started – even though we’re a week earlier.
“We’re absolutely ready to go again.”
Sky Sports is the home of the Premier League in the UK and Ireland with 128 exclusively live matches this season – more than any other broadcaster.
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