Premier League Talk With Marks Maponyane

First of all, I'm excited to share my thoughts on the beautiful game of football and continue my association with Sportingbet. This Premier League season has had a lot of talking points, so let’s cover some topics that I've been thinking about, that may help with your soccer betting.

I think in recent weeks the main talking point off the field has definitely been Thomas Tuchel and the latest backroom changes at Chelsea. On the field, it has emphatically been Erling Haaland. Will he finish the season with 35 or 45 goals in all competitions?

How's that for a healthy debate?

He is everything, the complete striker. He’s the biggest man, he’s got the height, he’s got the strength, he's got the pace, the complete athlete and he is the most difficult player to stop.

He’s also said to have had the least amount of touches for his goals. He scored two goals with seven touches in one of his first games and he’s just roaming around the danger zones, pulling away the defenders. So for me, he’s likely to be a leading goal scorer and a player of the season. Best signing in recent times I think!

I've been watching him since Dortmund, how do you score 86 goals in 89 appearances? That's his record! He failed to score in just three matches in the two seasons, that's unbelievable, at only 22! And he’s not injury prone, which is also an advantage.

Getting back to off-the-field news and football gossip, with regard to Thomas Tuchel, that was probably the right thing for the club. I'll tell you why, new owner Todd Boehly and the team knew that he was going to leave a while ago. Thomas lost the dressing room a while ago. One of the rumors that’s going around is that he started getting frustrated with players, one such player was N'Golo Kanté, when he was not getting the job done in the middle of the field. That frustration just built up and he started losing his dressing room.

They said that even if he had won that game against Zagreb, he was still going to be shown the door. The writing was on the wall already, he wasn't going to survive that. In fact that defeat was just rubbing salt into the wound.

Looking at his replacement, Graham Potter, he made some major changes at Brighton during his time there. I never used to enjoy watching Brighton, he changed that team to one that we can watch! I can remember even last season when Brighton gave Man City, the champions, a run for their money 

He looks to be a man that can keep his cool, seems to know how to work with players.

Despite being a man under immense pressure, Jurgen Klopp keeps his smile. Liverpool have dropped too many points to challenge for the title this season. They will realise that the bus has left. And it seems when they are not doing well there will be a lot of tension from the management, to owners, right down to the players. It will be interesting to see if they can turn things around.

He must be so frustrated with his players, but he’ll never ever show it. They just have not come to the party. Although Klopp seems to be masking his problems, he seems to be a man in trouble!

Things have been looking good over at Manchester United with Erik Ten Hag. I like the way he treats Cristiano Ronaldo. He came there, put his foot down, had a plan and stuck to it. A man on a mission and with a plan will never be derailed by one player. He proved that by publicly telling Ronaldo that if he didn't come to the pre-season, that he will watch from the bench until he is ready. I like that from the Dutchman. I believe Ronaldo can destabilize a lot of changing rooms. 

I received a lot of questions recently on who will win the Premier League! The Gunners will not win the league because they have started their old habit of not winning against the so-called big six. Their first big challenge was Man United and they lost. If they can start to beat those teams, maybe things will change. As much as they are on top, those are the reasons that I don't fancy them as Champions. As the log stands currently, we need to admit Arsenal have done well, they’ve signed quality players, and Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka have been doing well. The biggest question for them has always been beating the big teams, but I don't see them sustaining this.