1 Arsenal Alexandre Song has vowed to make this coming season his breakthrough year at Arsenal. “My challenge is to play more this season,” the Cameroon midfield player said. “We have a lot of games, so there will be opportunities. I need to train hard and show the boss [Arsene Wenger] I am ready.”

Opening match Sunday Fulham (h)

2 Aston Villa With Thomas Sorensen injured and Craig Gordon, the Heart of Midlothian goalkeeper, preferring Sunderland, Stuart Taylor remains unfazed about keeping goal against Liverpool on Saturday. “If I carry on working hard, that gives the manager a decision to make,” Taylor said.

Opening match Saturday Liverpool (h)

3 Birmingham City Damien Johnson, the midfield player, will miss the start of the season after it was revealed that he tore a hamstring in last week’s friendly win against Walsall. The club captain has a chance of recovering in time to face West Ham United at St Andrew’s a week on Saturday.

Opening match Sunday Chelsea (a)

4 Blackburn Rovers Mark Hughes is already eyeing a top-six finish for his team this season. “We’re looking to try and kick on,” the manager said. “We got to sixth the year before, tenth last year with injuries, so if we can have a decent run without injuries, we would have to have a good, if not better, season.”

Opening match Saturday Middlesbrough (a)

5 Bolton Wanderers Kevin Davies, the forward, believes that the managerial upheaval is no excuse for the club to lower their sights this season. “We’ve set our standards and we want to keep building on that,” the 30-year-old said. “We still want to win something.”

Opening match Saturday Newcastle United (h)

6 Chelsea Steve Clarke says the club can shrug off injury woes. “Normally, we’re good starters,” the assistant manager said. “Last year, we lost our second game at Middlesbrough and that was an unexpected blow, but this year we’ve been able to work as a group. We’d like to start quickly and continue.”

Opening match Sunday Birmingham City (h)

7 Derby County Claude Davis will be nursed through this week after he limped out of Saturday’s friendly 2-2 draw with Espanyol. The £3 million defender has returned to training, however, and Billy Davies, the manager, said: “It’s important we’re careful with him over the next few days.”

Opening match Saturday Portsmouth (h)

8 Everton Alan Irvine, the assistant manager, believes that Phil Jagielka’s versatility will prove invaluable for the club this season after his £4 million transfer from Sheffield United in July. “We know he can play in a lot of positions and play well in all of them and that is the reason we signed him,” Irvine said.

Opening match Saturday Wigan Athletic (h)

9 Fulham Lawrie Sanchez has failed in an attempt to sign Kyle Lafferty, the 19-year-old Northern Ireland striker, from Burnley. “We don’t want to sell him,” Steve Cotterill, the manager of the Coca-Cola Championship side, said. “We turned down Fulham’s offer and we are not anticipating another one.”

Opening match Sunday Arsenal (a)

10 Liverpool Sochaux are interested in signing Anthony Le Tallec, the forward, who spent last season with them on loan, but cannot afford his wages. “He has an English salary and I can’t break the wage bill of this club like that,” Jean-Claude Plessis, the club president, said.

Opening match Saturday Aston Villa (a)

11 Manchester City Alan Curbishley is unsure how to prepare for this weekend’s game. “It is interesting to see what [Sven-Göran Eriksson, the City manager] is doing with lots of new players. I am not sure what his team is — and neither is he, I think,” the West Ham United manager said.

Opening match Saturday West Ham United (a)

12 Manchester United Rio Ferdinand is excited about the imminent arrival of Carlos Tévez. “As players, we are just like fans, really,” the defender said. “We are really excited to have new players coming in. He has only trained with us a couple of times, but already we can see what he is all about.”

Opening match Sunday Reading (h)

13 Middlesbrough James Morrison, the 21-year-old midfield player, has joined West Bromwich Albion, of the Coca-Cola Championship, for £2 million, with Middlesbrough negotiating a 15 per cent sell-on clause for the product of their impressive youth academy who made 40 league starts for the first team.

Opening match Saturday Blackburn Rovers (h)

14 Newcastle United Sam Allardyce will give Kieron Dyer “his own space” after the breakdown of the England international’s transfer to West Ham United. “He needs to collect his thoughts,” the manager said. “He was a bit down, but you don’t always get what you want out of life and you just have to get on with it.”

Opening match Saturday Bolton Wanderers (a)

15 Portsmouth Lomana Lualua has impressed during preseason and hopes to remind critics of the contribution that he can make when fully fit. “It’s like a new beginning,” he said. “Hopefully, I will be given a chance to show what I can do because I will score goals and I have already shown that.”

Opening match Saturday Derby County (a)

16 Reading Leroy Lita may miss the first month of the season after pulling a leg muscle in bed. “Leroy is in a great deal of pain,” Steve Coppell, the manager, said. “He woke up, stretched while he was in bed and has done something to his leg. It looks to be a problem with the nerve.”

Opening match Sunday Manchester United (a)

17 Sunderland Stephen Wright, the full back, has not written off his career at the club despite his five-month loan move to Stoke City. The 27-year-old is in the final year of his contract at Sunderland, but has been stricken by injuries. “Who’s to say if I do well here, Roy Keane won’t want me back at Sunderland,” he said.

Opening match Saturday Tottenham Hotspur (h)

18 Tottenham Hotspur Martin Jol has warned the fans not to get carried away by the team’s unbeaten preseason programme. “It is not always a good omen,” the manager said. “As they say in Holland, it is better to have one bad match to get it out of the way before the season starts.”

Opening match Saturday Sunderland (a)

19 West Ham United Lucas Neill, the club captain, is reported to have been ruled out for up to a month after injuring his knee during training yesterday. The Australia defender has endured a wretched run of injuries since arriving from Blackburn Rovers for £1.5 million in January.

Opening match Saturday Manchester City (h)

20 Wigan Athletic Chris Hutchings is prepared to play Kevin Kilbane, the midfield player, at left back if he cannot get a replacement for Leighton Baines before the opening game of the season, away to Everton on Saturday. “If we have to start Kevin there, I would have every confidence in him,” the manager said.

Opening match Saturday Everton (a)