IBITOYE OLAREWAJU
It’s no longer news that Brentford, Norwich and Watford, three newly promoted sides for the 2021/2022 English Premier League season, have been confirmed and will hope for a good outing in other to avoid the deep waters of relegation.
We take an unconventional look at some of the stars to look out for in the new teams after having a swell time in the Championship last term. Norwich
NORWICH
Norwich City struggled the last time in 2019/2020 amongst England’s elite clubs but with a championship medal in the bag, the Canaries will hope to push for a relatively strong end to the season and possibly see if they can perform another Leicester.
They take on Liverpool on August 14 in their first home game and the following players are capable of causing an upset for Liverpool who will be hoping to mount a strong title challenge this time. Although, they just lost Emiliano Buendia, one of their finest players last season to Aston Villa.
Max Aarons
The England U21 international had a lot of clubs clutching for his services in the last transfer summer after an eye-catching campaign in the English top-flight despite the Canaries relegating back to the Championship.
He decided to stay at the club despite interests from Barcelona, Bayern Munich, West Ham, Manchester City and Tottenham and with Daniel Farke’s side now sealing an immediate return back to the Premier League for 2021/22, we hope to see an amazing season for the lad.
Last season, he had 2 goals and 5 assists in 47 appearances and a pass success rate of 84.6% and 0.7% tackles per game.
The young athletic, strong, skilful and pacy right-back can turn defence to attack and as a defender, he won the EFL Young Player of the Month for December 2020 and Only Emi Buendia (93) registered more key passes from open play than him (61) in the Championship last season.
Teemu Pukki
He finished the championship with 26 goals only behind Ivan Toney who had 29 goals for Brentford and Adam Armstrong who had 28 goals for Blackburn Rovers.
In the 2019/2020 season, the Finnish finished the league with 11 goals but his goals couldn’t deter the Canaries from going down. This time around, he will definitely be pushing for more goals to help his team stay afloat the relegation waters.
The clinical finisher has so far scored 55 goals in 84 appearances for Norwich and having been the only player to have scored that much asides from the departed Emiliano Buendia who had 15 goals and 16 assists, the goal-scoring burden will be firmly placed on his shoulders. It’s left to be seen if he will carry Daniel Farke’s men all through the season.
Todd Cantwell
Todd Cantwell is one of the few bright players from Norwich’s relegated team two seasons back. The winger scored 6 league goals and six assists after missing much of the start of the season given to a hip problem, before returning to the side to play a prominent role in Norwich’s promotion back to the Premier League.
His creativity will be central to the club’s success once again although, faced with lots of interests from other Premier League clubs.
BRENTFORD
After trying for several seasons, the Bees finally arrive elite English Premier League for the first time in 131 years of existence. The following are some of their finest assets going into the 2021/2022 season. Thomas Frank’s men will welcome Arsenal to Brentford Community Stadium on Friday to kick start the season.
Ivan Toney
The English prolific goal scorer finished the campaign with 31 goals and 10 assists in 45 league games as well as scoring two in 3 Championship play-off games to secure the Bees’ promotion back to EPL.
Tariqe Fosu
A quick-footed, direct left-winger The Ghanian joined Brentford from Oxford on the final day of the 2020 winter transfer window making 11 appearances before the end of the season.
He made 49 appearances for the Bees last season, scoring 4 goals and 4 assists and got a national team call for the Black Stars.
Mathias Jensen
The Dane was Brentford’s leading chance creator last season.
He had seven assists and was constantly a goal threat with his long-range. A specialist in set-pieces and about 40% of chances he created were from free kicks and corners.
WATFORD
Watford FC are back in the Premier League having finished second in the EFL Championship last season after horrendous 2019/2020 season which saw the Hornets finishing 19th.
Xisco Munoz’s men showed their zeal to return back to the top division and their zeal was rewarded. The Spanish manager will be eyeing a repeat of his team’s heroic at the Championship in the coming season. We take a look at some Watford players who could succeed in the Premier League this season as they take on Aston Villa on Saturday 14th.
Ismaila Sarr
We all saw glimpses of what he is capable of in 2019 season where he scored a total of 6 goals and 4 assists in 30 appearances for the Hornets.
The Senegalese is back in the EPL after leading Watford back to Premier League. He won the Watford FC Player of the Season award earlier in May and has been linked with a move away from Watford FC ever since the Hornets’ relegation from the Premier League in 2020. He then decided to stay back and help Watford make a comeback into the top division with his heroics.
The lanky attacker scored 13 goals and had 4 assists in the championship last season.
Adam Masina
Adam Masina was one of the standout players for Watford in 2020/2021 Championship season. The 27-year-old Moroccan defender is the only Watford player to be included in the Championship Team of the Season.
He played 23 league games last season and had 1.6 tackles, 1.5interceptions and 2.7 clearances per game helping the team to 17 wins and a whopping 14 clean sheets and scored two important goals in the process. He definitely has a key role to play this season.
João Pedro
João Pedro had a breakthrough campaign and established himself among the key players at the club in the absence of the injured Troy Deeney.
The young Brazilian caused problems for defenders with his trickery and pace. He scored 9 goals and created 2 assists in 38 league appearances. The trickster also helped the defence by tracking back and average one tackle per game in the league.