Who Will Win the Premier League: Chelsea, Manchester United, or Arsenal?

Now with the season halfway over in the Premier League, it has become clearly apparent that are three true contenders for the Premier League title in Chelsea, Manchester United, and Arsenal.

Right now, Chelsea leads the Premier League by one point over Man United but has played one less game than the Red Devils.

Meanwhile, Arsenal is three points behind Chelsea, but they both have played 20 matches so far in the 2009-2010 Premier League season.

So far in the Premier League season, each of these three sides have played great, and here is a look back at their season to date, and a preview of how the Premier League should play out for these three sides.

 

Chelsea

After a great run to end last season under Guus Hiddink, Chelsea got a new manager in former AC Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti, and after a relatively quiet summer, Chelsea got off to a solid start in the league.

However, on September 3 of last year, FIFA put an 18 month transfer ban on Chelsea after Chelsea illegally bought Gael Kakuta from FC Lens, and Chelsea will most likely have that ban put back on them after their appeal ruling in February.

But anyway, Chelsea has had a strong season to date and find itself in control of its own destiny in the Premier League.

Now that we are in January, Chelsea has found itself without the services of Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou, and John Mikel Obi for the African Cup of Nations.

But with an easy list of fixtures for this month, it appears that Chelsea will be able to remain on top of the Premier League as the season moves towards its conclusion.

So with this in mind, Chelsea is the side to beat in this Premier League season, but it will need to play their best due the close proximity of Man United and Arsenal in the league table.

 

Manchester United

The three time defending Premier League champions, Manchester United lost stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez last summer, but it was still able to get off to a solid start in the league this season, including wins over Arsenal and Manchester City at Old Trafford.

But as the season has progressed for the Red Devils, they have started to underperform with an extremely weak defense, and they now find themselves trying to find answers at the back end.

This problem has so far hurt United in 2010, as it has lost 1-0 in the FA Cup Third Round to Leeds United and drew with Birmingham City 1-1.

So now that we are in the middle of January, Manchester United knows that it has to start to play up to their standards that it has set for themselves in recent seasons and try to win the league.

But, United will have an upward hill to climb with its recent form and with the strength of its remaining fixtures this year in the Premier League.

 

Arsenal

After a summer in which they unloaded Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor, Arsenal was expected to still be a formidable side and get into the Champions League, but it wasn't expected to win the Premier League.

And despite a 6-1 win at Everton and a 4-1 beat down on Portsmouth, Arsenal lost to both Manchester sides in United and City within a month before going on a two and half month run with only one loss (which was to Sunderland).

On November 29, Arsenal hosted Chelsea at the Emirates in what was a huge match for Arsenal's Premier League chances, and it lost 3-0 to go 11 points behind Chelsea in the league table, It appeared unlikely that the Gunners were going to contend for their first Premier League title since 2004.

But December turned out to be a great month for Arsenal, as it did not lose a single match in the Premier League during the month and now find itself just three points behind Chelsea in January.

But Arsenal will need to keep up its great form in the next month and a half, as it will face Aston Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and restart its Champions League campaign against Porto, which will make the next the next month and a half to decide where there season will end up.

If it was able to do so, Arsenal could make a legitimate run for the title, but it cannot stop its great recent play.

 

With a great Premier League season to date, we should expect a great run to the 38th match here between these three great sides, but only one side will be able to win the Barclays Premier League.