10 Things EPL Fans Can't Wait for Ahead of 2013-14 Season

With all competitive football now over for the summer, August 17 can’t come soon enough for EPL fans.  Following the departure of a man who has been involved in the league since its inception in 1992, it feels as though the 2013-14 season will signal the start of a new era.

This comprehensive list of 10 things that fans of the best league in the world are most excited about brings you a mix of old favourites and new challenges. If you feel that something is missing from the list, please let me know in the comments.

New Signings, New Songs

The transfer window can be a bit of a pain, especially when it involves saying goodbye to your favourite player. However, if you look on the bright side, new arrivals bring with them the opportunity for new songs.

In summer 2012, the Chelsea fans quickly replaced the old favourite of “Didier Drogba/la la la la la” with the lyrical genius of “We’ll just call him Dave/We’ll just call him Da-ave/Azpilicueta/We’ll just call him Dave” in honour of new signing Cesar Azpilicueta.

The classic heard in this video is an homage to former Aston Villa striker John Carew. In case you're struggling to decipher it, the lyrics are as follows "John Carew, Carew/He's bigger than me and you/He's gonna score one or two/John Carew, Carew."

With plenty of players poised to join new Premier League clubs in 2013, the potential for new material is as high as ever. Personally, I cannot wait to hear what Manchester City fans come up with for Jesus Navas, with Everton's ditty for new addition Antolin Alcaraz a close second.

Goal-Line Technology

After years of controversial decisions and many different trials and tests, goal-line technology will be brought in to the Premier League for the 2013-14 season for the first time in any domestic league.

The 20 clubs voted to use the Hawk-Eye system, which will use several cameras to analyse the goal from all angles. This will go some way to preventing incidents such as the one involving Papiss Cisse and David De Gea last season.

Newcastle United were facing Manchester United at the Sports Direct Arena in October 2012. 2-0 down at halftime, the Magpies needed a quick goal to stand any chance of staging a comeback. They thought they had just that when Cisse’s header appeared to cross the line before De Gea could scoop it away.

However, the referee disagreed, and the goal did not stand.

This is only one amongst hundreds of similar incidents throughout the years. The introduction of Hawk-Eye will help to end these injustices, thereby making the game fairer for all in the Premier League.

Accumulators

Nothing can make or break your weekend quite like an accumulator bet. Established sports gamblers will know exactly what I'm talking about, but here's a quick run through for the rookies amongst you.

You start off with a few pounds in your pocket. Betting more than £5 on an accumulator is very rarely a good idea. You look at the fixture list, and attempt to predict the results of two or more games. If you win on your first match, the winnings are then bet on the second, and so on until all the matches have been played, or you have lost one of your bets.

The stakes are raised if you go for the correct score rather than the straightforward win, lose or draw option. The odds on your individual bets are added up to give you your overall return, but to get anything back, all of your predictions have to be correct. That means if you have the Manchester derby as a draw, and United grab a winner in the 99th minute, you win nothing, whatever the other results are.

Sounds fun doesn't it?

Complaining About the Match of the Day Running Order

Poor Gary Lineker.

After having to take a poo on the pitch during the 1990 World Cup, the goal-hanging striker must have thought that punditry would be an easier option. However, as the presenter of Match of the Day, he is bombarded with tweets on a weekly basis from fans suggesting that the BBC is biased against certain clubs and always shows their game last on their flagship highlights package.

This is, quite clearly, nonsense.

Everybody has to play the top clubs twice, meaning that at least eight times a season they'll be further up the running order.  With fans of all clubs complaining to him every week, accusing Gary Lineker of bias against your club has become something of a national pastime.

He might not be looking forward to its return, but there are plenty of people out there who have put their 140 characters to good use and are just waiting to hit send. You can join in by following him @GaryLineker.

Cardiff City

Cardiff City were promoted to the Premier League after winning the Championship title last season. This success came after three consecutive unsuccessful playoff campaigns. Having been bought in 2010 by Malaysian businessman Datuk Chan Tien Ghee, the club's kit for the 2013-14 season has come under intense scrutiny.

This attention has not been caused by some hideous design, like Liverpool's third and away kits, but because the new owner has completely rebranded the club. Not in a "we need to shake up our image" way, but in more of a "history and heritage mean nothing," as for the first time in their history, Cardiff City will swap blue shirts for red ones, which will sport an entirely new crest.

How the fans will react to this once the new season is underway will offer an interesting barometer to the wider issue of foreign ownership within football as a whole.

Same Old Top Four?

Since 1992, 12 teams have finished in the top four of the Premier League. Blackburn Rovers, Nottingham Forest and Leeds United now play their football lower down the leagues, and the fortunes of Aston Villa, Norwich City and Liverpool have taken a significant turn for the worse in recent years.

That leaves six realistic contenders for the Champions League spots and the extra revenue that they inevitably bring. Everton will be adjusting to life after David Moyes, while both Manchester clubs will also welcome new managers. The stability at Tottenham and Arsenal could cause them to stagnate, and although Jose Mourinho’s history with Chelsea should make for a smooth transition, he will find that the Premier League is more competitive than when he left.

Whether the likes of Swansea or Stoke City can find the sort of consistency that the top of the table demands remains to be seen, but the potential for upset at both ends of the table will make the 2013-14 Premier League far more exciting than 2012-13 turned out to be.

The New Wigan Athletic

Wigan Athletic were unable to keep up their seven-year run of clinging onto Premier League football by their fingertips as they were relegated at the end of the 2012-13 season. With the Latics in the Championship despite winning the FA Cup, the search is on for the new drop-defying relegation candidates.

Newcastle United’s involvement in the Europa League last season took its toll on the squad. The extra matches, combined with the January sale of Demba Ba to Chelsea, led to a 16th-place finish in 2012-13, just five points off the bottom three.

The summer so far has seen the return of former manager Joe Kinnear as the new Director of Football at the Sports Direct Arena. The controversial appointment sees Kinnear take charge of all footballing matters at the club in an executive role.

In his first press conference, Kinnear managed to mispronounce the names of several current squad members. Current first-team manager Alan Pardew has already clashed with Kinnear over this issue, and the extra dimension of bureaucracy is likely to cause continuing friction at the club.

This off-pitch drama could well develop into a full scale coup, and they will probably find themselves in the relegation mix next April.

The Return of the Special One

Obviously Chelsea supporters are more excited than the rest about the return of the especially happy one, but the entertainment factor that Mourinho brings will provide talking points for fans up and down the country.

Whether he will be indulging in the same knee-sliding celebrations and brutally honest press conferences as before remains to be seen, but there are plenty of people who are looking forward to seeing what the second coming brings.

No More Fergie Time

May 19, 2012 signaled more than just the end of another premier league season. For the first time since its inception, Manchester United will begin the defence of their league title without Sir Alex Ferguson at the helm. 

Whilst there are plenty of people in the red half of the city who are dubious about David Moyes' managerial abilities, fans across the country will be welcoming the end of Fergie time.

In May this year, Ferguson admitted applying pressure to match day officials in order to gain precious extra minutes at the end of matches. The Manchester derby in 2009 was a prime example of this unfair advantage, and although Moyes will no doubt try the same tricks, there is hope for their opponents that games against Manchester United will now end when the officials indicate that they will.

Football

Of course, the number one thing that all EPL fans will be looking forward to is the return of weekly football. From the terraces to the pubs, fans of the beautiful game spend the summer longing for the return of the live action that keeps them going for 10 months of the year.

Preseason friendlies are kicking off across Europe, but even the chance to see new signings in action for the first time cannot begin to compare to the twice-weekly, high-intensity doses of football that Premier League addicts around the world are craving.

Roll on August!