The Premier League is a tricky thing to love. It's brash. It's noisy. It's tasteless. And it doesn't care if you think it's brash, or noisy, or tasteless, because it's far too busy signing ludicrous television deals with one hand while patting itself on the back with the other. This is the biggest and bestest league in the world, remember. Even if it does say so itself.

While the world's best players are mostly to be found in Spain these days, glitteringly expensive weapons in the great Barcelona-Real Madrid arms race, the Premier League's claim to supremacy rests on two pillars. The first is the proud boast that anybody can beat anybody, a truism that does rather tend to gloss over the fact that, more often than not, the big boys do give the little ones a good kicking. And second, on the notion that there is a kind of peculiar and alluring chaos to the Premier League, and to English football; a pell-mell to-and-fro that isn't always pretty or tactically refined but is frequently, and much more importantly, great fun.

This, at least, seems to be on the money. Silly things happen in the Premier League. Last season, for example, an unexpected side almost won the title playing ridiculous football, only to implode at the crucial moment in a manner that stands as either unbelievably cruel or startlingly hilarious, depending on your point of view. Though Liverpool have since sold their best player, the club and their fanbase appear to have been revitalized by their season of thrilling oh-so-close, and the sense that 'Liverpool are back' is palpable.

Which means that for the first time in a long time, there are as many four or even five teams going into the season with the belief -- or, in some cases, the expectation -- that they could end the campaign with the trophy in their hands. Defending champions Manchester City have strengthened in a quiet, unassuming, slightly ominous manner; Chelsea have finally got their hands on a proper, honest-to-goodness striker; and Arsenal, still giddy from their FA Cup win, have finally addressed their crippling lack of short, scampering attackers.

Also stronger will be Manchester United. For the second season in a row, English football's most successful club are something of an unknown quantity, though the presence of Louis van Gaal in the dugout means they should be significantly better than last season. While the priority for this term is to purge the lingering aftertaste of David Moyes, the lack of European football and the potency of their attack raises the faint possibility of an immediate return to the top of the table. Then, of course, there are Tottenham and Everton, both of whom will be confident that the forthcoming campaign will bring improvement. In essence, every one of last season's top seven will be expecting to get better this season. They can't all be right.

Predicting trouble is always a little trickier, but as ever, there's the potential for one or two implosions from the Premier League's mid-table sides. Southampton will be hoping to shake off the pillaging of their squad, while West Ham are under orders to defy their manager's best instincts and embrace the serious business of being entertaining. The widely unloved Alan Pardew continues to simmer away at Newcastle, only ever a couple of bad performances from vilification, and both Swansea City and West Brom are pinning their hopes on inexperienced managers and idiosyncratic transfers. Oh, and Paul Lambert's still at Aston Villa, where nobody seems to be enjoying themselves.

Of the newly promoted sides, meanwhile, both Burnley and Leicester City are adopting the now-traditional new side approach: keep much the same team together, add a little bit of Premier League quality, and hope for the best. Queens Park Rangers, though, have no time for such nonsense, and have acquired themselves a shiny new center back pairing for their return. On paper, Rio Ferdinand-and-Steven Caulker looks like an excellent idea that will surely keep Harry Redknapp and friends in the league. On paper.

All of which is to say that while the Premier League will certainly deliver all the usual nonsense -- increasing hysteria over refereeing decisions; shrill allegations of mind games; back and forth accusations of this, that, but hopefully not the other; great goals; bad tackles; at least one small animal running onto the pitch -- it should also, hopefully, deliver interesting and exciting football at both ends of the table. All that, and the introduction of vanishing spray as well.

It's not a pleasing institution: this was a league founded because the rich wanted to get richer at the expense of everybody else, and that’s worked wonderfully well. But it's almost always compelling, in that hopelessly distracting, helplessly addictive way that comes so easily to football. And if the stars align, if the big guns all get themselves pointing in the right direction, then this season could be one for the ages.