i'll follow up with additional text later (i probably won't), but here's my 20:
1. Chelsea
2. Manchester United
3. Liverpool
4. Tottenham Hotspurs
5. Arsenal
6. Everton
7. Newcastle United
8. Manchester City
9. Aston Villa
10. Blackburn Rovers
11. Bolton Wanderers
12. Portsmouth
13. West Ham
14. Sunderland
15. Fulham
16. Middlesborough
17. Reading
18. Birmingham City
19. Wigan Athletic
20. Derby County
1. Chelsea-- apparently they're switching back to a more free flowing system, aka 4-3-3/4-5-1. they're also now consisting of even more depth in their defence which they lacked last season, and once robben goes for daniel alves' inclusion they'll be pretty much set into being awesome everywhere.
hot shot; terry/drogba. these two are the stand out pins at either side of the pitch that drive the team forward and will continue to do so with no doubt, this season.
look out for; jon obi mikel. i intensely dislike this guy after the whole man utd/chelsea saga to sign him, but the strides of progress he made through last season make him a definite world class prospect in an already brimming with class in central midfield for chelsea.
2. Manchester United-- i wouldn't mind them to win it again at all, but they didn't exactly win with ease last season and it was more a case of chelsea letting up than a rampant surge ahead. i'm definitely expecting a close case here, but it's still going to be chasing chelsea rather than manchester united being the team to beat here.
hot shots; ronaldo/tevez/scholes/rooney - take your pick.
look out for; anderson. he seems to have the potential to be a bastard lovechild of scholes and ronaldinho. not bad football genes to inherit from.
3. Liverpool-- should be closer to the top 2 than last season, there's definite progress with the reasonable work in the transfer market though they could have done with a better winger (say, Quaresma) than benayoun. this may not matter if babel can live up to his hype, but all in all still not in the class of the top two but this season should be about making up the inches.
hot shots; carragher/gerrard. the rocks behind the team.
look out for; lucas. praised by pretty much everyone who's seen him play so far, a box to box type with class and the temperament to make himself formidable apparently. worth noting.
4. Tottenham-- my first risky call here. we've bought expensively, and somewhat impressively in the sense that we've got now several top u21 youths of various promising nations in our first team looking to stake their claim like fabregas and ronaldo have (though i doubt any of our youths have as much potential as either of the two aforementioned) for their respective teams. weakness lies in the lack of a consistent midfield as mentioned by deffeh and a good left wing still but bale is promising if he's good as his word.
hot shot; berbatov, easily one of the top 10 strikers in the world.
look out for; bale, he's got a lot of hype to him as the next ryan giggs and what not. which is pretty weird for someone usually stationed at left back, but i've got hopes mostly through bias i admit but here's to a top british player coming through!
5. Arsenal-- henry leaving was probably the best transfer move for tottenham this season. gooners keep falling back on the fact that henry didn't play a big role in arsenal ending above spurs last season but it must be said, spurs' second half of the season was considerably stronger than arsenal and if we can keep that stride going we can surely edge it over our main rivals here. nothing to rule these guys out however though, there's every chance they could gel together and prove to be title challengers first and foremost looking at some of their players' tendencies to grow from barely premiership standard to world class (toure for example)
hot shot; fabregas. he's been looking to add goals to his near complete ability and once he does, he'll surely be a machine that keeps the arsenal system churning out goals and top football.
6. Everton-- i don't really have much to say about these guys except arteta and cahill are ****ing awesome.
hot shots; cahill/arteta. definitely enough said.
look out for; james vaughan/victor anichebe, these two have played together up front at every level for everton, both show a little bit of promise that surely must at some point collate together into what it is that's kept them together.
7. Newcastle United-- steve given, belozoglu emre, obafemi martins, michael owen, damien duff, mark viduka. a lot of good names, a lot of attacking flair which will require their most influential signing that i haven't mentioned yet to put his proven skills to use
hot shot; sam allardyce. if newcastle's defence is shaped up (and the mere ejection of bramble goes a great deal in helping this) they are definitely going to challenge for a reasonable place and i'm placing my eggs with this man to do that.
8. Manchester City-- for all of sven's criticisms, there's no denying that he's pretty successful on the club scene whenever he's had a lot of money to forge a team (heh.) there's a ridiculous overload of offence in their squad which seems to represent the total wild card these lot will be this year, but somehow i suspect sven goran cautiousson will instill some sort of stability in the line up and salvage a top half finish.
hot shots; geovanni/elano. the former was at one point one of the world's greatest prospects at barcelona, but he'd disappeared since £11m move to benfica, i can't imagine all his talents dried up magically. elano is a similar offensive midfielder who has been a regular for brazil recently, a more consistent geovanni perhaps, both will be to watch for.
look out for; bojinov / sturridge, both are noted as top strikers in the making, both are huge hotshots in FM (!) it'll be interesting if either get a game amongst a 9 striker squad, their level of impact will be equally interesting.
9. Aston Villa-- they'll be part of the chase for a UEFA cup spot, but i don't expect too much of them simply because the team seems even more mediocre than the teams i've rated above them, however there's no definites here Martin O'Neill may be able to get them to better themselves.
hot shot; agbonlahor. he's a terrible footballer but he's got bags of pace and will only get better with his composure in putting balls into the back of the net. should get a few useful goals for villa for sure.
10. Blackburn Rovers-- they're a solid side from the back up but there's undeniable quality in the midfield/forward set up of bentley/pedersen/santa cruz/mccarthy which may trouble quite a few defences this season. not convinced how useful santa cruz will be, but he's a good one to play along side the excellent mid table side player mccarthy.
hot shots; bentley/pedersen. these two are the engine of this team, for all of mccarthy's goals, they need the creativity provided by these two midfielders to create them.
11. Bolton Wanderers-- immense squad in numbers of average at best players, surely able to grit it out for a reasonable finish yet again. can't care enough about them to talk any more, terribly boring.
hot shots; campo/nolan/anelka. a good nucleus there to carve out results.
12. Portsmouth-- another amazingly uninteresting football team but able to pull the results through when needed. fantastic defence, desperately requiring a bit of flair that may come through with kranjcar as he keeps progressing.
hot shot; david james.
13. West Ham-- they've shown enough promise and committment in rebuilding to save themselves from a complete season of relegation dogfight.
hot shot; noble. very promising central midfielder, seems to be in the marks of fabregas and should hopefully live up to take that charge this season.
14. Sunderland-- 14th might possibly be a bit too high for these guys, but this is placing a lot of faith on roy keane and the power of motivation and sheer determination over well, mere footballing skills.
hot shot; roy keane.
15. Fulham-- here begins the relegation dogfight. they will be saved mostly due to the fact that jimmy bullard is a wonderful person.
hot shot; jimmy bullard.
16. Middlesborough-- they've got too many good players to just let themselves go down. they need a better manager and a yakubu that isn't so lazy to progress further than a relegation avoider side though.
hot shot; woodgate. the core of the side as the rock behind the defence.
17. Reading-- i really did want to place them higher, but i can't see them avoiding a bit of a second season slump. still should manage to survive though.
hot shot; shorey. excellent defender.
18. Birmingham City-- they've bought reasonably well, but i don't think it's enough to survive.
hot shot; olivier kapo/frank queudrue - bringing some vague form of class to the side.
19. Wigan Athletic-- christ they're awful.
hot shot; baines perhaps, but really no one who's playing for wigan can be described as a hot or a shot, let alone a hot shot.
20. Derby County-- oh dear
see wigan