Halcyon and on

A couple of previews of the Community Shield, from The Telegraph and The Independent. Nothing of much interest in them though.
Most of the previews of the upcoming season go for Chelsea to win the league. Now, this isn't a sign of bias in itself, but, let's face it, given the overall coverage of us in the media, this is bias. The surprising thing is that they seem to be going for Chelsea to win the league, rather than the usual "this is going to be Liverpool's year" rubbish. Paul Wilson in The Observer sums up the spurious logic of why Chelsea will win the league:

Chelsea to win the League. It's their turn, they have the most money, and they could still bring in a Brazilian or two before the end of the month. All the other foreign owners appear to lose their appetite for football or lose their grip on their wealth within the first couple of years or so. Abramovich is different, probably unique. Massively rich, massively hungry. A title in his first season might be a big ask of Luiz Felipe Scolari, though having seen how far Avram Grant took this squad last time out one has the feeling it practically drives itself.

By this logic they'd have won it the last two seasons (unless you go for the "it's their turn" position, when they would have won it last season and we'd be winning it this season. As they didn't win it last season when it was really their turn does that not mean that they just miss their go and it is actually our turn again?) - lazy journalism? Methinks.
The Independent manage to explain the Chelsea + money=championship equation better than The Observer:

If there is to be any change, it may well be that Chelsea overhaul United, and Liverpool do the same to Arsenal. Were Luiz Felipe Scolari to be subject to the same financial constraints as Jose Mourinho during his last year the picture would be different, but Roman Abramovich has apparently changed tack again, and instead of Steve Sidwell from Reading, this summer's addition to an already formidable midfield is the rather more impressive Deco from Barcelona. The hiring of a proven world-class coach as successor to Avram Grant appears to have persuaded Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba to stick around for another year and conse-quently Chelsea, who during the Champions' League final in Moscow looked as good a team as their rivals, are capable of taking the title back from them, with or without Robinho.

At least the bias is backed up here.
Returning to The Observer and Paul Wilson, we get to see the true reason (bias) that he doesn't want us to (sorry, think we will) win the league:

After confirming he is hopeful of bringing in a new striker before the transfer window closes, Ferguson said it wouldn't matter too much even if he didn't. 'We have a young, strong squad that can only get better,' he said. 'We did all right with this squad last season, we nearly won the Treble.'With all due respect, and without wishing to take anything away from the towering achievement of a Premier and Champions League double, surely the only circumstance that counts as a Treble near-miss is losing in the FA Cup final while winning the other two, as Liverpool did in 1977. United only went as far as the quarter-final of last season's FA Cup, when they were so disappointed at being beaten at home by Portsmouth that Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz immediately went on the offensive claiming it was all the referee's fault.

Ah, those halcyon days when Liverpool used to win things...