5 teams that can surprise us this season
The pre-season spotlight has clearly been on teams who have made significant moves in the transfer window such as Chelsea or last season's big boys Bayern Munich.
However, as always, football remains a game of surprises, and there are teams like Everton who began the league in impressive fashion or AC Milan who have quietly shored up their squad and have largely operated under the radar.
In this article, we will take a look at five of these refreshing teams in the top five leagues who might surprise us this season.
5 teams in the top five leagues that can surprise us this season
#5 Real Betis
Real Betis began the La Liga season in perfect fashion following a hard-fought away win over Alaves that came in injury time. They can be termed a team who have entered the 2020-21 season full of optimism despite a poor 15th-place finish last campaign.
That is because Betis have acquired the services of a truly heavyweight coach of world football in Manuel Pellegrini. Though there hasn't been a lot of activity in the transfer window in the green-and-white half of Seville, Betis have brought in Claudio Bravo on a free transfer from Manchester City and former Barcelona right-back Martin Montoya with the aim to tighten a leaky defence that conceded way too many goals last season.
Betis' principal hopes this season will again rest on the charismatic Nabil Fekir who had a great 2019-20 season for an underperforming club. With Sergio Canales and Borja Iglesias also there, the coaching change might be the key to their revival this season. Expect Betis to climb up the La Liga table considerably this season if they can shore up their rearguard.
#4 Sevilla
A silent revolution is underway at the other team from Seville. While the eyes of the world were trained on the Barcelona and Lionel Messi implosion that began last season and carried over into this one before the Argentinian decided to stay at the beleaguered team, Julen Lopetegui has been turning things around at Sevilla in an uber-efficient way.
He led the Andalusian club to a fourth-place finish last season and back into the Champions League while winning a brilliant sixth Europa League crown. This season, things are looking even better at the club after a great transfer window.
With inspirational playmaker Ever Banega gone, Sevilla needed to move on and they have done so in great fashion, first bringing in Oscar Rodriguez from Real Madrid and then welcoming Ivan Rakitic back into the fold. Suso has also joined Sevilla from AC Milan and is ready to tear up the wings.
With things looking rosy at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, Sevilla can hope to climb further up the table and also have a good Champions League campaign.