As the new season looms, Manchester gets ready to take the limelight from Olympic London

LONDON - The message from Manchester to London is clear. Enjoy the Olympics — because the sporting spotlight will soon turn right back to us.

As the London Games draw to a close, England's footballing elite is limbering up for a new Premier League season that kicks off on Aug. 18 - and already looks set to end like the last one, as a Manchester derby between City and United.

The London clubs led by Champions League winner Chelsea and Arsenal clearly have resources on which to draw, but the real momentum looks to be 200 miles (320 kilometres) north.

City had to wait until the fourth minute of injury time on a nerve-shredding final day of last season to win its first league title since 1968. However, more than a billion dollars poured into the club by its Abu Dhabi-based owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan had already marked it out as the team to beat since the previous August.

Only United was able to keep up with the frenetic pace, thanks mainly to the sheer personal drive of 70-year-old manager Alex Ferguson rather than any inspirational football by his players.

Goal difference eventually separated the blue and red sides of Manchester after both clubs finished on 89 points, with Arsenal trailing a distant third on 70.

And that's the scale of the problem facing any club based outside Manchester's ring road this season. Nineteen points is not a gap, it's a gulf.

What's more, City clearly intends to keep it that way.

Manager Roberto Mancini has been signed up to a new five-year contract, at a reported cost of 37 million pounds ($57 million), that will bring more stability to the team. The club also remains in the market for new signings to further strengthen the squad before the transfer window closes on Aug. 31.

On top of that, domestic rather than European success still seems to be the main yardstick for Mancini.

"Chelsea took maybe 10 years to win the Champions League, because it is not easy to win this competition," Mancini said during a preseason tour.

"We would like to win it this season, of course, but our main target is the Premier League and a domestic trophy."

Anxious to keep up with the "noisy neighbours", as Ferguson once termed his crosstown rivals, United fans will hope that some of the funds raised by the club's flotation on the New York stock exchange — expected to exceed $300 million — will find their way into transfer fees.

Ferguson has already had some good news with the return from long-term injury of club captain and central defender Nemanja Vidic, who is clearly anxious to make amends.

"Maybe we relaxed a bit last season," the Serbia international conceded earlier this week. "We were punished and we can't allow that to happen again."

Despite finishing only sixth last time around, FA Cup winner Chelsea still looks like the side most likely to test Manchester's grip on the title.

Victory over Bayern Munich in that Champions League final fulfilled a dream held by club owner Roman Abramovich since buying the Blues in 2003, and ought to ease at least some of the pressure on coach Roberto Di Matteo.

The departure to China of the club's aging striker Didier Drogba is bound to be a loss.

However, the arrival of the most exciting player in French football, playmaker Eden Hazard, should be a real cause for celebration and there is certainly more to come from the likes of Juan Mata and Daniel Sturridge.

Arsenal is meanwhile wondering if there is any more to come from Robin van Persie.

Having refused to sign a new contract, the team captain looks to be heading for the exit after a spellbinding season in which the Netherlands striker scored 37 goals propelling his side into the forthcoming Champions League.

His likely departure raises an inevitable question: Where will the goals come from now?

Surprisingly, the usually cost-conscious club has already supplied an answer by signing no fewer than three new forwards: Germany's Lukas Podolski, France's Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla of Spain.

Beyond these four teams, though, there is really only room for cameo roles.

Tottenham finished a creditable fourth last season and was only denied a Champions League slot by Chelsea's penalty shootout victory over Bayern. Along with the talent of winger Gareth Bale, the spotlight will also be trained on Spurs' new coach Andre Villas-Boas, who was sacked in March by Chelsea.

Liverpool will meanwhile look to build on a League Cup victory, a new coach in Brendan Rodgers and a hope that English football fans will forgive its hugely talented striker Luis Suarez for racially abusing United's Patrice Evra last season.

Judging by the boos he received while playing for Uruguay during the Olympics, they won't.

News from © The Associated Press, 2012