Rarely has the start of a new Premier League season thrown up so many conundrums.
Can Chelsea's new young manager, Andre Villas-Boas, convince Roman Abramovich that football clubs work best when the owner puts his hand in his pocket but stays out of team matters?
Will Manchester City kick on from winning the FA Cup, their first trophy under mega-rich owner Sheikh Mansour, and mount a realistic challenge for major prizes at home and in Europe?
Can Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger find a way of turning his side into something more than just the most eye-pleasing performers in English football?
Do Tottenham have the will and manager Harry Redknapp the nous to build on their Champions League quarter-final adventure last season?
Can Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish continue his brilliant refurbishment at Anfield and restore the five-time champions of Europe to their former glory?
They are all questions which suggest we are in for one of the most competitive and unpredictable seasons in Premier League history.
Yet so many of the answers all hang on one club, Manchester United, and one man, Sir Alex Ferguson.
It is the season in which Ferguson will turn 70. The season which will mark his 25th year as supremo at Old Trafford. The season in which he could win United's 20th league title.
A season in which he has already warned the rest that, despite his age and his astounding accomplishments, there will be no let-up in his quest to put more trophies in the Old Trafford cabinet.
"It was Liverpool's time in the '80s, it's our time now," Ferguson said after he had pocketed his 12th Premier League title.
"There's a responsibility as the manager of Manchester United. It doesn't go away. I'm not going to take it easy because we won the title. Hopefully we'll be better next season. The only thing you can do at this club is win, that's all that matters.
"We have a responsibility and expectation to live up to and that carries on next season. As I've always said, Manchester United should accept a challenge. We're good at that and, next season, we'll accept anything that comes our way."
It was why Ferguson was no slouch in his scramble for reinforcements with Edwin van der Sar, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville all having retired.
A goalkeeper was a priority and 20-year-old David De Gea from Atletico Madrid looks a shrewd piece of business. Phil Jones from Blackburn will also bolster squad depth while England's Ashley Young, signed from Aston Villa, has the opportunity to elevate his career to a new level by giving United pace and trickery out wide and in forward areas alongside Wayne Rooney.
In truth, United have been in transition for a couple of years and last season they were carried by their home form, winning 18 of their 19 matches at Old Trafford and drawing the other.
They will miss the influence of Scholes and Van der Sar but they remain the team to beat.
Not that anyone should rule out Chelsea. Villas-Boas has a sharp mind. He is a disciple of Jose Mourinho. He has strength and experience at the core of his side. His challenge is coaxing the best out of an ageing team and getting Fernando Torres to play as he did 18 months ago and not as he has for the past 12 months.
If Villas-Boas can solve when, where and how to play Torres and Didier Drogba then Chelsea could yet prove to be the most powerful squad.
Manchester City, too, are likely to be more of a team than the individuals thrown together with indecent haste and obscene amounts of cash these past couple of years. Whether they have the depth and unity to fight on all fronts, including the Champions League, and win a major prize is uncertain. They still might be a season or two away from that.
As for Tottenham, Redknapp has an impossible job trying to recreate the thrills of the San Siro and the Bernabeu last season.
Liverpool could be the ones to watch. Dalglish has worked wonders in his time back in charge. Charlie Adam from Blackpool is an inspired snip of a signing at £6.75million, just the sort of inventive midfield force required to service strikers such as Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez.
They are a smart bet to regain their place in England's top four, probably at the expense of Arsenal.
At the other end the same old faithful, Wolves, Wigan and West Brom, are likely to be scrapping it out in one long relegation dogfight. Almost certainly they will be joined by the newly-promoted trio in the shape of Swansea, Norwich and QPR, the latter affording volatile manager Neil Warnock another crack at the Premier League following his controversial exit with Sheffield United in 2007.
It is going to be that sort of season. Tight and tense. Anything but dull. Yet, for all its unpredictability, at the end of it do not be surprised if the big domestic prize once again goes to Ferguson. Still leading the way after all these years.
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