Arsenal great Thierry Henry believes champions Chelsea will face competition from four threatening rivals when they start the defence of their Premier League title next month.
Jose Mourinho's Blues ran away with the title race last season as they established a dominant position after a flying start to the campaign, but Henry -- who stands fifth in the list of all-time Premier League top scorers with 175 goals -- is convinced the race for top spot will be far less predictable this time around.
"Have a look at the competition now to win the league," Henry told Sky Sports. "It is very, very, very difficult, so I expect everyone is going to challenge them, everyone is going to try to make sure they can win the title.
"Chelsea win it [last season] and we are all like: 'United are going to come back for sure, Manchester City are going to come back for sure and Arsenal are going to come back for sure.' What about Liverpool? You think they are going to stay out?
"City cannot have the same season again, Arsenal cannot stay another year without winning the league, United won't accept not winning the league two years in a row - that does not go down too well over there. What about Liverpool? So I expect everyone to challenge."
While Henry suggested Liverpool will be striving to reclaim a place in the prized top four positions that offer qualification for the Champions League, he suspects last season's top four of Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United will be the chief challengers once again.
"You would like to think it will be the same kind of top four, but who would have said Liverpool a year ago would have nearly won the league? No one saw that coming," he said. "You would point at the usual subjects -- United, Arsenal and City, but you always have a surprise and you don't know when that is going to happen."
Henry was a part of Arsenal's 'Invincibles' team that went through the entire 2003-04 Premier League season without losing a game and while that level of domination seems unlikely to be repeated in an increasingly competitive league, the Frenchman believes the achievement will be bettered in years to come.
"Yes I think it will happen again," Henry added. "A team can do it in a better way: less draws, more goals, less goals conceded.
"I know we didn't win the league eight, nine times, but it will go down in the history of the league as an achievement and something really special."