LONDON, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Crystal Palace's thrilling win on penalties against Liverpool in the Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday showed there is still room for surprises in an English top-flight and the ability of the so-called 'middle-class' to spring surprises will be a key factor in the coming season.

Although the Premier League title race does look as if it has four main candidates (Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea), Palace's win shows upsets can always happen.

It seems strange to consider Manchester United and Tottenham the "middle-class", but their performances last season in the Premier League were dreadful, with United finishing 15th and Tottenham an embarrassing 17th.

Although neither was in danger of relegation with the bottom three a long way adrift long before the end of the season, Spurs' 38 points from 38 matches, and Manchester United's 42 points leave them a world behind Liverpool's 84 points for the campaign.

Tottenham brought in Brentford coach Thomas Frank to replace Ange Postecoglou, made Mathys Tel's loan move permanent and has signed Mohammed Kudos from West Ham and Joao Palhinha on loan from Bayern Munich in what looks like a smart move.

Austrian international Kevin Danso should strengthen central defense, while Kota Takai is also an interesting prospect, although perhaps one for the future.

Tottenham has said goodbye to Son Heung-min as he moves to LA, while James Maddison's knee injury is a big setback for Tottenham with the aim of a top-six finishm.

Manchester United has no European commitments, meaning Ruben Amorim's side can focus on the league. The jury is still out on the Portuguese coach, but the club has given him its back in terms of arrivals and departures, adding considerable firepower in Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko, while shipping out Marcus Rashford and others, such as Antonio Garnacho, also likely to leave.

Amorim could argue last season that he wasn't working with a squad of his making, but he has no excuses now and needs his team to perform from the start.

Nottingham Forest was last season's surprise package under Nuno Espiritu Santo and will be happy to have fended off Tottenham's interest in Morgan Gibbs-White, with Dan Ndoye in to replace Anthony Elanga.

Playing in Europe may stretch Forest's squad, but under Nuno, they won't give much away, even though another top-seven finish looks difficult.

Crystal Palace has already shown its giant-killing abilities under coach Oliver Glasner, although uncertainly over which European competition it will play next season has limited summer signings to just Walter Benitez and Borna Sosa.

The good news is that so far, Palace has held on to key players, Marc Guehi and Eze Eberechi, although the rest of the month could see more movement in the transfer market.

Everton begins life in its new Everton Stadium, which has created a buzz around the club, although coach David Moyes has indicated he wants more action in the transfer market, with activity speeding up in recent days with the arrival of midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and striker Thierno Barry, who impressed last season at Villarreal.

Expect Moyes' side to be solid if unspectacular.

Brighton maintained its reputation for entertaining football last season under young coach Fabian Hurzeler and although the club has lost Joao Pedro to Chelsea, youngster Tom Watson looked good at Sunderland last season, while the signing of teenager Charalampos Kostoulas, could be another example of Brighton moving early to sign a player who will earn it big money in the future.

Bournemouth also impressed last season under Andoni Iraola and although the Basque has money to spend after selling defenders Milos Kerkez to Liverpool and Dean Huijsen to Real Madrid, it has also left him a rebuilding job to strengthen the back four and replace Kerkez's crosses from the left. ■