Premier League preview No5: Blackpool

Guardian writers' prediction: 20th (NB: this is not necessarily Louise's prediction, but the average of our writers' tips)

Last season's position: sixth in Championship

Odds to win league: 5,000-1

Almost everyone assumes Blackpool will finish bottom of the Premier League but assumptions can be dangerous. This time last year, most people expected Ian Holloway's side to be relegated from the Championship.

As Jimmy Armfield – who played in the last Tangerines top-flight ensemble – reminds us, Holloway's team of "free spirits" have a "considerable" capacity to "shock". Trips to Bloomfield Road's relatively rough and ready surrounds certainly boast the potential to startle some of the more precious Premier League performers, dictating that Holloway's best hope of survival almost certainly lies at home.

Unfortunately, the ground's expansion – the new stand is looking pretty impressive – means four of their first five games are away. Valuable momentum and morale could be lost at a vital time. No matter. At least Blackpool arrive in football's promised land with an aura of mystery. They are unfamiliar opponents and established sides will not be wise to their individual tricks.

Allied to the natural adrenaline surge which newly promoted teams tend to be propelled by until the clocks go back and the leaves start falling, this capacity could see Holloway's squad clocking up sufficient points before Christmas. That, after all, is what Hull did the season before last, when their impressive autumn form compensated for a post new year collapse.

Neutrals will want to support Blackpool; not only because of Holloway's idiosyncrasies – he will surely be the Premier League's most entertainingly whimsical manager by some distance – but also due to his football philosophy. Refreshingly, his Premier League manifesto is all about trying to stay up courtesy of a free-flowing, attack-minded, passing game.

Or, to be more precise, Spanish type, World Cup-winning football – Tiki-taka. "After watching the World Cup I've realised we need to get more like Spain," Holloway says. "You have to caress the ball, you've got to love it and you must not give it to anyone else."

Holloway's aim of trying to out-score the opposition, rather than pack his defence and aim to sneak odd goals on the counterattack, suggests Blackpool may be reminiscent of Danny Wilson's old Barnsley side. Remember the days when Oakwell used to reverberate to the chant: "It's just like watching Brazil"?

Unfortunately, all is far from harmonious behind the scenes and, at the time of writing, the team are still waiting to be paid promotion bonuses of up to £400,000 a player. The dressing-room antipathy towards Karl Oyston, the chairman, has festered all summer and perhaps explains why Holloway has struggled to reinforce a desperately thin squad. As Gordon Taylor, the PFA's chief executive, recently said: "It's been a nice little surprise for Blackpool to get promoted but they have to live up to their side of the agreement about bonuses."

Since the Premier League's inception in 1992 only one side, West Ham United in 2005-06, have avoided relegation after, a la Blackpool, finishing sixth in football's second tier and winning the play-offs but, compared with Holloway, Alan Pardew had an embarrassment of riches.

Last season Blackpool's turnover of just £7m was the second lowest in the Championship after Scunthorpe United. The Seasiders' wage bill amounted to an extremely modest – by football standards – £4.8m.

Blackpool have yet to spend more than £500,000 on a player and Holloway functions with a full-time support staff of just four. That was increased from three this summer, when the club finally appointed a specialist fitness coach.

At the time of writing Holloway's squad numbered 18, including three goalkeepers, and the sole summer signing has apparently been Dekel Keinan, the Israel international recruited from Maccabi Haifa although, mystifyingly, the defender is not yet listed on Blackpool's website.

"We're 20 million miles behind other clubs," acknowledges Holloway, who cannot have been encouraged by the 2-0 friendly defeat at Steve Coppell's Bristol City. Ominously, Blackpool barely tested the City debutant David James as they hardly mustered a single shot on target.

The game saw Keith Southern, an influential midfielder, suffer knee-ligament damage which could sideline him for months. With the striker Billy Clarke sustaining a serious pre-season knee injury, the squad already looks significantly weaker than last season and Holloway will be heavily dependent on the midfield performances of the £500,000 record buy, the Scotland international Charlie Adam, and Stephen Crainey's continued defensive reliability.

Further forward Holloway at least boasts top-level experience in the shape of Jason Euell and Brett Ormerod but whether that pairing proves capable of unlocking the best defences remains to be seen.

Right now, there are more questions than answers at Blackpool.