The world’s top league – which has become more predictable than ever in recent years – kicks off on Friday evening (16/08). The thirst for City’s 5th consecutive title, post-Klopp Liverpool, Arsenal’s moment, Chelsea’s electric chair, Manchester United’s lost DNA, the relegation favorites, and the changed Nottingham Forest are all part of SPORT24’s special feature.
Premier League or rather Pep League, as the most competitive league in the world has recently become the playground of Manchester City, achieving the historic feat of four consecutive titles last year, while claiming six trophies in the last seven seasons.
Can City achieve 5 out of 5? Do their players have the drive to go all the way for a trophy that now means nothing to their level of abilities?
Will Arne Slot manage to “fill the shoes” of Jürgen Klopp in a team without transfer enhancements still haunted by the “ghost” of the German?
Will Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal manage to return to the throne of English football after 21 years, taking the next step in the project that the Spanish coach has methodically built?
Will Enzo Maresca endure the electric chair known as Chelsea under Todd Boehly’s ownership?
Will Manchester United find their lost DNA or will they fight again towards the end of the season as they did last year to catch the train of European exit through the league, which they ultimately missed, but thanks to winning the FA Cup sent them to the League Stage of the Europa League?
These are some of the questions troubling football fans, with answers provided in SPORT24’s feature.
Battle for three with only one winner
A winning team doesn’t change, as the saying goes, and when you have won the Premier League four times in a row, you certainly have no reason to do so.
Pep Guardiola kept almost the same roster as last year, with the only loss being Julián Álvarez, who transferred to Atlético Madrid marking the club’s most expensive sale in history, while the only addition – so far – is Savinho from Girona, a club under the management of the same group that runs City.
The Citizens have the league’s top scorer from last year, Erling Haaland with 27 goals, and the MVP, Phil Foden. Know-how and a complete roster are the two main “weapons” of Manchester’s team on the road to 5 out of 5.
The Gunners will try to challenge this dominance after two years of coming close but not getting a drink from the fountain. Mikel Arteta’s team is more mature than ever to withstand the pressure of competing for the championship and not spill the bucket of milk as they did last year.
The addition of Ricardo Calafiori is vital to the tactical model of Guardiola’s protégé, and depending on his integration into the demanding English style of football with high intensity and frantic pace, he is expected to qualitatively enhance the Gunners’ defensive line.
Third on the starting line is Liverpool. The Reds are called to learn how to… walk from scratch, without Jürgen Klopp on their bench after nine years, the man who united an entire organization and led them to the top of the Premier League after 30 long years.
Thus, Arne Slot must maintain the team’s identity without transfers and improve last year’s naivety seen in several matches by his Merseyside team to make them a title contender once again.
The four outsiders and the difficult European equation
If there were power groups as in European competitions, then certainly in the first group would be the Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool, while in the second would be Aston Villa, Tottenham, Chelsea, and Manchester United.
The Birmingham team with its rejuvenator, Unai Emery, secured a spot in the League Stage of the Champions League after 42 years finishing 4th, being the big surprise of last year’s Premier League, and let’s not forget it had the fourth top scorer of the league with 19 goals and the first in assists with 13, Ollie Watkins.
This new year, where its rivals will have studied it better and will be more cautious, it will present itself fresher in ideas and faces, since it made eight signings.
The most significant are those of Belgian midfielder Amadou Onana from Everton for nearly €60,000,000 and English left-back Ian Madsen, who “shone” with Dortmund, for about €45,000,000, while at the same time selling Moussa Diaby to Al Ittihad and Douglas Luiz to Juventus, securing over €110,000,000.
On the side of Tottenham under Ange Postecoglou, the amazing start to last season did not continue with the same dynamism, resulting in missing the Champions League exit train due to many injuries faced by the Spurs, ultimately finishing 5th.
Now, the London team has learned to live without Harry Kane, with Dominic Solanke being the most expensive transfer of this summer in England, as Tottenham shelled out around €64,000,000 to add him to their frontline.
Staying in London and moving a bit closer, Chelsea under Todd Boehly, with over €1,200,000,000 spent on transfers in the last five windows wants to finally take a step up and return after two barren seasons to the top positions in the standings.
After the dismissal of Mauricio Pochettino, the keys to Stamford Bridge were handed to an old acquaintance of the domestic audience from his time in Greece with Olympiacos, Enzo Maresca.
The Italian coach, after a successful spell with Leicester, whom he led back to the Premier League just a year after their relegation, forced the Blues’ management to pay his release clause from the Foxes, namely €12,000,000. It remains to be seen if he will endure in the electric chair of the Island.
Manchester United is also searching for its lost glory, which after finishing second in the 2020/21 season has constantly been stuck in a black hole, from which Erik ten Hag seeks to extract them in his third season as their coach.
The Red Devils did not change much from the team that finished 8th last year with 60 points, and if they hadn’t secured the FA Cup against Manchester City in the Wembley final, they would have been out of Europe this year.
Lenni Joro, Matthias de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, and Joshua Zirkzee are the four summer signings of the once-mighty force of the Premier League and the club with the most titles (20).
Certainly, Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s new administration would not want to start off on the wrong foot in their dealings with Manchester United, especially since their plans are grand both on and off the pitch.
The strengthened Nottingham Forest
Given that Newcastle and West Ham will once again contest up to the final moments for their European exit and are nearly assured of a top ten finish – because in the world’s top league, apart from the champion, nothing else is guaranteed in recent years – below that it will be a “bloodbath”, mainly for the relegation zone.
This is where Nottingham Forest does not want to “play its head” for a second consecutive season, having finished 17th last year, just six points above the third team relegated to the Championship, Luton.
In this direction, the club of Evangelos Marinakis set aside its 2023 transfer policy, which changed almost the entire roster and the team took a while to find its chemistry on the pitch, and made a few targeted moves.
They bought Elliot Anderson from Newcastle for €41,000,000, while part of the deal was for Odysseas Vlachodimos to make the opposite journey.
They also added both the experienced center-back of Fiorentina, Nikola Milenkovic, and the surprise of last year’s Liga Portugal and a player who was courted by Panathinaikos, Jota Silva, while they also acquired the towering (2.04m) Brazilian Carlos Miguel to strengthen their goal.
The murky relegation landscape
Beyond that, chaos reigns. Crystal Palace, which for the last few years has not been in danger but “sits blocked” in 10th position, Brighton with the youngest manager in the Premier League, being just 31 years old, and a revelation of last year’s Bundesliga 2 with St. Pauli, Fabian Huurztheler, wants to continue the football project built with Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi.
The Bournemouth of Anthony Iriola, a coach that Olympiacos pursued in the summer of 2023 before settling on Diego Martinez, with the Spaniard bringing his philosophy from La Liga and Rayo Vallecano, won the respect of everyone in his first year in the Premier League, but this year he is called to manage without their top scorer, Dominic Solanke, a position taken by Evaniilson of Porto in the most expensive transfer in the team’s history.
The Wolves of Gary O’Neil will present a weakened side with the departures of Pedro Neto to Chelsea and Max Kilman to West Ham, while Fulham under Marco Silva will play without last year’s top tackler in the league, tough João Palhinha, but with Emil Smith Rowe in the midfield, who is looking for a career reboot after his sudden drop from his incredible breakthrough in the 2021/22 season.
Everton, whose financial irregularities nearly cost them their place in the Premier League last season, saved by an amazing comeback towards the end of the season, while since mid-June the majority share of the stocks after the collapse of the deal with 777 Partners passed into the hands of the owner of Roma, Dan Friedkin.
The Brentford, which operated on a Moneyball basis at the executive and financial level leading it to the top tier of English football in 2021 after 74 years and keeps it there with fluctuations in its performance.
And finally, the unknown X’s of the new season in the Premier League. The teams promoted from the Championship. The champions Lester, who have largely trusted the roster that led them back where they belong.
The Southampton wants to stay at all costs and “shouts it” by putting €81,000,000 on the market for seven players, while all their major “weapons” remained with the team, and finally, Ipswich.
The club, with Kieran McKenna at its helm and after three years of continuous progress, reached its peak by finishing second in what many consider the hardest league in the world.
The 38-year-old is considered the next big thing in English coaching, turned down Chelsea in the summer, and stayed where he was believed in and given space to develop after the valuable experiences gained as an assistant coach on Manchester United’s bench alongside José Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, and Michael Carrick.
However, although it is not a criterion for the outcome of the year, Opta/Stats Perform’s supercomputer predicts Manchester City as the winner, Arsenal in second place, and Liverpool in third, while as they rose, it seems that Southampton, Leicester, and Ipswich will fall.