The Premier League returns on Friday as Manchester United host Leicester City in the competition’s opening game. So what’s changed, who’s new and what can we expect? New faces, new teams, new hopes.
Can anyone challenge City?
Manchester City dominated the league in 2017-18, earning more English top-flight points than any other team in history and registering more wins and scoring more goals than any other Premier League side before them.
Pep Guardiola’s City lost just seven games in all competitions last season. Liverpool was responsible for three of those defeats and Jurgen Klopp’s side looks likely to be their biggest rivals for the Premier League title this season.
Having taken the game to City in a way few others were able to in 2017-18, the Reds have clearly sensed their moment, spending big to bring in four internationals – goalkeeper Alisson, midfielders Naby Keita and Fabinho and forward Xherdan Shaqiri – to strengthen a squad that already has one of the most potent strike-forces in the division and a defence rejuvenated by the January capture of Virgil van Dijk.
Guardiola said after his side’s Champions League group stage games with Napoli that the Italian side was the “best team he had ever faced”, which perhaps explains why Chelsea moved to bring their boss Maurizio Sarri to Stamford Bridge this summer.
Arsenal has also changed their boss (for the first time in 22 years) and Unai Emery’s side host City on the opening weekend. However, their aim will be to restore Champions League football to Emirates Stadium before they start to think about challenging a side who finished 37 points ahead of the last campaign.
Manchester United was the only other team (along with Liverpool) to beat City in the league last season, but their boss Jose Mourinho seems determined to downplay their chances of challenging, mainly because of a lack of new signings – an issue that is also affecting 2017-18’s third-placed side Tottenham.
There will be plenty of new players on show this summer – including the two most expensive goalkeepers of all time. Alisson broke Gianluigi Buffon’s long-standing record when he joined Liverpool for an initial £55.8m, rising to £66.8m, but less than a month later, Chelsea signed Kepa Arrizabalaga for £71m – with Thiabut Courtois leaving Stamford Bridge for Real Madrid.
Riyad Mahrez left Leicester for £60m to join Manchester City, who had been expected to sign Napoli midfielder Jorginho – but who joined Chelsea instead.
Liverpool did their business early in the window, while new Arsenal manager Unai Emery also brought in a new keeper – £19m Bernd Leno from Bayer Leverkusen. He also signed Stephan Lichtsteiner, Matteo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira and Sokratis Papastathopoulos.
Fulham spent £20m or more on four different players – Jean Michael Seri, Alfie Mawson, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa – the latter one of five deadline-day signings.
Manchester United signed only one likely first-team starter, midfielder Fred, despite Jose Mourinho being keen on a new centre-back.
Nine clubs broke or equalled their transfer record, including Chelsea with Kepa, City with Mahrez and Seri with Fulham. Alireza Jahanbakhsh to Brighton, Terence Kongolo to Huddersfield, Felipe Anderson to West Ham, Adama Traore to Wolves and Jefferson Lerma to Bournemouth were also club records – and Burnley equalled theirs when they signed Ben Gibson.
The Hammers, who broke their club record signing twice, spent almost £100m – bringing in Anderson for an initial £36m after Issa Diop was briefly their top signing at £22m. Arsenal pair Jack Wilshere and Lucas Perez are among their other signings.
Everton signed three players from Barcelona – Yerry Mina, Lucas Digne and Andre Gomes – as well as Richarlison and Bernard.
One team will be very familiar this season. Tottenham did not sign a single player all summer – with no first-team players leaving either.
New managers
The 20 Premier League clubs who kick off this weekend will see a surprisingly low number of new faces in the dugout – just four, in fact. And two of those have managed in the Premier League before.
Most intriguing of all will be the start of a new era at Arsenal as Emery faces the unenviable task of replacing Arsene Wenger, who left in May after 22 years in charge.
Arsenal have not won the Premier League since 2004, and are not in the Champions League this season for a second straight season.
Emery arrives after two seasons at Paris St-Germain which saw him win five major honours but still lose his job after failing to progress beyond the last 16 of the Champions League.
He has spent about £65m on new faces and with Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere and Per Mertesacker all leaving the club there has been plenty of change.
Another new manager with plenty occupying his in-tray is Sarri at Chelsea.
Chelsea seemed to take an age to continue their recent pattern and dispense with Antonio Conte a year after he led them to the title and Sarri, 59, is an interesting choice.
He won many plaudits for the style of football his Napoli team played in the last three years but that’s all he won – the Italian has yet to secure a single piece of silverware in his managerial career.
With doubts over the futures of senior players Willian, Eden Hazard and Courtois – who left for Real on Thursday – clouding the club’s summer, and Manchester City winning the Community Shield comfortably last weekend, Sarri needs to get off to a fast start in the Premier League.
The other ‘new’ faces on display this weekend are Marco Silva at Everton and Manuel Pellegrini at West Ham.
Source: BBC News
