The new Premier League season begins on Friday August 15, when the Liverpool champions entertain Bournemouth.
The Reds of Arne Slot will be favorite again to raise the trophy, but can Arsenal improve three consecutive finishes in second position? Manchester City is expected to bounce back after an unusually quiet season under Pep Guardiola, while Chelsea is champion of the World Cup of the FIFA Club (CWC).
Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at the likely candidates.
Liverpool
The Slot team stormed a 20th first League record title last season. The Reds finished 10 arsenal points – and that after having removed the gas foot in a four -game race without victory to finish.
Florian Wirtz is Bayer Leverkusen’s big summer name and is delivered with a high price of $ 156 million. The German midfielder follows the French striker Hugo Ekitike and the large Dutch man Jeremie Frimpong through the doors of Anfield.
The latter will be used both by covering Trent Alexander-Arnold, who joined Real Madrid, and Mohamed Salah, who will leave in mid-season to represent Egypt at the African Cup of Nations.
However, securing the current services of Salah and Virgil Van Dijk was undoubtedly the biggest company that the Reds needed.
The Egyptian striker Salah was strongly linked to the Saudi Pro League and, after having exceeded the aims of goals against last season with 29 goals, would have been a huge loss.
The Dutch defender and captain of Liverpool Van Dijk is the rock on which the fortune of the Reds has been built since his arrival from Southampton in 2018.
The prosecution of Aleksander Isak of Newcastle United has been in progress for some time. Slot has teased that Reds can come back with a second offer, and if a position has been in question, it is an attacker outside and out of failure – the 23 goals of Isak last season have proven that he was one of the hottest talents of this role.
“Each Premier League team spends money,” said Slot with a view to the new campaign. “So, if we are only the favorites because we have spent a little, I consider it bizarre because we have also lost a lot. But we are the favorites because we won it last season and that we played so well, it’s clear.”
The tragic death of Diogo Jota, in a car accident in Spain in July, replaces all the concerns of success. Reconcile with his loss will be painful in training and in matches, his absence felt far beyond the gap that the Portuguese front leaves in the departure XI each week.
Arsenal
The Mikel Arteta’s arsenal has been the form of the last three seasons of the Premier League, but three second place in a row are starting to burn deeply in northern London.
Substantial reinforcements have been sought to help the Gunners end their expectations of 22 seasons to withdraw the title of the Premier League once again.
Viktor Gyokerres is the news, given that Artata has little secret of her frustration at the lack of strike options from the club last season.
The signature of the Swedish striker of Sporting Lisbon for 63 million pounds ($ 85 million) will be considered the best chance to fill the gap on Liverpool.
The capture of Noni Madueke de Chelsea, in the meantime, divided arsenal fans. The English international, however, brings additional depth and quality to a front line, whose top scorer last season was Kai Havertz with nine goals.
The arrival in the Real Sociedad midfielder from Martin Zubimendi, winner of Euro 2024 with Spain, can only consolidate the system already meticulously manufactured that Artata has organized.
Chélat
Chelsea will surely have hit the ground in progress after its superb success of the World Cup of FIFA against the European Champions Paris Saint-Germain last month.
The Enzo Maresca team stormed a 3-0 victory against the Parisians, who swept the UEFA Champions League – culminating in their own 5-0 demolition of Inter Milan – to finish the triples.
The three goals of Joao Pedro through the semi-final and the final at the CWC have already made a long way to the validation of its signing of 60 million pounds (80.7 million dollars) of Brighton before the tournament. This decision came in addition to the capture of striking colleagues, Liam Delap of Ipswich and Estevao de Palmeiras.
Estevao scored against the western London club in its last match with its Brazilian outfit in the quarterfinals of the CWC.
Disjointed has long been a word associated with Chelsea on and off the field, certainly since its last Premier League victory in 2017.
That Maresca can continue to equalize the team following the triumph of the CWC, and if this tournament will test the legs of the blues players later in the season, could well be decisive factors in the challenge of the title of Chelsea.
Manchester City
Will the Pep Guardiola team bounce back to the form that allowed them to claim a fourth title of the consecutive premier League only a season? Or will Manchester’s light blues continue to feel the heavy burden on one side that has won all in front of them, to seek apparently control of their own success last season?
The injury of the Golden Ball holder Rodri has undoubtedly struck the city of the last quarter, and the news that the start of the new campaign will also be missing will also be a huge concern for Guardiola.
For a team that won an unprecedented five trophies in 2023, and the title of first record the following year, to fall so far last season has been a huge shock for all, especially their manager.
Indeed, many thought that last season could well be Guardiola’s last term. Even with a two-year contract extension signed halfway through the last campaign, a slow start of this season will again throw the doubt where once it seemed unthinkable.
The departure of Kevin de Bruyne marks a passage from the guard, and this absence will now be doubled in the first stages with the unavailability of Rodri.
Their nine championship defeats last season were more than their two previous seasons combined and led to a first finish outside the first two since 2016-2017. The blues also collapsed from the Champions League and the League Cup, and their final defeat of the FA Cup by Crystal Palace did not mean silverware for the first time in eight years.
Midfielder Tijjani Reijnders, defender Rayan Ait-Nouri, winger Rayan Cherki and goalkeeper James Trafford were all recruited in the tight season.
The summer series pushed city spending for 2025 after the brand of 300 million pounds (403.5 million dollars), after the arrivals of Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov, Nico Gonzalez and Vitor Reis in the January window.
“I’m almost sure it will be good, but it will not be a red carpet season,” said Guardiola.
“The wait at the start of the season is always, let’s try to do our best, win the first games, get confidence and move forward. We want to try to do better than last season, especially with consistency.”
A cloud that continues to stay above the club is that they are still faced with 115 accusations of slowing down Premier League financial regulations.
City, who has always denied any reprehensible act, were accused of alleged violations in February 2023. A verdict during the international break in October.
Manchester United and the rest
United challenged its financial misfortunes to reinvent their three fronts with Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo signed earlier in the window, and the Grand Money Movement for Benjamin Sesko of RB Leipzig.
Captain of the Red Devils Bruno Fernandes struck a “lazy” pre-season performance after the 2-2 draw with Everton, and also called for more reinforcements.
One of the club’s longest players, the English international Luke Shaw, also criticized a “toxic” cloakroom culture that manager Ruben Amorim was trying to change.
Like Guardiola, his opposite number through the Manchester ditch, the duration of the fortune is likely to probably take how long Amorim has at the helm.
A slow start can mean that his mandate lasts barely a year after replacing Eric Ten Hag as a manager last November.
Newcastle United just missed a place among the first four, and with it the qualification in the Champions League last season, having been considered as pretenders for the start of the season.
The doubts surrounding their star name, Isak, threw huge doubts before the new season of the Eddie Howe team. If the Swedish left, and with his own target, Sesko, moving to Old Trafford, the Geordies seem the most threatened not to be below last season’s progress.
Aston Villa was another team that threatened to enter the Premier League elite, after obtaining football in the Champions League two years ago, which led to a race in the quarter -finals last year.
Ivory Coast striker Evann Guessand was signed by the French club Nice for an amount reported at least 30 million euros ($ 35 million). The 24 -year -old winger scored 13 goals last season.
If the transfer merry -go -round continues, however, then the Villa striker, Ollie Watkins, could be the next moving, with the best four of last season having been linked to a decision for the international in England at a given time.
Indeed, the future of Isak in Newcastle could well be the trigger to find out if Watkins remains at Villa Park when the transfer window stops on September 1.
