EPL, Italy, French Seasons Starts Friday

Wow are the EPL, Italy & French seasons really already here? This glorious summer of Soccer that had me traveling
the country to follow the US team for the Best World Cup ever has ended and I can’t believe the regular season is really here. Data analyzed by the BBC shows the English top flight is more competitive than it has been in over two decades. Basically every team, bar a couple of the newly promoted, will be competing for European football and therefore I think ‘easy’ games will now be few and far between. The same four or five teams at the top of the pack are in the running to win the league. Then there’s another group fighting it out in the middle of the pack and those at the bottom struggling to avoid relegation. A record 9 new managers take over this year –

The Ole Ballcoach likes Champions League finalist Arsenal (who are far and away the top team in the EPL), along with Manchester United, Liverpool, & Manchester City with Chelsea, Brighton, and Leeds United battling for European slots. I think newly promoted Coventry City with Frank Lampard in charge and American Haji Wright up front will finish mid-pack while teams with the American’s Bournemouth (Tyler Adams), Crystal Palace (Chris Richards), and Fulham (Jedi Robinson) will slip a little as they all have new coaches. Full Preview and Rankings below.

Italy is also tough to pick this year – do Juventus and AC Milan return to form and the top 3 with Inter Milan? Predicting the ENTIRE 2026/27 Serie A Table video. I am hoping Pulisic rounds back into his early form last year and helps AC Milan rise back up while I fully expect Juventus and American Weston Mckinney bounce back into the Top 3. For France – Its PSG of course – and the little sisters of the poor. PGS will be looking for a 3rd straight Champions League title while winning the French League of course.

Ben’s BBQ Shack near Grand Park has the Best Dang Brisket you can buy in Indiana

So many of you know I consider myself a BarBQ Conesiur having tried BBQ all over the South like GA, AL, NC, SC, LO, FL and Texas along with California, Ohio, Indiana and Kansas City. But I am hear to tell you ole Ben’s BBQ Shack (actually its a Palace now) has some of the Best Brisket I have ever bought. Moist and smokey – no sauce needed – a solid 9.5 on the piggy scale. His pulled Pork, Ribs, Turkey are also legendary along with his mom’s Bourbon Buttermilk Pie (8 piggies). The Cole slaw is some of the best in town too. Proprietor Ben Hoffman (fine Louisville Kentucky man that he is), has opened a new place near Grand Park and he’s serving some of the Best BBQ in the state every Weekend – Thurs-Sun 11:30 till 3 pm. Now get there early as he runs out of food sometimes before 2:30 Safest thing is to call in an order early (937) 823-0747 then you can take it home or eat in the expanded dining room, on the porch or on the roof.

1000 East 181st Street Westfield, IN 46074 (937) 823-0747 Get direction
Thursday 11:30am – 3:00pm
Friday 11:30am – 3:00pm
Saturday 11:30am – 3:00pm
Sunday 11:30am – 3:00pm

Indy 11 beat Jax 1-0, Host Louisville City Sat 7 pm – Carmel’s GK Eric Dick records 35th Shutout & 300 saves

Jacksonville, Fla. – Indy Eleven scored off a free kick in the 92nd minute to earn a 1-0 road victory at USL Championship Eastern Conference opponent Sporting JAX on Saturday night. Cam Lindley delivered an exquisite ball past the far post that Paco Craig headed down off the shoulder of defender Antonio Gomez into the upper 90 for the game’s only goal and three points for the Boys in Blue. It was another record-setting night for Indy Eleven goalkeeper Eric Dick, who recorded his third clean sheet of the season and the 35th of his USL Championship career to become the 14th player in league history to reach that plateau.  The Carmel Dad’s Club, CHS grad and Butler product made two stops in the match to reach 300 saves in his USL-C career, making him the 19th player to achieve that. Dick earned his third “Save of the Week” nomination on Tuesday and he has a chance to get another one after stopping a breakaway from Jean Mota in the 32nd minute. The win moves Indy Eleven up two places into sixth in the 13-team Eastern Conference.  The top eight teams in the East at the end of the regular season on October 24 advance to the USL Championship playoffs. The Boys in Blue host “Noche Latina” next Saturday, August 22 at 7 p.m. vs. Louisville City FC. Indy Eleven will wear special Noche Latina warm-up jerseys and discounted tickets starting at $14 and a Noche Latina scarf are available online. The Family Four-Pack is available for all 2026 home games and can be purchased online only.  Priced at just $49, the Family Four-Pack includes four tickets, FREE parking, $20 in Concession Vouchers, and a 20% Merchandise Discount, along with access to the Fun Zone/Kids Activation Area.

Leagues Cup MLS vs Mexico Liga MX

The Leagues Cup 2026 quarterfinal field is set after eight teams advanced from Phase One. The four quarterfinals will be played from Aug. 25-27, with four MLS clubs facing four LIGA MX sides for semifinal spots.

Quarterfinal matchups
Chicago Fire FC (MLS 1) vs CF Monterrey (LMX 4)
Austin FC (MLS 2) vs. Toluca FC (LMX 3) Wed 8:30 pm Apple
Club León (LMX 1) vs. Real Salt Lake (MLS 4)
Club América (LMX 2) vs. Columbus Crew (MLS 3) Wed 10:45 pm Apple

Notes & Tidbits

For those who really love their team and their dogs – Adidas unveil football kits for dogs. Paul Pogba, who joined Monaco last season after serving a doping ban, will leave the club by mutual consent (More) Harry Kane has been awarded his second European Golden Shoe after scoring 36 goals in 31 Bundesliga games last season (More)

A 14-year-old, Zoe Thompson, sister of professionals Alyssa and Gisele, has already signed a deal with Nike (More); read more about the up-and-comer (More) Real Salt Lake achieves club record sale of $15m after selling teenager Zavier Gozo (More); see Crystal Palace’s creative announcement of the signing (Watch) |Washington’s Trinity Rodman scored her 10th goal on Sunday, becoming the first Spirit player to reach 10+ single-season goals since 2021 — with 10 games to go.

Ted Lasso Season 4 premiere pulled in 296.6 million minutes watched over the course of August 4-5, a total measured by Nielsen [Variety]

TV Schedule

Fri, Aug 21
3 pm Arsenal vs Coventry City (Wright) EPL Start
3 pm ESPND, + Real Betis vs Real Sociedad
10 pm Prime San Diego Wave vs Utah Royals
Sat, Aug 22 EPL
7;30 am USA Hull City vs Man United
7:30 am CBS Golazo Birmingham City vs Bristol City
10 am USA Everton vs Crystal Palace (Richards)
10 am NBCSN Ipwich Town vs Sunderland
10 am Peacock Nottingham Forest vs Leeds United (Aarsonson)
10 am Para+ Wrexham vs Watford
10 am Para+, Golazo Blackburn vs Middlesborough (Berhalter)
11 am ESPN2 Athletic Club vs Sevilla ( )
12:30 pm NBC Brentford vs Tottenham
12:30 pm CBSSN Udinese vs Como Italy
2:30 pm USA Dortmund vs Bayern Munich Supercup
3:30 pm ABC Espanyol vs Real Madrid
6:30 pm Ion KC Current vs Seattle Reign
7 pm ABC Indy 11 vs Louisville City
7:30 pm Apple Cincy vs Seattle Sounders
7:30 pm Apple NY Red Bulls vs Chicago Fire
8:30 pm Apple Nashville vs Columbus Crew
9:30 pm Apple Vancouver Whitecaps vs Dallas
10:30 pm Apple LAFC vs Portland
11 pm Univision Cruz Azul vs Atlas Mex
Sun, Aug 23
9 am USA Man City vs Bournemouth (Adams)
9 am Peacock Brighton vs Aston Villa
11:30 am USA Newcastle United vs Liverpool
12:30 pm Para+ Frozinone vs Juventus (McKinney) Italy
2 pm CBSSN Chicago Stars vs Racing Louisville
2:45 pm Para+ Torino vs AC Milan (Pulisic)
2:45 pm beIN Sport PSG vs Rennes France
3:30 pm ABC Elche vs Barcelona
4 pm ESPN2 Washington Spirit (Rodman) vs Orlando Pride (Marta)
4:30 pm Apple New England vs NYCFC
6 pm CBSSN Bay FC vs Houston Dash
7 pm Apple Atlanta United vs Sporting KC
8 pm Ion Angel City (Thompson) vs Gotham (Lavelle)
Mon, Aug 24
12:30 pm CBSSN Bologna vs Lazio
3 pm USA Fulham (Robinson) vs Chelsea
Tues, Aug 25
3 pm Para+ Lask Linz vs Celtic
3 pm Para+ Bode/Glimt vs NEC
3 pm ESPND or + Valencia vs Real Betis
Wed, Aug 26
3 pm ESPN+/D Real Madrid vs Real Sociedad
8 pm CBSSN NC Courage vs Angel City (Thompson)
8:30 pm Apple Toluca vs Austin Leagues Cup
10:45 pm Apple America vs Columbus Crew
Thurs, Aug 27
3 pm ESPN+/D Barcelona vs Athletic Club
Fri, Aug 28
2:45 pm Para+ AC Milan (Musah, Pulisic) vs Venezia (Busio)
2:45 pm beIN Sp Lille vs PSG
3 pm USA Crystal Palace (Richards) vs Man City
8 pm Prime Gotham FC (Lavelle) vs Portland Thorns (Sam???)
Sat, Sept 26
4:30 pm TNT/HBO USMNT vs Peru Orlando
Tues, Sept 29
8 pm TNT/HBO USMNT vs Chile St Louis
Sat, Oct 3
8 pm?? TNT/HBO USMNT vs Mexico Glendale
Tues, Oct 6
8 pm TNT/HBO USMNT vs Canada Minn
Sat, Oct 10
8 pm TNT. HBO USWNT vs Spain DC
Tues, Oct 13
7 pm TNT, HBO USWNT vs Spain Philly

Looking to Get a Professional Company Headshot? Check out https://capturely.com/ Tell Rob The Ole Ballcoach Shane Best sent you and he’ll give you a deal.

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EPL Season Preview

 20-club season preview, which you can read right here.
Premier League preview: Arsenal’s title defense, new faces in new places and more
Premier League 2026-27 preview: Arsenal’s title defense, new faces in new places, and what to expect this season
Premier League season predictions: Champions, relegated teams, Golden Boot winner, picks for 2026-27
Carrick has steadied Man United, but can he take the next step this season?
Premier League 2026/27 kits: Every home and away shirt ranked and rate

USA

Hayes says Poch stay can help ‘raise’ level in U.S.
Pulisic returns to Milan training after WC injury
Zavier Gozo’s Crystal Palace move gives USMNT another young player to watch in Europe
USMNT transfer grades: Gozo gets a B for joining Palace
Haji Wright’s Quad Injury
USMNT, Coventry striker Haji Wright out up to 12 weeks with quad injury
Source: USMNT’s McKenzie set to rejoin Philly
Transfer rumors, news: Tottenham continue interest for USMNT’s Balogun
USMNT’s Dest, Pepi combine to give PSV 1st win
Mexico beats U.S. in U20 final after suspect red

U-20 World Cup roster set after NWSL, college teams grant releases
Brazil’s famed Estádio do Maracanã to host 2027 Women’s World Cup final

Italy & Germany season Previews

Serie A preview
LIVE Serie A 2026-27 Preview: Table predictions, best kits ..
.Italy Season Preview Soccer
Brotherly touch and English flavor could see Inter dominate Serie A, Como
Opta’s Ligue 1 pre-season projections.
🚨 Official: Le Mans sign a 2018 World Cup winner!

NWSL & MLS

Wrapping Up Phase One: León Roars, Chicago on Fire, Austin Revives
Leagues Cup 2026 Quarterfinal Schedule and Venues Announced 
Coach: Messi ‘at peace’ following Miami return
Can Lewandowski reignite the Fire in Chicago after 20 years of smoldering?
Messi has 3rd straight penalty miss in Miami loss
MLS Power Rankings: Nashville blows out Miami to take top spot
MLS Chaos: Cavan Sullivan, Yannick Bright sent off in Inter Miami-Philadelphia Union

NWSL Matchweek 16: Near comebacks and epic wins in 7-goal stunners
WASHINGTON SPIRIT FORWARD TRINITY RODMAN NAMED JULY PLAYER OF THE MONTH
NWSL Announces July Best XI of the Month, Presented by Amazon Prime
Sydney Leroux reflects on “most important comeback’ of her life
Matchweek 17: Fairytale returns and Utah’s Japanese trio make history

Goal Keeping

Week 24 Save of the Week Nominees | USL Championship
Week 23 Save of the Week Nominees | USL Championship
MLS: Best Saves of the Week
BEST SAVES | FIFA World Cup 2026™
Why do goalkeepers spit on their gloves?
Out of favour at Tottenham Hotspur, goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario is joining Juventus on loan.

Reffing

 Sub-off 5 Second Rule 
Throw-in 5 Second Rule 
Webb: Balogun red card saga fuels ref distrust
Ref Shove
Hand ball or no?

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 One Big Thing – There’s Nothing Quite Like the LIPAFC, and Saturday’s Meeting Has Intrigue – Indy 11 vs Louisville

Premier League 2026-27 mega-preview: Team-by-team analysis

• Ryan O’Hanlon and 
• Bill Connelly

Aug 19, 2026, 02:55 AM E ESPN

We have officially entered a new era of the Premier League, and nothing sums it up better than the following:

• The number of current Premier League managers who were born in a 700,000-person province in the autonomous Basque region of northern Spain called Gipuzkoa: four.

• The number of current Premier League managers who have won the Premier League before: one.

• The number of current Premier League managers who have won the Premier League before but weren’t born in a 700,000-person province in the autonomous Basque region of northern Spain called Gipuzkoa: zero.

After three straight years of second-place finishes, Arsenal and manager Mikel Arteta finally got over the hump. Pep Guardiola finally left Manchester City after managing the team to six Premier League titles, and Liverpool shockingly fired Arne Slot just a year after he led them to win the Premier League.
The Gunners are the favorites to repeat, but beyond that? It’s anyone’s guess.Manchester United are managed by a guy with just 19 Premier League matches under his belt. Chelsea are on their fourth manager in less than a year, and one of the guys they fired is now managing Manchester City. Liverpool seem more focused on selling part of the team to Jeff Bezos & Co. than building a coherent team. Tottenham have finished 17th in each of the past two seasons. Newcastle have theoretically unlimited wealth, but they, and fellow top-four gate-crasher Aston Villa, just got rid of all of their best players.

With all of that uncertainty humming around us, Bill Connelly and Ryan O’Hanlon are back again with their 20-team mega-preview ahead of the 2026-27 season. As always, they’ve each predicted what the standings will look like at the end of season, averaged their predictions together, and produced one joint mega-prediction.

What will happen this season? And what changed over the summer so that it won’t be a repeat of last season? Read on to find out.

(Note: All transfer values come from Transfermarkt.)

1. Arsenal

Last season’s finish: first (85 points, plus-44 goal differential)

Key ins: CM Bruno Guimarães (Newcastle United, €87.5 million), CB Piero Hincapié (Bayer Leverkusen, €49 million), LW Christos Tzolis (Club Brugge, €40 million), GK Illan Meslier (Leeds United, free)

Key outs: LW Leandro Trossard (Besiktas, €18 million), CB Jakub Kiwior (Porto, €17 million), DM Christian Nørgaard (Everton, €8.15 million), GK Karl Hein (Werder Bremen, €3 million)

Key stat

Ever since Declan Rice joined from West Ham in the summer of 2023, Arsenal’s defense has been at another level, almost on another planet, from everyone else in the Premier League. Here’s how Mikel Arteta’s side stacks up with the rest of the ever-present Premier League sides over the past three seasons:

There’s a gap of about 37 xG (expected goals) between Arsenal in first and Manchester City in second. There’s also a gap of about 37 xG between City in second and Fulham … in 12th.

One big question: How healthy will Arsenal be?

Manchester City first lost Pep Guardiola and now Rodri. Manchester United haven’t finished higher than third in eight years. Liverpool have a new coach and no new defenders besides a loan for Ronald Araujo. Chelsea have a new coach and just finished in 10th.

Arsenal, meanwhile, just won the league, lost the Champions League final on penalties, signed one of the best midfielders in the Premier League and have a super-deep roster of players almost exclusively in their prime years.

So, what might stop them? Outside of a sudden reinterpretation around set piece physicality by the league’s referees, it’s hard to think of anything — other than injuries.

The Gunners’ three most important players all have varying degrees of broken-down bodies. Bukayo Saka was playing with an Achilles injury throughout the World Cup, while Declan Rice dealt with back and hamstring injuries that were strangely described as “terrible” and “[not] an injury” by England manager Thomas Tuchel. William Saliba, meanwhile, injured an already-injured back in the semifinals and is expected to miss a couple of months. Not to mention, Jurriën Timber missed the World Cup entirely and will be out for at least the start of the season.

If you take away all of their best players, will Arsenal still be the best team in the Premier League? — Ryan O’Hanlon

2. Manchester City

Last season’s finish: second (78 points, +42 goal differential)

Key ins: manager Enzo Maresca, CM Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest, €135 million), LW Mathys Detourbet (Troyes, €25 million), LW Jeremy Monga (Leicester City, €11.7 million)

Key outs: manager Pep Guardiola, DM Rodri (Barcelona, €76.5 million), GK James Trafford (Leeds United, €46.7 million), CB Manuel Akanji (Inter Milan, €15 million), CB Nathan Aké (Fenerbahce, €8.2 million), AM Bernardo Silva (Real Madrid, free transfer), CB John Stones (Inter Milan, free transfer)

Key stat

City have won 38 major trophies in their history. Twenty of them — over half! — were earned with Guardiola in charge.

Granted, you could also spin that to note that 26 of those came since City Football Group took over the club, and they’re still in charge even after a manager change. But Guardiola rewrote the City history book, and it’s awfully difficult to figure out how to set an appropriate bar now that he has handed the reins to Maresca. Maresca admits concerns as Man City plan more spending

One big question: Where do City go from here?

You can paint two completely different pictures if you focus on who City have versus who they don’t.

On one hand, they’ve not only lost Guardiola, but they’ve also lost Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, longtime talisman Silva and a good percentage of their defensive veterans. Considering their (impossibly high) previous form fell off a bit over the past two seasons before all these losses, you could certainly envision a City fall in the post-Pep era.

On the other hand, have you seen who’s still on their roster?

Erling Haaland is still just about the best pure goal scorer on the planet, goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma might be the best pure shot stopper, new midfielder Elliot Anderson is already one of the best pivot men in the Premier League, Rayan Cherki is a terrifying chance creator, Antoine Semenyo and Jérémy Doku are impossibly dangerous wingers, Nico O’Reilly and Abdukodir Khusanov are two of the best 22-and-under defenders in the world, center back Marc Guéhi is one of the league’s best, and Phil Foden is a onetime Premier League player of the year.

Everyone in the above paragraph is 27 or younger — and we haven’t even mentioned potential midfield additions Ayyoub Bouaddi and/or Enzo Fernández before the transfer window closes yet.

City still have one of the most talented rosters in the world, and even if there’s an awkward transition period in moving to Maresca — and pretty much everything about Sunday’s Community Shield loss to Arsenal screamed “AWKWARD TRANSITION” — this lineup could easily still give Arsenal their biggest challenge over 38 matches. — Bill Connelly

3. Chelsea

Last season’s finish: 10th (52 points, +6 goal differential)

Key ins: manager Xabi Alonso, AM Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa, €138 million), CB Maxence Lacroix (Crystal Palace, €60.7 million), RB Marco Palestra (Atalanta, €57 million), RW Geovany Quenda (Sporting CP, €50 million), CM Valentín Barco (Strasbourg, €40 million), CF Emmanuel Emegha (Strasbourg, €25 million), LB Pep Chavarría (Rayo Vallecano, €19 million), CF Danny Welbeck (Brighton, €5.9 million), CM Jordan Henderson (Brentford, free transfer)

Key outs: DM Andrey Santos (Manchester United, €56.3 million), LB Marc Cucurella (Real Madrid, €55 million), CB Trevoh Chalobah (Como, €30 million), LW Tyrique George (Everton, €21 million)

Key stat

Since BlueCo took over Chelsea ownership in the spring of 2022, they have spent an average of €417 million per season in transfer fees; so far, that’s bought them finishes of 12th, sixth, fourth and 10th. They were spectacularly unlucky last season — fourth in xG differential, but 10th in the table — but the spending-to-results ratio has been utterly hapless.

And yet, we’re picking them third this season. That’s what happens when you (A) hire the right manager for the job, (B) avoid European play and (C) throw another €339 million at your problems over the summer.

One big question: Can Xabi Alonso craft something cohesive?

In adding veterans Welbeck and Henderson, Chelsea earned a lot of positive headlines about learning their lessons after fielding countless squads that were far too young and far too devoid of leadership. We probably shouldn’t go overboard in that regard, since they also spent a positively ridiculous sum of money on Rogers a season after he overachieved statistically (he had 25 goals and assists in all competitions for Aston Villa, but they came from just 17.8 combined xG and xA), and they still brought in another five players aged 22 or younger.

Still, few managers are more respected than Xabi Alonso, and unlike during his time at Real Madrid, he’s now in charge of a roster loaded with players who should be young and hungry enough to actually run and press.

Now, though, not only is he in charge of a roster that is loaded as mentioned, but one that also features Henderson and Welbeck, a couple of respected veterans coming off solid seasons. The squad is as bloated as ever, and some of its best players are coming off poor seasons, but it still has Cole Palmer, Rogers, Joao Pedro, Welbeck, Pedro Neto and tantalizing teenagers Estevao and Geovany Quenda in attack. It still has Moises Caicedo, newcomer Valentin Barco, Henderson, Romeo Lavia and — for now, at least — Enzo Fernandez in midfield. It still has Reece James (when healthy), Maxence Lacroix, Levi Colwill and countless others in defense.

The talent is undeniable, and if Alonso can’t make something of it, no one can, especially in a season without European play. — Connelly

Can Chelsea finish in the top 4 under Alonso?

4. Liverpool

Last season’s finish: fifth (60 points, plus-10 goal differential)

Key ins: manager Andoni Iraola, CB Jérémy Jacquet (Stade Rennais, €63.6 million), LW Víctor Muñoz (CA Osasuna, €40 million), CB Ronald Araújo (Barcelona, loan)

Key outs: manager Arne Slot, CB Ibrahima Konaté (Real Madrid, free), RW Mohamed Salah (Trabzonspor, free), LB Andrew Robertson (Tottenham, free)

Key stat

A simple way to measure the intensity of a team’s pressing approach is through passes allowed per defensive action (PPDA). The stat, essentially, looks at the number of passes a team allows in their attacking half for every defensive action they attempt.

The lower the number, the more aggressive the press, and Liverpool’s number was the highest it has been in eight years last season:

Of course, they won the league in 2018-19 with a higher PPDA than they produced last season, but the declining intensity coupled with the decline in results seems to be the main reason the club decided to fire Arne Slot and replace him with Iraola.

One big question: Can Iraola make the pieces fit?

One way I’ve heard the best managers described to me by analytically inclined decision-makers is not as the people with the best ideas or smartest philosophies about how the game should be played but rather as the people who can look at any collection of talent and figure out how to make it work best together. In other words, they want coaches who allow them to identify and acquire whatever undervalued talent is out there.

While you wouldn’t call Alexander Isak‘s transfer fee “undervalued” by even the loosest definition of the word, Liverpool clearly acquired whoever they thought were the best available players last summer, regardless of fit. How else to explain spending $200-million-plus on two quite similar strikers in Isak and Hugo Ekitike?

Slot was unable to find the right combination of players for any consistent period of time last season. Iraola did exactly that season after season after Bournemouth kept getting rid of his best players, but can he do it with a team that expects to be challenging for Premier and Champions League trophies every season? — O’Hanlon

5. Manchester United

Last season’s finish: third (71 points, +19 goal differential)

Key ins: DM Andrey Santos (Chelsea, €56.3 million), CM Youri Tielemans (Aston Villa, €41 million)

Key outs: CF Rasmus Højlund (Napoli, €44 million), DM Casemiro (Inter Miami, free transfer)

Key stat

You can officially see whatever you want from Michael Carrick’s stint as Manchester United’s manager last season.

• Before Carrick’s hire, United ranked sixth in points per game but third in xG differential
• Under Carrick, they rose to first in points per game … and fell to fifth in xG differential

Carrick engineered undeniably sound play and got the absolute most from star Bruno Fernandes, who produced 13 of his league-record 21 assists in Carrick’s 17 matches. But the team also enjoyed a torrid level of finishing — 33 goals from shots worth 26.9 xG (Matheus Cunha and Casemiro had 11 goals from shots worth 4.5) — that they almost certainly won’t sustain.

Just as Chelsea took on spectacularly poor fortune when the calendar flipped to 2026, Manchester United’s fortune was all positive. It was virtually perfect content for the narrative generation machine that this club tends to be.

One big question: Is this squad deep (and young) enough?

Fernandes (31), left back Luke Shaw (31), center back Harry Maguire (33) and Casemiro (34) were all among the top six in minutes played under Carrick; Carrick did figure out a proper role for 21-year-old midfielder Kobbie Mainoo, but he leaned heavily on age and experience.

Casemiro has aged out (and went to Inter Miami), but Carrick will again be asking a lot of those remaining veterans, and they’ll be adding at least eight Champions League matches to the fixture list. Mainoo and newcomer Andrey Santos (22) will log major minutes, while other younger players like defenders Leny Yoro (20) and Ayden Heaven (19) and wingers Patrick Dorgu (21) and Shea Lacey (19) could be asked to provide sturdy depth. But this could still be a pretty old squad. (Shaw certainly looked his age in the preseason.)

Tielemans was the primary summer addition: He’s 29 and has started more than 21 league matches just once in the past three seasons. Meanwhile, Marcus Rashford (28) has returned from loan, and Carrick gave Mason Mount (27) a lot of midfield minutes in the preseason. What happens if the older players suffer a run of injuries? What happens when the finishing evens out? — Connelly

6. Brighton

Last season’s finish: ninth (53 points, +3 goal differential)

Key ins: CB Luka Vuskovic (Tottenham Hotspur, €54 million), RW Zadok Yohanna (AIJ, €28 million), CB Pascal Struijk (Leeds, €23.2 million), RB Costinha (Olympiacos, €12.7 million)

Key outs: CB Jan Paul van Hecke (Tottenham Hotspur, €60 million), GK Carl Rushworth (Coventry City, €25.7 million), CB Diego Coppola (Paris FC, €17.5 million), CF Danny Welbeck (Chelsea, €5.9 million)

Key stat

No one forced more high turnovers than Brighton in 2025-26 (12.4 per game), and no one scored more goals from them (23) either.

Brighton allowed the lowest passes per defensive action in the league (9.95 PPDA). The press was their best attacker, and after a midseason funk dropped them to 14th in the table, Fabian Hurzeler doubled down on pressure and steady ball progression — primarily by installing Pascal Gross (back from Borussia Dortmund) in defensive midfield and penciling central attacking midfielder (and general chaos agent) Jack Hinshelwood into the lineup — and was rewarded: Over the final 12 matchdays, Brighton averaged 1.83 points per game (fourth in the league) and charged to seventh in the table. They’ll play in the UEFA Conference League this season.

One big question: Do they have the depth (and scoring) for a season with European nights?

If the press was Brighton’s best attacker, Welbeck was second, and he’s off to Chelsea. Among returnees, no one scored more than five league goals last season, and even with their spring surge, Brighton finished with only 52 goals, 10th most in the league. They must figure out how to generate more shot quality, and they’ll have to do so while adding at least six Conference League matches to the docket.

Progression in the finishing department would help as outside of Welbeck, Brighton players scored just 38 goals from shots worth 45.5 xG. Their roster management and talent identification have been dynamite through the years, and we might find out that youngsters like Charalampos Kostoulas (19) and Stefanos Tzimas (20 and returning from an ACL tear) are ready to burst onto the scene like Hinshelwood (21) was last season. (They must hope that new 19-year-old defender Luka Vuskovic is as ready as they think, too.)

Brighton get the benefit of the doubt at this point, but they do have questions to answer. — Connelly

7. Tottenham Hotspur

Last season’s finish: 17th (41 points, minus-9 goal differential)

Key ins: DM Sandro Tonali (Newcastle United, €108 million), CM Mateus Fernandes (West Ham, €99 million), CB Jan Paul van Hecke (Brighton, €60 million), CB Marcos Senesi (Bournemouth, free), LB Andrew Robertson (Liverpool, free), GK Martin Dúbravka (Burnley, free)

Key outs: CB Luka Vuskovic (Brighton, €54 million), CF Will Lankshear (Middlesbrough, €11.70 million), CF Alejo Veliz (EC Bahia, €9 million), LW Manor Solomon (West Ham, €5.85 million), AM Alfie Devine (Preston, €5.3 million), CB Radu Drăgușin (Fiorentina, loan fee €1.5 million), RW Yang Min-Hyeok (KVC Westerlo, loan), CB Cristian Romero (Atlético Madrid, fee TBD), DM Yves Bissouma (contract expired)

Key stat

Over the course of last season, Tottenham’s adjusted goal differential (70% expected goals, 30% goals) was minus-0.3 — the 16th-worst mark in the league and just slightly better than West Ham United in 18th.

But the performances were drastically different across their three different managers:

• Thomas Frank: minus-0.29
• Igor Tudor: minus-1.1
• Roberto De Zerbi: plus-0.24

It was only seven games, but Tottenham’s level of performance under De Zerbi would’ve been right where we expect a team with Tottenham’s resources to be over the course of the whole season: sixth-best in the league.

Michallik: Tottenham will finish top 4 under De Zerbi

One big question: Are we sure Spurs are out of the woods?

Combine the performance under De Zerbi with the tons of money spent on Premier League-proven talent this summer, and everything should be good, right … right?

There are two reasons Spurs fans shouldn’t exhale just yet.

Reason 1: Teams that spend the amount of money that Tottenham has this summer — more than Real Madrid! — tend to massively underperform the following season.

The simplest explanation? The transfer market is incredibly inefficient, and so if you’re spending as much money as Tottenham have, you’re spending more inefficient money than everyone else. Plus, the same people spending all that money: they’re the ones who built the Tottenham team that finished 17th in each of the past two seasons.

Reason 2: De Zerbi is one of the most chaotic and cantankerous managers in European soccer. He left Brighton on bad terms relating to their transfer strategy, and his Marseille tenure ended after the club decided that “it was clear that the relationship between the manager and the squad was broken.”

How long will it last before something similar happens at Tottenham? — O’Hanlon

8. Brentford

Last season’s finish: ninth (53 points, +3 goal differential)

Key ins: CM Mamadou Sangare (Lens, €48 million), CB Jannik Schuster (Salzburg, €18 million), LW Jaidon Anthony (Burnley, €17.5 million), CF Callum Wilson (West Ham, free transfer)

Key outs: CM Frank Onyeka (Coventry, €7 million), CM Jordan Henderson (Chelsea, free transfer)

Key stat

Premier League teams averaged 0.16 xG per shot attempt last season; Brentford averaged 0.20, highest in the league. They averaged the shortest shot distance (13.4 meters), attempted the highest percentage of shots in the box (75.6%), attempted the lowest percentage of shots with at least two defenders between shot and goal (72.5%) and put the highest percentage of shots on target (36.3%).

Granted, the tradeoff for high shot quality was low shot quantity — they were 15th in shots per possession.

Still, no one took better shots than Igor Thiago (0.24 xG per shot, 0.18 without penalties), Kevin Schade (0.21, 0.20) & Co. Their ever-reliable set-pieces-and-directness style produced. And this season, the Bees have added more talent than they lost as well.

One big question: Is this the year that their long, slow build pays off?

According to the estimated player values at Transfermarkt — as good a source as any for such a thing — Brentford had the No. 16 roster in the Premier League in its first two seasons, then inched up to 14th for the next two seasons and 13th last year. They finished higher than their talent ranking in four of those five years, but heading into 2026-27 they’re up to 10th in player value.

With Thiago, Schade, right back Michael Kayode, center back Sepp van den Berg and others returning and midfielder Mamadou Sangare joining from Lens (who finished second in Ligue 1 last season), this could genuinely be the most talented Brentford squad that has ever existed. And Keith Andrews has thus far proved up to the task of managing this talent, too.

This club, famously led with analytics-heavy flair by owner and Smartodds founder Matthew Benham, has proved to be astute and impossibly patient. They all but qualified for Europe last season — they were one point short of a Europa League berth, and they missed out on Brighton’s Conference League spot because of a three-goal difference in goal differential. Is this the year patience pays off? — Connelly

T-9. Aston Villa

Last season’s finish: fourth (65 points, plus-7 goal differential)

Key ins: AM Johan Manzambi (Freiburg, €60 million), CM João Gomes (Wolverhampton Wanderers, €40 million), CB Modou Kéba Cissé (LASK, €5.5 million), LW Alejandro Garnacho (Chelsea, loan)

Key outs: AM Morgan Rogers (Chelsea, €138 million), CM Youri Tielemans (Manchester United, €41 million), CF Donyell Malen (Roma, €25 million), DM Enzo Barrenechea (Benfica, €12 million), LW Lewis Dobbin (Southampton, €10.5 million), LB Lucas Digne (PSG, €7 million), RB Andrés García (Getafe, loan), GK Oliwier Zych (Vitória Guimarães, loan), GK Joe Gauci (Lincoln City, loan)

Key stat

Over the past three seasons, only Arsenal and Manchester City have a bigger gap between their actual goal differential and their expected goal differential than Aston Villa do: a plus-4.4 xG differential, compared to a plus-29 goal differential.

As such, Villa have won way more points than teams with their balance of chance creation and suppression typically do:

How much of that is luck? How much of it is the personnel? And how much of it is Unai Emery’s tactics?

One big question: Can Villa handle all of the upheaval?

Villa’s arguably four best players will be gone this season: Tielemans, Digne and Rogers left via transfers, while Amadou Onana tore his ACL at the World Cup. Recent reports suggest that goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez could soon be on his way out before the end of the transfer window, too.

In a vacuum, all of those moves make sense: Digne and Tielemans have aged out of their primes, while Chelsea offered superstar money for Rogers, a player who hasn’t come close to that level of performance yet. Martinez, too, turns 34 in a couple of weeks.

Villa don’t have the revenue of the biggest clubs in the league, and the new squad-cost rules essentially require them to make all of these moves to avoid getting penalized, but it’s still so much talent to replace in one offseason. Plus, Ollie Watkins has led the team in goals for six straight seasons, and he turns 31 in December.

Add in the extra grind of Champions League matches, and this season should be Emery’s biggest challenge yet. –O’Hanlon

T-9. Newcastle United

Last season’s finish: 12th (49 points, minus-2 goal differential)

Key ins: manager Matthias Jaissle, LW Bazoumana Touré (Hoffenheim, €50 million), DM Aladji Bamba (Monaco, €35.5 million), GK Lukás Hornícek (Braga, €30.60 million), CM Sean Steur (Ajax, €23.5 million), GK Ewen Jaouen (Stade Reims, €21.5 million)

Key outs: manager Eddie Howe, DM Sandro Tonali (Tottenham, €108 million), CM Bruno Guimarães (Arsenal, €87.5 million), LW Anthony Gordon (Barcelona, €70 million), LB Matt Targett (Hull City, free), RB Kieran Trippier (Wolverhampton Wanderers, free), AM Joe White (Crewe Alexandra, fee TBD), LB Alex Murphy (1. FC Kaiserslautern, loan), RB Harrison Ashby (Luton Town, loan), RB Emil Krafth (without club), GK John Ruddy (without club)

Key stat

Over the past four Premier League seasons, these are Newcastle’s leaders across a number of key metrics:

• Goals: Alexander Isak
• Assists: Guimarães
• Passes into the penalty area: Trippier
• Successful dribbles: Guimarães
• Shots: Isak
• Expected assists: Trippier
• Expected goals: Isak

Anthony Gordon, meanwhile, ranks second in dribbles, shots and xG. He, along with the other three names listed above, no longer plays for Newcastle.

One big question: Do Newcastle know something we don’t?

Newcastle have responded to losing several key players, along with Sandro Tonali to Tottenham, by signing five players with an average age of 20. The only one older than 20 is Hornícek, who is 24 and a goalkeeper, a position with a later age curve than all of the outfield roles.

Touré, Bamba and Steur — the three outfield signings — have looked promising to start their careers, but the latter two combined for 24 total starts in Ligue 1 and the Eredivisie last season, and Touré has one full Bundesliga season under his belt. There’s a lot of risk in these deals, and more than €100 million combined is a lot to shell out for that level of uncertainty.

It has never been quite clear what the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia wants from Newcastle — on the field, at least. Off the field, they get to be a member of the most popular sports leagues in the world. But after the departures of all the players we’ve mentioned — along with manager Howe — it seems like someone decided that this would be the year the club takes a step backward and tries to rebuild. –O’Hanlon

11. Bournemouth

Last season’s finish: sixth (57 points, plus-4 goal differential)

Key ins: manager Marco Rose, CB António Silva (Benfica, €25 million), CF Álvaro Rodríguez (Elche, €25 million), RB Juanlu Sanchez (Sevilla, €11 million)

Key outs: manager Andoni Iraola (Liverpool), LW Hamed Traoré (Marseille, €7.7 million), LW Luis Sinisterra (Cruzeiro, €3.7 million), CF Enes Ünal (Getafe, free transfer), CB Marcos Senesi (Tottenham Hotspur, free transfer)

Key stat

In a league with a possession count that gets lower every season, Bournemouth comfortably averaged the fastest tempo. They had the most possessions (89.9 per match), most ball recoveries (45.4), most shots from ball recoveries (25) and highest direct speed* (1.48 meters per second) in the league.

They nearly made the Champions League playing this way, and now-former manager Iraola has said he drew inspiration from the vertical attacking of Rose’s old Borussia Monchengladbach teams. With Iraola off to Liverpool, Bournemouth quickly scooped up Rose, who spent the past year out of coaching after an up-and-down three seasons with RB Leipzig.

(* Direct speed: average meters per second that the ball advances toward the goal)

One big question: How do you move on from a run like Iraola’s?

The general consensus from an analytics perspective is that very few managers make a sustained difference in soccer. Spending and luck tend to mean more over time. Good business and high-level talent identification can make up for a lack of spending, at least in the short term — Bournemouth can certainly vouch for that — but managers matter only so much.

It won’t surprise anyone if Iraola is an exception. Bournemouth scaled to 12th, then ninth, then sixth in the league in three years with Iraola. Bournemouth! Bournemouth finished three points short of a Champions League berth! That’s one of the cooler stories imaginable, and now Rose has to clear the highest possible bar.

By typical club standards, Bournemouth mostly kept the roster intact this offseason — after losing five players worth transfer fees of €287.2 million before and during their best season ever — but we’re pretty quickly going to find out how much of the Cherries’ success was based on the talent and how much was on a particularly special manager. — Connelly

12. Nottingham Forest

Last season’s finish: 16th (44 points, minus-3 goal differential)

Key ins: manager Oliver Glasner (Crystal Palace), CB Ousmane Diomande (Sporting CP, €40 million), AM Gustavo Sá (Famalicao, €20 million), CM Xaver Schlager (RB Leipzig, free transfer)

Key outs: manager Vitor Pereira, CM Elliot Anderson (Manchester City, €135 million)

Key stat

Nottingham Forest employed four different coaches during the 2025-26 season, and each one had a different playing style from the predecessor. And when the club finally found one who could steer the team to safety in the relegation hunt — Pereira, under whom they lost only once in their last 10 league matches — owner Evangelos Marinakis fired him over the summer, too, perhaps simply out of habit.

Despite this epic amount of self-imposed instability, Forest head into 2026-27 with a proven new manager (Glasner) and a lineup that still includes Morgan Gibbs-White in attack, stalwarts Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic at the back and plenty of intriguing talent and speed on the perimeter.

But the biggest potential accomplishment this year might be standing still, letting Glasner work and landing comfortably in the middle of the table.

One big question: How will the Forest midfield operate without Anderson?

Technically, Forest added more than they subtracted this summer, and grabbing defender Diomande seemed particularly astute.

But in losing Anderson to Man City, they’ve really lost a few players in one: In league play, he rather astonishingly managed to rank first on the team in chances created (54), passes received (1,819) and completed (2,039), progressive carries (281), progressive passes (362), total carry distance (8,839 meters), fouls suffered (80), ground duels (437), ground duels won (231) and crosses completed (51). He pushed the ball into dangerous areas and, with four goals and four assists, sometimes did more than that.

He was somehow also first on the team in tackles (104), blocked passes (50) and ball recoveries in the defending third (127), middle third (154) and attacking third (25). He went everywhere and did everything, and he leaves about three different sets of cleats for players such as Gibbs-White, Ibrahim Sangaré, Schlager and perhaps Nicolás Domínguez and Ryan Yates to fill. — Connelly

13. Everton

Last season’s finish: 13th (49 points, minus-3 goal differential)

Key ins: RW Brennan Johnson (Crystal Palace, €25.8 million), AM Merlin Röhl (Freiburg, €25 million), LW Tyrique George (Chelsea, €21 million), DM Hayden Hackney (Middlesbrough, €19.3 million), DM Christian Nørgaard (Arsenal, €8.15 million)

Key outs: LW Dwight McNeil (Crystal Palace, €25.8 million), DM Idrissa Gueye (Al-Diriyah, free), CM Tyler Onyango (Sheffield Wednesday, free), RB Séamus Coleman (contract expired)

Key stat

Over the past two seasons, new Everton signing Hackney led the Championship in line-breaking passes through the opposition midfield and through the opposition defense. In the Premier League last year, the only player on Everton to rank in the top 15 for midfield breaking passes was Jordan Pickford, who is a goalkeeper.

Meanwhile, no one on the club ranked in the top 30 in the league for passes breaking through the defensive line.

One big question: Will David Moyes turn this Everton team over?

The Toffees spent €130 million on transfer fees last summer, but only one of the acquisitions, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, broke the 2,000-minute mark in the league.

Despite bringing in a bunch of new, younger players, Everton remained the third-oldest team in the league, per FBref’s average age weighted by minutes played. With the departure of 35-year-old Gueye, it’ll be close to impossible for them not to get a little bit younger this season, but Moyes has to start turning this into whatever the next version of Everton is going to be.

Given how close they’ve been to relegation in recent years, that’s a scary thought. But that’s the balance your manager has to find in order to keep the team alive. If you take too many risks and play too many younger players, then you might get relegated.

But if you hang onto the veterans too long, the same thing could happen — without any of the upside you get from turning into a younger team. This club hasn’t finished inside the top 10 since 2019. After the past two summers, Everton have more than enough peak and pre-peak talent to build something new … and build toward something better. –O’Hanlon

14. Leeds United

Last season’s finish: 14th (47 points, minus-7 goal differential)

Key ins: GK James Trafford (Manchester City, €46.7 million), CB Tarik Muharemovic (Sassuolo, €37.0 million), RW Harry Wilson (Fulham, free transfer)

Key outs: CB Pascal Struijk (Brighton, €23.2 million), LW Jack Harrison (New England, €1 million)

Key stat

From Dec. 1 through the end of the season — not a full-season sample, but a pretty big one — Leeds ranked seventh in points per game (1.44), seventh in goal differential (plus-5) and ninth in xG differential (plus-2.23).

Though Sunderland drew headlines for finishing seventh and earning a Europa League spot in their first season after promotion, Leeds were the superior promoted team for a healthy percentage of the season.

They forced mistakes and high turnovers — in this period, they scored 17 goals from high turnovers, and no one else topped 13 — but they were able to avoid overextending themselves and getting torn apart in transition. Daniel Farke crafted a unique combination of direct play and selective pressure, and it paid off.

One big question: Will the same approach work twice for Leeds?

Farke indeed found a fun mix of intensity without overexposure, and Leeds finished comfortably above the drop zone because of it. But teams know what to expect now, and the club is basically bringing the same roster back aside from a potential upgrade at goalkeeper — Trafford was dynamite at Burnley in 2024-25 before mostly sitting at Manchester City last season — and a Struijk-for-Muharemovic trade at center back.

Farke was perhaps a little too reliant on stellar scoring from injury-prone forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin and chance creation from injury-prone midfielder Anton Stach. Calvert-Lewin was particularly important: Leeds averaged 1.37 points per game when he started, and 0.75 when he didn’t.

Can players such as Noah Okafor and the incoming Wilson ease the scoring load a bit? Can Ethan Ampadu, Brenden Aaronson & Co. keep timing their pressure this well? Did the club need to add a couple more pieces to keep things fresh? — Connelly

15. Crystal Palace

Last season’s finish: 15th (45 points, minus-10 goal differential)

Key ins: manager Pierre Sage, LW Dwight McNeil (Everton, €25.8 million), RB Óscar Mingueza (Celta de Vigo, free), CB Takehiro Tomiyasu (Ajax, free)

Key outs: manager Oliver Glasner, CB Maxence Lacroix (Chelsea, €60.7 million), RW Brennan Johnson (Everton, €25.8 million), RB Danny Imray (Wrexham, €6.6 million), GK Owen Goodman (Dundee, loan), LB Rio Cardines (Bristol City, loan), RB Nathaniel Clyne (contract expired)

Key stat

Last season, three players in the Premier League added at least 10 goals with their non-shooting on-ball actions, per Stats Perform’s expected possession value added metric. One was Jeremy Doku, who is essentially a free pass into the other team’s penalty area.

Another one was Bruno Fernandes, who set the Premier League record for assists in a single season. And the third was a guy who wasn’t even selected for his country’s World Cup squad:

After the departures of Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze, Marc Guehi and Lacroix in recent seasons, Adam Wharton is Palace’s one remaining star.

One big question: How much of this was Oliver Glasner’s magic?

Over the past five seasons, Palace have had three full-time managers. Here’s how the team performed under each one, per their adjusted goal differential:

• Patrick Vieira: minus-0.13
• Roy Hodgson: minus-0.08
• Glasner: plus-0.21

How much of that comes down to Glasner’s special abilities as a manager? And how much of it comes down to the fact that his teams featured players who were eventually acquired by Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea? The fact that Glasner made, at best, a lateral move to Nottingham Forest this summer suggests that the rest of the soccer world believes the second question is the more important one. Even so, it doesn’t change the fact that none of those players is on the team that new manager Sage just inherited. — O’Hanlon

16. Fulham

Last season’s finish: 11th (52 points, plus-4 goal differential)

Key ins: manager Alvaro Arbeloa, CF Gonzalo García (Real Madrid, €40 million), DM Shea Charles (Southampton, €30.4 million), AM César Palacios (Real Madrid, €10 million), CF Jonah Kusi-Asare (Bayern Munich, €6 million)

Key outs: manager Marco Silva, CM Saša Lukić (Ipswich Town, €10.5 million), CB Issa Diop (Ipswich Town, €10 million), RW Harry Wilson (Leeds United, free), CF Raúl Jiménez (Wolverhampton Wanderers, free), GK Steven Benda (contract expired)

Key stat

For the past couple seasons, I had been writing the same thing: This team was too old, but Silva kept finding a way to make it all work just well enough.

Ahead of the 2026-27 campaign, though, only half of that remains true. Last season, Fulham were the oldest team in the league, with an average age weighted by minutes played of 28.1. But Silva’s contract wasn’t renewed after the season, and he left to go manage Benfica.

One big question: Alvaro Arbeloa, really?

It kind of seemed like Arbeloa blew his one shot to be a manager last season. Real Madrid fired Xabi Alonso once the players refused to keep pressing, and he couldn’t figure out a way to make it still work.

But under Arbeloa, the team got significantly worse in every way: fewer points, fewer shots, fewer xG, fewer touches inside the box, less pressing, more shots allowed, more xG allowed and more touches inside the box allowed. Oh, and things got so bad in the locker room that Federico Valverde had to miss El Clasico with a concussion he suffered from a multiday fight with teammate Aurélien Tchouaméni in the training room.

So, Arbeloa failed on and off the field — and now not only is he managing Fulham, but he is seemingly being given a large say in who the team acquires. Two of the four signings this summer are players Arbeloa managed when he was running Real Madrid’s B team. I am very confused. — O’Hanlon

17. Sunderland

Last season’s finish: seventh (54 points, minus-6 goal differential)

Key ins: RB Thomas Meunier (Lille, free transfer)

Key outs: CF Eliezer Mayenda (Rennes, €22 million)

Key stat

Stats can be such killjoys. They turn cool stories into mirages.

In 2024-25, Nottingham Forest finished seventh in the Premier League table despite ranking 13th in xG differential and 16th in average xG differential in losses — they either won by a little or lost by a lot, and it was a sign that maybe their results didn’t match their quality. The next season, while balancing Europa League play with domestic regression to the mean, they plummeted to 16th in the league.

Sunderland, meanwhile, finished seventh in the table last season despite ranking 18th in the league in xG differential and 19th in xGD in losses. They had a negative xGD in 25 games but won five of those and drew in another eight. Meanwhile, eight of their 12 losses came by multiple goals, including a 5-0 thumping against Forest and 3-0 losses to Arsenal, Manchester City and Brentford.

It was a thrill to have the Black Cats — and the Stadium of Light crowd — back in the top division, and we’ll get to see them in the Europa League this coming season as well. But virtually any indicator you choose suggests they’re due some utterly massive regression.

One big question: Who will jazz up the Sunderland attack?

When Sunderland ran into problems last season, it was typically because of a meager attack. Forwards Brian Brobbey and Wilson Isidor had their moments, and Enzo Le Fée and Granit Xhaka each had six assists, but Sunderland ranked 17th in shots per possession, 17th in xG per shot and, predictably, 17th in goals.

And now they have to figure out how to create more advantages while potentially spreading themselves thin in the Europa League, and with no new signings up front (unless you count winger Simon Adingra, who scored three goals on loan with Monaco in the second half of last season). This is going to be a challenge. — Connelly

18. Coventry City

Last season’s finish: first in the Championship (95 points, plus-52 goal differential)

Key ins: CM Caleb Yirenkyi (Nordsjaelland, €27 million), GK Carl Rushworth (Brighton, €25.7 million), RW Loum Tchaouna (Burnley, €23 million), CB Aurèle Amenda (Eintracht Frankfurt, €18 million), CF Taiwo Awoniyi (Nottingham Forest, €10.5 million), CM Frank Onyeka (Brentford, €7 million), CM Gustavo Hamer (Sheffield United, €7 million)

Key outs: none

Key stat

Coventry ranked first in the 2025-26 Championship in goals scored, first in goals allowed and first in xG differential. Sure, they played a version of the type of possession game that doesn’t always translate against the massive talent upgrade of the Premier League — they were first in shot attempts per possession (0.13), second in combined progressive passes and carries (115.7 per game), third in pass completion rate (81.4%) and fourth in possession rate (55.0%).

But there’s no question who the best team in England’s second division was last season. And with a wealth of athletic and age-appropriate signings, there’s reason for Coventry fans to be optimistic about surviving a season in the Premier League.

That said, this is still a really, really big leap.

One big question: Who will bring directness to the table?

After two straight seasons in which all three promoted teams went straight back down, Sunderland and Leeds both survived with directness.

They both ranked in the league’s top five in average pass distance and percentage of forward passes, and while they had different intentions in doing so — Leeds were looking for quick-strike opportunities, but Sunderland were often seeking to simply get the ball out of dangerous areas — they were both good enough at it to make directness and urgency work for them.

Frank Lampard’s side didn’t play that game last season. Coventry’s controlled possession approach worked beautifully and should have its moments of both attractive play (thanks to attacking midfielder Ephron Mason-Clark, midfielder Victor Torp and others) and brute-force crosses-and-chaos play (three players, including forwards Ellis Simms and Haji Wright, had at least three headed goals last season).

But they’ll need to force the issue and play with verticality at times, and we won’t know they can do it until we see it.

19. Ipswich Town

Last season’s finish: second in the English Championship (84 points, plus-33 goal differential), automatic promotion

Key ins: manager Gary O’Neil, CF Emersonn (Toulouse, €28 million), RW Abdul Fatawu (Leicester City, €23.45 million), DM Florentino (Burnley, €18.7 million), CM Saša Lukić (Fulham, €10.5 million), CB Issa Diop (Fulham, €10 million), GK Kjell Scherpen (Union SG, €10 million), LW Daizen Maeda (Celtic, €9.4 million), CF Chuba Akpom (Ajax, €9.3 million), CB Cédric Kipré (Stade Reims, €4.5 million), GK Kayne van Oevelen (FC Volendam, €4 million)

Key outs: manager Kieran McKenna, GK Arijanet Murić (Sassuolo, €7 million), CB Elkan Baggott (Millwall, €1.17 million), RW Wes Burns (Leicester City, €90K), AM Conor Chaplin (Leicester City, free), LB Conor Townsend (West Brom, free), GK Cieran Slicker (Barnsley, loan), RB Ashley Young (retired)

Key stat

In case you’re still wondering how much the financial gap between the Premier League and the rest of Europe has warped the landscape, take a look at this. The four clubs with the biggest negative net spends this summer — transfer fees received minus transfer fees paid — are Chelsea, Real Madrid, Arsenal and Ipswich Town.

As of now, Ipswich Town have spent €115.49 million more than they’ve received. And with a rumored return for Strasbourg’s Julio Enciso, among others, it seems like that number is only going to get bigger between now and the end of the summer.

One big question: What will happen without Kieran McKenna?

It’s impossible to talk about Ipswich Town and McKenna without each other.

The club hadn’t been in the Premier League since 2002, and midway through the 2021 season it was just a middling third-division side. Then Ipswich hired McKenna away from Manchester United and everything kept getting better. They were promoted to the Championship in his first full season in charge. Then they were promoted to the Premier League in his second season. They were demoted from the Premier League in his third season, but then they were promoted back to the Premier League in his fourth.

Though we tend to give managers too much credit and too much blame for team performance, the cause-and-effect here seems pretty clear. It’s not as if McKenna inherited a sleeping giant chock-full of talent. The only major departures during his tenure were Omari Hutchinson‘s move to Nottingham Forest and Liam Delap‘s switch to Chelsea last summer. He, of course, still got the club promoted again after they both left.

McKenna left the club after the 2026-26 season and that, perhaps, explains all of the summer business: Ipswich can’t rely on their manager to make the team better anymore. — O’Hanlon

20. Hull City

Last season’s finish: sixth in the English Championship (73 points, plus-4 goal differential), promoted via playoff

Key ins: CB Nobel Mendy (Rayo Vallecano, €23.4 million), GK Konstantinos Tzolakis (Olympiacos, €23.3 million), CB Lucas Herrington (Colorado Rapids, €14.8 million), CM Jens Hjertø-Dahl (Tromsø IL, €9.5 million), GK Jack Butland (Rangers, €3.5 million), LM Elliot Stroud (Mjällby AIF, €2.5 million), CM Hidemasa Morita (Sporting CP, free), LB Matt Targett (Newcastle United, free), DM Óscar Zambrano (NK Maribor, fee TBD)

Key outs: GK Ivor Pandur (Rangers, €7 million), CF Kyle Joseph (Middlesbrough, €4.70 million), RW Abu Kamara (Portsmouth, €2.9 million), CB Akin Famewo (Bolton Wanderers, €585K), AM Kasey Palmer (Luton Town, €580K), AM Harry Vaughan (Bohemians, free), CF Mason Burstow (Sheffield Wednesday, loan), GK Thimothée Lo-Tutala (Colchester United, loan), GK Harvey Cartwright (Grimsby Town, loan)

Key stat

The Stats Perform database has 13 full Championship seasons with advanced stats. We know this doesn’t happen, but if the three best teams were promoted to the Premier League every season, we’d expect most of the 39 promoted teams to rank somewhere inside the top 40 or 50 teams since 2013-14 by adjusted goal differential. Coventry and Ipswich landed inside the top 20 with their performances last season.

As for Hull City? They rank 235th. This is — by far — the worst team that has been promoted to the Premier League in the modern era.

One big question: How much does it matter?

Historically, it does not matter.

There is almost no correlation between performance in the Championship and subsequent performance in the Premier League for promoted teams. Some of the worst Championship teams to get promoted in recent years — Sean Dyche’s Burnley, Huddersfield Town, Nottingham Forest and Sunderland — survived in Year 1. Burnley and Forest went on to have significant runs in the first division, while Sunderland just finished 10th last season.

Hull, themselves, seem to be aware of their own limitations and what the proper expectations should be. Rather than spending a ton of money on older players who might help this season but not much beyond that, they’ve spent a reasonable amount — ranking 13th for net spend in the Premier League so far — on a bunch of players who are almost exclusively 24 or younger. They have added some veterans — Butland, Morita and Targett are all in their 30s — but for a combined fee of just €3.5 million.

This team is likely to get relegated, but it’s far from a sure thing. Their summer business aligns almost exactly with that balance: They’ve added some players who could help them right away and a bunch who could help them well beyond the upcoming season. — O’Hanlon

Gozo’s Palace move the latest step in rapid rise as USMNT attention beckons

Real Salt Lake midfielder Zavier Gozo celebrates after scoring a goal against the Portland Timbers during the first half at America First Field. Rob Gray / Imagn Images

By Paul Tenorio

Aug. 19, 2026 1:44 pm EDT

SALT LAKE CITY — Zavier Gozo and his family were walking through the concourses of a Real Salt Lake game just two years ago when the teenaged prospect’s mom, Esther, suddenly spotted someone wearing a jersey with ‘Gozo’ imprinted on the back.

The then-17-year-old played mostly for the club’s second team, the Real Monarchs, at the time, so it came as a bit of a shock to see someone with a shirt that bore his last name.

“That person has to be a fan,” she said to her young son.

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There was simply no other way they’d have a jersey of an otherwise obscure mostly-second-team player. It was such a novelty, in fact, that Esther thought it’d be nice to memorialize the moment.

“Why don’t you go up to him and say hi? I can take a video of it,” Esther said.

Gozo approached the stranger.

“Hey, nice jersey,” the winger said.

The man smiled and nodded and turned back away. Gozo’s older brother, Elijah, a former RSL academy player who played at Utah Valley University, prompted the fan with a hint.

“This is Gozo,” he said, gesturing to the shirt. “This is him.”

“Pleasure,” the man said, then turned back away again. This time the body language was clear: the interaction is over.

The Gozo brothers walked away into the awkwardness.

“Clearly the shirt was a gift,” Zavier Gozo said with a smile and a chuckle in May, sitting on a couch with his mom and brother in the living room of their family home outside of Salt Lake City.

Things have changed in the years since.

The exciting, must-watch, goal-creating star was officially transferred Tuesday night to Crystal Palace for around $15 million, the second-highest up-front fee for an MLS homegrown player behind only U.S. striker Ricardo Pepi, who went for $20 million to Augsburg. (Vancouver Whitecaps homegrown Alphonso Davies was sold for $13.5 million to Bayern Munich, a fee that eventually reached $22 million with add-ons.)

The Gozo shirt might now be the most popular at Real Salt Lake games, with fans delighting over the 19-year-old who has become the team’s bonafide star. His face was on billboards around Salt Lake. He played in the MLS All-Star Game. Interactions with fans have changed dramatically since.

On a weekend this spring, Gozo went with his girlfriend to watch her little brother play a youth soccer game. He didn’t think anything of it and sat with her on the sideline. When one of the teams scored, however, the young goalscorer sprinted to the sideline and pointed at Gozo and then did a celebration. After the game, the Real Salt Lake star was swarmed by kids and parents wanting an autograph.

“Moments like that I’m like, ‘Wow,’” Gozo said.

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The Utah native might need to get ready for getting recognized a whole lot more as a Premier League player. And, if he’s called in by U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino this fall, Gozo will no doubt become a household name for U.S. men’s national team fans.

While he played well for the U.S. under-20 team at the U-20 World Cup, Gozo has never been called into a senior national team camp. The winger is most definitely on the radar for his senior debut. He was on the supplemental roster for Pochettino’s 2026 team, meaning he was in contention for the World Cup squad, and it was clear after the tournament that the U.S. very well could have used his ability off the bench, even without previous international experience.

He has shown he’s capable of making a difference in games. The teenager had six goals and five assists in MLS before the move. Before the World Cup break, he ranked in the top 20 in MLS for goal contributions despite playing much of the season as a wingback.

For now, Gozo will head to the Premier League and look to make an impression with Palace, which finished 15th in last year’s table but also won their first European trophy: the 2025-26 UEFA Conference League.

Those around him have no doubt that he’s ready.

“He’s got the engine, he’s got the creativity and he plays both sides of the ball,” RSL teammate and two-time U.S. World Cup veteran DeAndre Yedlin told The Athletic in May. “He’s not going to cheat at all. Very, very honest player. And most importantly to me, just a very good, humble kid, which I think is the most important thing.”

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Said RSL coach and 2002 World Cup veteran Pablo Mastroeni: “You can just see that the sky is the ceiling for this young man.”

Zavier Gozo celebrates in trademark style.Rob Gray / Imagn Images

Gozo was born in West Valley City, Utah, the son of Esther and Alban, an Ivory Coast native. Both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Esther and Alban met at a college basketball game in Utah.

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Due to his Ivorian roots, Gozo grew up a huge fan of Didier Drogba. His father coached his early teams and Gozo honed his skills at home playing against his older brother.

“When I got to the academy, I was more ready than most people might have been to play and develop,” Gozo said. “Just having an older brother helped me learn things a lot faster, trying to keep up the speed and strength, because he was always stronger.”

A year after joining Real Salt Lake’s academy, he signed a pro contract with the team’s reserve side, the Real Monarchs, at the end of 2022. Gozo played 10 games for the Monarchs in 2023 and made his MLS debut as a 16-year-old, playing six minutes against the LA Galaxy. Gozo scored once for the Monarchs in that first season, then added another five goals in 2024.

His steady progression caught the eye of RSL’s first-team coaches, who brought him into the first team in 2025. Gozo played 25 games last season, starting 21, and scored four goals with three assists. An overhead-kick goal against LAFC put him on the map.

“I remember when he scored his first goal, the adrenaline rush was (so strong) I almost felt nauseous,” Esther recalled. “I was seriously buzzing that whole game. After that, it was just so exciting. He had just graduated high school that week, and it was like: to see his dreams coming true, after starting for a month, at that point it was (surreal).”

This offseason, Mastroeni started to hear stories about his teenage star showing up to the facility every day to get individual work in. RSL has an enormous indoor facility they call “The Box,” and Gozo would arrive every day to work on his 1-on-1 ability and finishing, especially with his weaker left foot. He also hit the weight room, adding 10 pounds of muscle to his 5ft 11in frame.

Gozo didn’t know that Mastroeni was getting reports about his individual work. It was meant to be a private effort. The teenager was intent on leveling up and finding that natural level of confidence on the field — something that drove him at every stage of his career prior.

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“I feel like every time I would move up age groups or levels, when I went from the academy to the Monarchs, it was kind of like I would get there on a high and then be, like, shut down (by the increase in quality) a little bit,” Gozo said. “I needed it. I need to get up to the level. And then after a couple months I’ll be like, ‘OK, this is my level now. I can be there.’ I felt the same thing from the Monarchs to the first team. I would go to the first team and have a good training, but then feel like I’m not the best player here anymore. And then I’d have to work my way up again.”

By the start of this season, though, Gozo’s confidence was oozing out of him. Mastroeni wanted Gozo to work on his final product, and that started to come through from preseason.

“Last year he created, for himself and his teammates, probably two or three big chances a game, but he was having a hard time finishing,” Mastroeni said. “In preseason I saw him come cutting into his left foot and then hitting curlers, and I’m, like, ‘Last year he didn’t even have a left foot.’ And so fast-forward to our preseason, he scored a couple goals in preseason from a wing-back position. I was like, ‘Oh my God, this guy’s really turning it up’.”

Against Atlanta United in March, he showed some of those new layers to his game, bringing the ball down out of the air in stride, dribbling at and then past a defender and onto his left foot, where he curled a shot to the far post.

One month later against Sporting Kansas City, he received a pass at the top corner of the box, flicked it up to himself and snapped a volley inside the upper corner of the far post, a brilliant finish that doubled RSL’s lead.

Gozo laughed when asked about the goal. Was the flick-up intentional?

“It was 100 percent a bad touch,” the teenager said. “Obviously I was thinking about shooting already. I wanted to shoot, just take a touch and shoot first time. But then it popped up to me, so I was just like, I have to shoot it, still. I gotta shoot it one way or another.”

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The finish spoke to the exciting element Gozo brought to the field. Gozo’s goals come in spectacular fashion, a nod to his willingness to try things. And the goals only added a layer of confidence for him and his team. Players started to look to find Gozo on the field as often as possible, and RSL moved him around the pitch, from his wingback position, to a winger role and even inside as a No. 10.

Gozo led the team in high-speed running and in sprint distances and rarely came off the field. Mastroeni pointed out that in the third game of a week earlier this season, Gozo was still “burning down the sidelines” late in games. His defensive work rate stood out. And the goals continued. He added four goals in four games across the first two weeks of May.

He had six goals and five assists in 1,417 minutes this season.

“When you put all that together, you got a guy that’s just growing technically, tactically, understanding the game, his finishing has improved, but he’s always been a physical monster,” Mastroeni said. “That’s why his ceiling is so high. And I think that translates to any league in the world. … It’s almost a cheat code. He has a real talent, plus his physical capacity.”

Through it all, Mastroeni said he was also impressed by how Gozo was handling the increased attention.

RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni has supported Zavier Gozo’s rise to prominence.Simon Fearn / Imagn Images

“He’s one of the brightest spirits,” Mastroeni said. “He’s always happy, always has a smile on his face. He exemplifies everything, and he’s just a real joy from a coaching perspective because he’s also a learner. He wants to get better, and so there’s he never has a feeling that I know everything. … He brings all the stuff that you see in the game, but he’s also just a world-class human being as well.”

Gozo’s family knew a move to Europe was inevitable. And what comes next with the senior national team will be yet another opportunity for Gozo to level his game up. It will be a lot for a kid who has lived at home in the Salt Lake area his entire career as a professional.

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During the recent visit to his house, Gozo was mingling with a childhood best friend just after training and before an interview. Those layers of comfort will be stripped away for the first time. The family planned to build support around him, with maybe his brother or mom coming out to help the transition.

“We know it’ll be a hard transition for him from going from a family home to your own place,” Esther said. “We just want to see him succeed. And however we can help him do that, I think is what we’ll want to do.”

Ahead of the World Cup, Gozo had once again found that level of confidence he is always seeking. He was playing his best soccer and was now the best player — or one of the best — at Real Salt Lake. He could “step on the field and just be me and do what I want to do with confidence.”

He knows what will come next at Palace: The same thing he experienced moving from academy to Monarchs and then from Monarchs to Real Salt Lake. A new challenge. A humbling introduction to a higher level. More motivation to push himself and find that comfort and confidence again.

For Gozo, it will be about how quickly he can fall back into the process that got him here, and on his ability to lean on the creativity and attacking mindset that pushed him to new levels this year.

“Being me is what’s going to get me farther,” he said. “I don’t know why I would shy away from doing the things that are making me succeed.”

An unpredictable Premier League returns with scope for fresh stars and new main characters

By Adam Crafton Aug. 21, 2026 Updated 7:35 am EDT

Only five weeks have passed since the World Cup final culminated at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey but the most popular domestic football league on the planet returns tonight in England.

This is a Premier League season as fascinating for those who have departed as for those who have arrived.

It was tricky enough to imagine Manchester City without Pep Guardiola but what on earth do they become without the lynchpins of his best years? Rodri, Bernardo Silva and John Stones all followed him through the exit door, and it is hard to envision that the master-planners in east Manchester hoped that Elliot Anderson, for all his potential, would be the sole arrival of substance for the opening weekend of the season.

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As for Enzo Maresca, he looks a little bit like Pep and plays a little bit like Pep, but can anyone really come close to Pep?

As for when or what may happen with those 115 alleged breaches of Premier League regulations, we are now over three years on since the Premier League, in announcing the charges, pitted itself directly against its most successful team of the past decade. City have always denied wrongoing, saying they have a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position.”

If Manchester City appear confusing, then what to make of the puzzling turn of events at St James’ Park? Eddie Howe walked out in pre-season and has been replaced by Matthias Jaissle, a 38-year-old coach whose previous experience was in Austria and Saudi Arabia. Oh, and he will be doing it without Newcastle United’s best two midfielders, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes, who have departed for Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, while Anthony Gordon swapped Tyneside for Catalonia when he headed to Barcelona at the start of the summer. Newcastle go into their opening game with six new signings, four of whom are 20 or younger.

Enzo Maresca has the unenviable task of succeeding Pep Guardiola at Manchester CityCarl Recine/Getty Images

There is unpredictability and nervous intrigue across much of the Premier League. Nine clubs have new managers, while Michael Carrick only joined Manchester United in January and Roberto De Zerbi has coached seven games at Tottenham Hotspur, so they feel pretty new too.

Andoni Iraola played the most exhilarating football in the division last season but how will he cope with the step-up in scrutiny from Bournemouth to Liverpool? Will his intense brand of football survive the rigours of European competition?

Are Aston Villa a team being ripped apart, picked off by Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal for Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers and now Ezri Konsa, or a team in exciting transition and ripe for reinvention under Unai Emery?

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Fulham have swapped five years of stability and growth under Marco Silva for a punt on Alvaro Arbeloa, whose five months in interim charge of Real Madrid left a dressing room in disarray but apparently provided enough encouragement for a passport to the Premier League.

Nottingham Forest have hired Oliver Glasner, a coach who won an FA Cup and the Conference League at Crystal Palace, as well as a Europa League at Eintracht Frankfurt, but how will he fare as the club’s fifth coach in 12 months under demanding owner Evangelos Marinakis?

Manchester United ended last season in title-competing form under Carrick, and, while incomplete, they appear to be building wisely. But how will the players respond now his position is permanent? Do they have the depth to compete when the demands extend to four competitions, having only competed in the Premier League during Carrick’s previous half-season in charge?Three storylines to watch ahead of this season

George Edwards and Rachael Tinde

Brighton & Hove Albion’s model is proven — developing well-scouted talents to produce big profits — but will they repeat the trick once more after selling Jan Paul van Hecke, Danny Welbeck and quite possibly Carlos Baleba and Yankuba Minteh?

Promoted teams Hull City and Ipswich Town have recruited at least 11 players apiece, and Frank Lampard returns to the division with Coventry City, but can any of them replicate the success of Sunderland and Leeds United last time around?

Everton appear to be constructing smartly under David Moyes, signing Hayden Hackney, last season’s Championship player of the year, as well as proven Premier League talent in Brennan Johnson and Christian Norgaard, but will results pick up after a disappointing end to last season?

That’s the thing about uncertainty: it can be dressed up as opportunity or doom-scrolled into vulnerability.

Optimism abounds at two of last season’s Premier League basket cases, where the good news is that results can, surely, only get better.

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Tottenham, repressed for so long in their spending and ambition, are suddenly flashing the cash like a slot machine, dropping £237million ($324m) already. They are set to spend £85m more on Manchester City’s Savinho. Omar Marmoush may still follow.

Chelsea have hired Xabi Alonso, one of only three coaches in the Premier League to have won a big five top-flight title (at German side Bayer Leverkusen), and they have prioritised Premier League-ready signings in Morgan Rogers and Maxence Lacroix, while adding players they hope to be standard-setters in Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck.What You Should Read NextThe Premier League’s glass ceiling: How financial rules limit many clubs’ ambitionsThe introduction of a squad-cost-ratio system has raised concerns that it increases the advantage of the ‘Big Six’

Both on the field and in the dugout, trends are emerging. Most notable is how the Premier League’s most famous clubs increasingly pillage the internal market for reliable and proven talent, rather than taking bets on cheaper or further-flung bets from across the continent or beyond.

By the end of the window, Premier League clubs will almost certainly have spent a cumulative £1billion on players from within the English top flight. Manchester United will likely spend close to £150m on three midfielders from Villa, Chelsea and Brighton. Arsenal will spend more than £120m on players from Newcastle and Villa. Chelsea have spent more than £170m on players from Villa, Brighton and Crystal Palace. Manchester City spent £116m on Anderson from Nottingham Forest. Tottenham have recruited six players, all of whom played in the Premier League last season. Two of Leeds United’s biggest summer signings, James Trafford for £40m from Manchester City and Harry Wilson on a free transfer from Fulham, are domestic recruits.

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It all underlines the perceived strength of the Premier League and how most clubs see certainty in buying from within. Coaches, knowing their window of opportunity is narrower than ever, are often less prepared to take risks. Several clubs have been stung by excessive ventures into external markets in recent years, most notably Tottenham in Italy and Manchester United’s mistakes in the Dutch league under Erik ten Hag.

Bournemouth, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sunderland are the only clubs yet to sign a senior player who played in the Premier League last season but as Liverpool track Minteh and Newcastle pursue Manchester City’s Nico Gonzalez, that will likely change.

One of the consequences of so much domestic recruitment is the absence of fresh discovery, although there is plenty of localised excitement about Switzerland’s World Cup breakout star Johan Manzambi at Villa, the Bosnian defender Tarik Muharemovic, a £34million signing at Leeds, and Mamadou Sangare, a club-record £38.5m signing for Brentford from Lens, who finished last season second to Paris Saint-Germain in France.

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After a World Cup where so many games were dominated by individual stars — albeit won by the ultimate collective in Spain — it is striking that the Premier League’s supply of world-class talent is running a little low, both on the field and in the dugout.

Mohamed Salah has departed Liverpool. Rodri has left for Barcelona. In recent years, the Premier League has lost Harry Kane, Michael Olise, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Julian Alvarez and Luis Diaz, all of whom may have made sense individually at the time, either due to contract situations or career development, but together, their departures have diminished the pool of headline names. The Premier League has only Cole Palmer and Gianluigi Donnarumma from the top 10 players to make the Ballon d’Or list in 2025.

Mohamed Salah is one of the latest big names to exit the Premier LeaguePaul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images

The Premier League still retains the most potent finisher on the planet in Erling Haaland, Bruno Fernandes remains at Manchester United, and Arsenal have the best defence in world football. And their respective clubs will hope there is substantial growth yet in players such as Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Matheus Cunha, Cole Palmer, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz.

Alvarez may of course yet return to the competition should Arsenal get their way and prise him from Atletico Madrid. Arsenal have worked hardest to add definitive star power to the league, having tried and failed to recruit Vinicius Junior from Real Madrid this summer.

The Premier League’s best performers over the years, it should be said, have tended to be developed after arriving at English clubs rather than signed as bona fide superstars, with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich usually seen as final-destination clubs.What You Should Read Nextanking the 50 best players in the Premier League before the season beginsOnce a month throughout the 2026-27 season, we will update this list, showing the risers, the fallers, the new entries and the dropouts…

Where the Premier League does differ this season, however, is in the coaches of its leading teams.

Only 10 years ago, the Premier League began a season with Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp, Mauricio Pochettino, Antonio Conte and Arsene Wenger across its ‘Big Six’ clubs, all of whom, with the exception of Pochettino, had top-flight league titles to their name. The Premier League had become the galactico home of the world’s best coaches, the individuals who made the Premier League, and even its pre-match press conferences, feel unmissable.

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Yet this season begins with a selection of coaches who, while stacked with potential, are short of elite medals and whose mythology is yet to be written. Those same ‘Big Six’ teams are now coached by men aged between 44 and 47, and only Arteta has a Premier League title as a coach.

In this regard, it is not that the Premier League is not attracting elite coaches, merely that the clubs have cycled at rapid speed through so many of the contenders to spearhead a new dominance. Ten Hag, Ruben Amorim, Arne Slot, Thomas Frank, Graham Potter and Ange Postecoglou were all spoken about as innovators, only to find that the burning spotlight of the Premier League can break reputations as rapidly as it makes them.

Almost seven years into his reign, Arteta must sense an opportunity to not only defend his Premier League title but also push on to a period of extended dominance. Aside from the Arsenal manager, only the reigns of Emery at Villa and Daniel Farke at Leeds have exceeded three years.

With this young generation of coaches, it begs the question of which, if any, will emerge as the new main characters of the Premier League, offering up the sideshows, barbs and rivalries that provide the necessary theatre to any sporting season. Who might emerge as the provocateur of the Premier League touchline and who might cast dark aspersions in press conferences? Will one coach step from the shadows and be the conscience of a league whose moral compass can often be found wanting?

For all the flux, there is no suggestion that the Premier League is ceding popularity, wealth or market share. The power of the Premier League is that, even in emerging global markets, the attachment remains — not only to individual players or one-off coaches, but to clubs who have parked their lawns on television screens across the globe. And as former heroes depart, space is created for the next generation of defining characters to come forward.

Adam Crafton is a British journalist based in New York City, having relocated from London in 2024. He primarily covers soccer for The Athletic. In 2024, he was named the Sports Writer of the Year by the Sports’ Journalist Association, after winning the Young Sports Writer of the Year award in 2018