With the first month of the 2025/26 Premier League season in the books, the big clubs in the English top flight are figuring out how their new-look squads are taking shape, especially after finalizing deadline day transfers on Sept. 1.
Over the international break, managers around the Premier League will be busy tweaking their tactics in response to what they saw over the first three matchdays of the campaign
Here is the biggest problem every Big Six club in the Premier League needs to address during the 2025/26 season, based on a combination of preconceived notions before the campaign began and what transpired across the first three fixtures.
Manchester United
Ruben Amorim’s rigid marriage to his 3-4-3 system has been well-documented, though the Portuguese manager has shown signs of tweaking things after the bottom fell out of the Red Devils with their embarrassing early exit to Grimsby Town in the League Cup.
But if anything, that defeat on penalties only reinforced the notion, to Amorim’s comfort, that a lot of the rot at Manchester United is on the players and culture, and the latter is something Amorim can – and has been – actively addressing.
The biggest impediment to Manchester United winning games is the midfield. There is a clear lack of structure and identity in how Manchester United play, and a lot of that stems from a disorganized unit in the middle of the park.
Moving Bruno Fernandes back from the 10 role hasn’t necessarily helped matters, but not everything is a tactical issue. Players like Manuel Ugarte and Mason Mount have underperformed the minute they arrived at Old Trafford, failing to live up to their price tags or pedigrees.
The real key man to watch, though, is disgruntled defensive midfielder Kobbie Mainoo, who proved decisive in 2023/24 as a breakout star and was vital to Man United even making it to the Europa League the following season.
After wanting away this summer transfer window, Mainoo ended up staying, and Amorim and the Red Devils need to have a plan hatched to get the most out of their squad’s best 6/8.
Tottenham
Tottenham did address their own midfield issues in three different ways. They signed Joao Palhinha on loan to add real Premier League experience and defensive steel to the 6 position, Thomas Frank is now bringing the best out of Pape Sarr’s strengths in the middle of the park, and attacking midfielder Xavi Simons is ready to integrate into the XI as one of the team’s new star players.
Problematically, Tottenham didn’t fully address their attacking needs. The mercurial Richarlison showed his best sides in the first two games but then regressed horribly against Bournemouth, reminding Spurs fans that it’s too difficult to rely on him every week.
Tottenham struggled to score goals last season, and after losing their best scorer in Son Heung-min to the MLS, Spurs didn’t actually replace him on the left wing either.
That’s still going to be the biggest problem for Tottenham in 2025/26 under Frank: they just don’t have enough star power in the attack, specifically when it comes to having a player who can reliably finish off chances. The Harry Kane-sized hole remains gaping.
Chelsea
Few clubs have been as impressive to start the 2025/26 Premier League season as Chelsea, who made a host of smart investments this summer transfer window with the focus more on signing undervalued ascending players.
Those players, especially Joao Pedro and Estevao Willian, already look like game-changers for a Club World Cup-winning Chelsea side that now has legitimate designs on challenging Liverpool for the Premier League title.
Although Trevoh Chalobah and Tosin Adarabioyo have been brilliant to start the season defensively, Chelsea’s biggest concern is going to be the back line and goalkeeper positions, given how unpredictable Robert Sanchez can be in between the sticks.
Levi Colwill’s injury hasn’t bitten Chelsea in the behind as badly as many thought, but it’s very early in the season. Furthermore, Chelsea’s build-up play has suffered without Colwill, and though Tosin is a great passer of the football, over the course of a full season, it remains unclear if the current Chelsea back line sans Colwill or any major summer transfer upgrades can maintain an elite level of play next to fellow title contenders Liverpool and Arsenal.
Manchester City
Manchester City have a lot to be concerned about after getting dominated by Tottenham Hotspur at home before dropping all three points again to dangerous underdogs Brighton.
The Citizens have been blowing games left and right since the start of the 2024/25 season, as Pep Guardiola cuts an increasingly forlorn figure on the Manchester City bench.
Don’t count on the ambitious Pep giving up any time soon, but you do have to wonder if his ideas are either falling on listless ears or if they have simply passed the game by.
Although Manchester City brought in Tijjani Reijnders, they failed to actually upgrade their midfield and defense substantially from a structural standpoint, and the foundational pieces of the team remain severely diminished, as exposed thoroughly by both Tottenham and Brighton.
The Manchester City squad isn’t as stable as Arsenal’s, Liverpool’s, or even Chelsea’s when looking at the midfield pillars, and with so many larger-than-life legends gone – legends that Guardiola may have taken for granted because of his own tactical prowess – Man City are realizing they are now a step below championship material.
Arsenal
Arsenal’s biggest enemy is slowly becoming Mikel Arteta. Although Gabriel Martinelli’s frustrating hesitancy has become a weak point at the highest level of the game – and, in truth, he hasn’t been great outside of one season a few years ago – Arteta doesn’t have as many excuses this season after another hefty transfer window.
The Gunners brought in his dream No. 6 in Martin Zubimendi to stack the midfield further, they stole Eberechi Eze from under rival Tottenham’s noses to add more creativity to the team, he has that shiny new No. 9 in 38-goal Sporting CP striker Viktor Gyokeres, and Arsenal also stole away winger Noni Madueke from Chelsea.
That’s not even mentioning the fact that Arsenal have two of the best homegrown young talents in the Premier League rising through the ranks between Ethan Nwaneri and Max Dowman, who both make Martinelli’s struggles nearly a moot point.
Arteta has all the pieces he needs and more than any of his predecessors ever got, so if Arsenal come nowhere near the Premier League title this season and can’t win a significant trophy, a lot more fingers are going to be pointed at a manager whose initial disciplinarian approach was effective but has now become grating with the Gunners needing to get over the line.
His overly defensive approach against Liverpool, yet again, reeked of the sort of thing an unqualified and frightened mid-table manager would do. The excuses from Arteta are wearing thin, and the way he is throwing players under the bus for his own poor leadership is alarming.
Liverpool
Liverpool don’t have a whole lot of concerns on paper, but maybe their biggest problem that could happen is something that is familiar to one of their big Champions League rivals, Real Madrid.
In 2023/24, Real Madrid were on top of European football, won La Liga convincingly, conquered the Champions League, and then thought they’d dominate everyone again in 2024/25 after landing Kylian Mbappe.
Instead, their squad was completely destabilized, everyone from the manager to the players became complacent, and the big stars of the team got inflated egoes and stopped working hard for each other.
Now, it’s hard to envision a team like Liverpool so early in the Arne Slot project devolving into that situation, and unlike last season’s Real Madrid, they still have a lot of key leaders left in the XI in Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk, and Mohamed Salah.
But Liverpool did overhaul their squad and bring in a lot of new faces, especially into the attack, and any time you make a lot of chances, you run the risk of changing too many things in a team that was already great.
That leads to adjustment periods, players learning how to play with each other, and even issues of effort and intensity from attacking players defensively. That’s something Liverpool need to be aware of, and it’s the job of Slot to do much better than, say Ancelotti at Madrid last season, and keep his players motivated with their eyes on the prize in succeeding as a functional unit.
Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2011. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has contributed to sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. Joe’s work has appeared in ESPN, Bleacher Report, and Sports Illustrated. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling, respectively.