No more excuses for Arsenal? Do Chelsea have a title-winning squad? Was last season a blip for Man City? We look at the key talking points for the campaign ahead
It may be recency bias, but I cannot remember a Premier League season when there were four clubs that have meaningful title-winning ambitions. Liverpool are the champions but have rebuilt parts of the squad, Arsenal have no excuses, Manchester City must respond after an off year and Chelsea are champions of the world. That alone will be fascinating.
Below them, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are seeking an immediate response to their worst Premier League seasons while Aston Villa and Newcastle United will consider themselves still well-placed to be better than both. Then comes the overachievers, still requiring reinforcements but keen to rely upon what worked in 2024-25: Brighton, Nottingham Forest, Brentford, Bournemouth.
At the bottom, the last six promoted clubs to the Premier League were all relegated after one season but Leeds United have historic weight and Sunderland have spent heavily to try to bridge a gap that has become chasmic.
As The Score returns for another season of Premier League action, Daniel Storey has asked (and attempted to answer) one question that surrounds each club on the eve of a new campaign…
Arsenal – Can they deal with a ‘no excuse’ season?
It’s time for Mikel Arteta to deliver the prizes which matter most (Photo: Getty)
Only two managers in the Premier League have been in charge of their club for five years or more. One is Pep Guardiola, a serial winner with a club that has monstrous spending power. The other is Mikel Arteta, whose only major trophy is an FA Cup that was now more than half a decade ago.
The competition and spending power of others once gave Arteta perfectly reasonable reasons to see challenging for the title as sufficient progress. Spending almost £200m on Viktor Gyokeres, Martin Zubimendi, Noni Madueke, Cristhian Mosquera and Christian Norgaard decrees that the leeway has evaporated. Arsenal must now see second place as a caveated failure, not a reason to celebrate.
It will not be simple, obviously. But the signing of an elite-level centre forward, so often held up as the missing piece, determines as much. Arsenal have excellent backup in every position to enable cup rotation (something Arteta has been criticised for not doing) and can avoid the tendency last season to overplay in the final third without creating (fifth for chances created, 75 behind Liverpool).
Aston Villa – Can enough other players chip in with goals?
Last season, Villa were the joint-lowest goalscorers in the top half of the Premier League. That wasn’t the fault of their best attacking players: Ollie Watkins got 24 goals and assists and Morgan Rogers got 18 (although that counts goals where they were both involved twice).
The issue was depth. Look at the number of players who scored more than three goals at each of the top seven clubs: Liverpool – 7, Arsenal – 8, Manchester City – 7, Chelsea – 6, Newcastle – 8, Nottingham Forest – 5. For Villa, only three players managed it and one of those (Jhon Duran) left in January. The signing of Evann Guessand might well help matters – he can effectively replace Duran as a Watkins backup who may well start in lesser European matches and domestic cup competitions.
But the key lies in Unai Emery squeezing more goals out of Donyell Malen and hoping that the dominant centre-backs can contribute from attacking set pieces (the four central defenders managed two goals between them in the league last season). Remember that this squad has also lost Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford from the second half of last season.
Bournemouth – Can Iraola rebuild the defence?
Every non-elite club plans for bigger, richer clubs targeting their players post-overachievement, but I can’t believe that the plan for Bournemouth was to lose Ilya Zabarnyi, Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez in the same window. Add in the arrival of Djordje Petrovic, a highly-rated goalkeeper but with just one-and-a-half seasons in European football, and mass uncertainty would be forgiven.
Bournemouth flourished last season through the success of their high pressing following losing possession in the opposition half, but that was platformed by a confidence in an elite defence to cope if the press was bypassed (only five teams conceded fewer goals). As it stands, the likely defence at Anfield reads: Adrien Truffert, Marcos Senesi, Bafode Diakite/James Hill and Adam Smith. I don’t see how that copes in the same way, at least over the first two months of the season
Iraola will certainly be permitted to bring in further replacements before the end of August, but that doesn’t alleviate the worry here. Without a full pre-season to work on out-of-possession patterns with those players, and with Liverpool, Brighton, Tottenham and Newcastle to play in their first league matches, can Bournemouth hold their own until this back four and goalkeeper have been rebuilt and acclimatised?
Brentford – Can Andrews cope with a slow start?
I deeply admire the Brentford model of appointing from within and they were clearly not totally surprised that Thomas Frank attracted interest from elsewhere. Keith Andrews has at least had the entire pre-season and reports suggest he is very popular with players.
But even Frank would have struggled to cope with the loss of Bryan Mbeumo (creativity, goals), Christian Norgaard (leadership, solidity in midfield) and Yoane Wissa (also creativity, goals) attempting to force through a move.
Last season, the first half of Brentford’s season was saved by their prodigious home form. Andrews’ first six home opponents as a manager are Aston Villa, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Newcastle. If he starts slowly, as that run of games suggests is eminently possible, will Brentford avoid panicking and can Andrews turn the tide back round?
Brighton – Can a young attack provide consistency?
Last season, Brighton were brilliant at sharing goals across the squad. Only four clubs in the Premier League scored more goals despite no Brighton player managing more than 10.
But Danny Welbeck turns 35 in November (and has to slow down eventually), Joao Pedro has been sold to Chelsea and Evan Ferguson and Simon Adingra have also left. In Pedro’s place, Brighton have 19-year-old Stefanos Tzimas (returning from loan in Germany) and 18-year-old Charalampos Kostoulas (signed from Olympiakos). Georginio Rutter is 23, but he only scored five times in the league last season.
The question here is whether an attack comprising of one very senior striker and other novice forwards will be able to repeat the trick of 2024-25. Much will depend on Welbeck’s ability to keep on keeping on and Kaoru Mitoma chipping in even more regularly than before.
Burnley – Where are the goals coming from?
This isn’t the only time we will ask this question of a promoted club, but Burnley do currently look the least prepared of the three to score enough goals to stay up. Josh Brownhill leaving means the top goalscorer from last season in this squad is Zian Flemming. That isn’t going to cut it.
Scott Parker engineered a promotion last season thanks to an impeccable defensive record, conceding a ludicrously low 16 times in 46 matches. But even if Burnley can manage to concede only 55 times in the Premier League (the best of any promoted club over the last two seasons is their own 78 in 2023-24), they’re going to have to find a goalscorer.
As it stands, their most likely answer is Armando Broja, who has eight goals in 76 Premier League matches. It is surely not enough.
Chelsea – Is this a title-challenging squad?
Joao Pedro has made a fast start to life at Stamford Bridge (Photo: Getty)
A title challenge has to be on the agenda now. Chelsea have spent almost £1.5bn on transfer fees alone since June 2022. Whatever the age profile of the majority of those players, you don’t get to claim patience for too long with that level of outlay. Victory at the Club World Cup only adds fuel to that same fire.
And yet, Cole Palmer aside, it is a squad that still raises more questions than answers. The best way of analysing it is thus: if you take all of Chelsea’s left wingers and combine them, you have one truly elite player. Do the same on the right wing, the same. Do it with the strikers, the same. Do it with the fit central defenders, yep. I’m still not sold on Robert Sanchez and I still don’t know exactly how the central midfielders best combine as a two (or at least without leaving out Enzo Fernandez).
Maybe Enzo Maresca will surprise us as he did in the US. Maybe the momentum of April, May, June and July will progress seamlessly into August and beyond. But Chelsea have played 64 matches since the start of last season and it’s still hard to identify exactly how this all fits together.
Crystal Palace – Can a small squad deal with Europe?
The European football/Uefa/CAS saga hung over most coverage of Crystal Palace this summer, but underneath that is the growing sense that Oliver Glasner is unhappy at his club’s work in the transfer market.
“You can’t run a business where you’re always reacting,” Glasner said this weekend. “You can but you’ll never have long-term success. You have to be active and plan what’s going on… My expertise and my advice is what Crystal Palace should do to be competitive in four competitions. If we want to be better than last year, then let’s sign at least two players.”
You can see his point. While Marc Guehi and Eberechi Eze continue to be linked with moves away from Selhurst Park, 11 players appeared in more than 40 matches for Palace last season and that workload is only going to increase with European football. None of those 11 players are aged under 24. That shift to Thursday-Sunday football is a new factor and it is tough.
Everton – Will Moyes enable greater attacking freedom?
David Moyes immediately led Everton away from their nightmare scenario: relegation in their final Goodison Park season and Championship football at Hill Dickinson Stadium. But in March and April, over a seven-game period, they scored four goals and there were signs of why some supporters were not convinced Moyes could do more than fight fire.
That could now change. The major signings this summer are Thierno Barry, Jack Grealish and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, three attacking arrivals that can support the brilliant Iliman Ndiaye, the improved Beto and Dwight McNeil. The creative players are now the strongest element of this squad.
Moyes must allow that creativity to shine because those players are at their best in an environment of quick passing and space to run into. If Everton get stodgy again, the whole team suffers.
Fulham – Do you actually need new players?
Fulham are setting themselves up as the Premier League’s control experiment club. So far this summer they have allowed two players to leave on free transfers (Carlos Vinicius and Willian) and signed a reserve goalkeeper for less than £500,000.
And… that might be OK? Marco Silva has a squad that finished in 11th place, 29 points above the bottom three. They do not have European football to contend with, unlike nine other teams in the league. They have a close-knit, smallish squad that will back itself to finish in roughly the same position in roughly the same style.
Is this wildly exciting at a time when ticket prices are astronomical to attract one-time fans? No. Will it keep Fulham up on the cheap and then allow them to spend more next summer (if they choose to)? Quite possibly.
Leeds – Where are the goals coming from?
As with Burnley, it is really not easy to see how Leeds are going to score 40 league goals this season without significantly adding the squad in the second half of August. Daniel Farke has recruited several giants to play in midfield and defence, but Leeds basically have their Championship forward line.
Joel Piroe did score 19 league goals last season, but supporters are less than convinced he can make the step up. The next two highest scorers were Manor Solomon and Daniel James, both of whom have had a crack at the Premier League (including at big clubs) and one of whom has returned to his parent club.
Leeds had 755 shots in the league last season, 95 more than any other Championship team. They scored 23 times more than any other club. They were irrepressible. And I am still worried about the goalscoring. That is the gap between English football’s top two tiers.
Liverpool – How do you balance the attacking full-backs?
Jeremie Frimpong joined Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen for £29.5m in July (Photo: Getty)
Liverpool’s 2024-25 title was earned through the control that Arne Slot oversaw so soon after joining. Liverpool scored first in 25 games and won 21 of them. Their midfield worked seamlessly to allow the front three to stay high and for Trent Alexander-Arnold to invert with the ball and let a central midfielder push high.
This summer, Liverpool have bought two of the most attacking overlapping full-backs in Europe in Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez. They will still play with a front three that, if Alexander Isak joins, will be more attack-focused (rather than tracking back out of possession) than 2024-25. They conceded 41 goals last season.
The question is whether this leaves the midfield, and then the two central defenders, a little overloaded. In pre-season and the Community Shield, some of last season’s control looks absent. Their last five results suggest as much: 2-4, 3-1, 4-1, 3-2, 2-2.
Man City – Do players just return after an off-season?
A year ago, it would have seemed unthinkable for Manchester City to be pre-season third favourites for a Premier League title. But the drop-off in midfield energy post-Rodri injury, Phil Foden’s alarming decline and Erling Haaland scoring four league goals from February onwards dictate that expectations are lowered.
Which could all look very silly if Guardiola is able to reconnect the component parts of a team that took 89 or more points in the previous three seasons. City’s early exit from the Club World Cup may have given Guardiola an easier pre-season ride and a lack of major international tournaments afforded greater rest.
But the doubts still linger because this is still a squad in some flux: new goalkeeper (who may be first choice), lots of defenders, Rodri injured again and most of the wide players linked with moves that may necessitate a shift in final-third shape. Come and tell me I’m an idiot when they dominate from August to May again.
Man Utd – Can central midfield protect the defence?
Manchester United have spent big this summer and entirely rebuilt their attacking unit. We will always reserve judgement given United’s record with higher-end signings, but Benjamin Sesko with Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha in behind is undeniably fresh, energetic and exciting.
The issue may come behind them. For all the investment in forwards, United still have the same central defenders and goalkeeper who may need to be even better protected if Ruben Amorim is intending to use Amad Diallo as a wing-back. The signing of Cunha suggests that Bruno Fernandes will drop deeper into a central midfield role.
Premier League games are so often settled by the energy in midfield, both to resist the press and to possess the positional discipline to guard against counter attacks by overcommitting. The thought of Casemiro and Fernandes as a two-man midfield to do all this makes my head hurt.
Newcastle – Can the midfield energy maintain?
You know what a good Newcastle performance looks like. They play with three central midfielders but it looks like five. They swarm you and they celebrate every touchline tackle as if they are marking victory in a war. They make you make bad decisions on the ball.
For all of the doubts of Alexander Isak and the dreadful lack of strategic planning that led to transfer delays this summer, that midfield energy worries me most. Newcastle were brilliant in big games in the second half of last season because they had no European football. They conceded 62 league goals the last time they competed in the Champions League because those nights sapped the energy and the three-man midfield too often looked jaded during the weekend matches that followed.
Newcastle have signed the defender. They will eventually have two new strikers (or an unhappy Isak and one more). They have a new goalkeeper. But they also have one fewer central midfielder than last season and may play 55 matches in all competitions.
Nottingham Forest – Will Nuno try to change the style?
In pre-season, Forest scored one goal in seven games as Nuno Espirito Santo tried out a formation with two centre forwards (despite only having three on the books) and often with four central defenders starting. The theory is that, while Forest won’t go with the exact plan in competitive games, the manager wants to teach Forest to play far more with the ball.
That makes sense, given the growing sense that opponents were guarding against Forest’s counter-attacking plan in the last third of 2024-25, but it is complicated by Forest’s pre-season record of one goal and no victory. The suspicion is that Nuno uses a hybrid solution in early season, with the added workload of Europa League football potentially creating a need to be slightly slower in buildup against bottom-half opponents.
It will be fascinating to see how Nuno pulls it off; Forest are probably the hardest Premier League team to predict this season. Most supporters would accept a high bottom-half finish and European run – but is that enough for Evangelos Marinakis?
Sunderland – Can Le Bris create tactical unity?
There is lots to admire about Sunderland giving their transfer window a supercharge not seen since Forest’s promotion in 2022. Recent history informs that you cannot get by simply through buying the best of the Championship and Sunderland were already playing catch-up having finished third and lost Tom Watson and Jobe Bellingham.
The response has been swift: 11 new signings and around £140m in fees committed. Granit Xhaka is the flagship signing, also crucial for adding some experience and steel to the youngest team in the Championship in 2024-25.
The question is how quickly Regis le Bris can work out his best team and have them playing exactly as he wishes. Sunderland don’t face a Big Six opponent until 4 October, creating a window to generate some forward momentum. On the flipside, it puts extra pressure on a new, largely young side to take early points.
Tottenham – Is improving current players enough?
The focus amongst many supporters is, again, the lack of speed at which new players have been recruited to support a new manager. Frank has also hinted at slight frustration, intimating that Brentford move quickly whereas Tottenham tend to do a lot of discussing internally first.
That doesn’t have to matter. With Frank far more of a defensive organiser than Ange Postecoglou ever was, there is good reason to see improvement in the players he inherits as a probable route to Frank’s best work. The defensive live will be deeper, the set-piece defending better and the team more stable as a result: 64 goals scored and 65 conceded last season is the antithesis of a Frank ideal.
That will take some getting used to for supporters, but it has value. After the mania (and eventual European magic) of Postecoglou, Tottenham can be a sensible football team making sensible decisions. Unpredictability can be overrated.
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West Ham – Can this team be creative enough?
This is really quite simple. Last season, West Ham had 137 shots on target in the Premier League. That was the lowest of any team that aren’t now playing Championship football.
West Ham have also lost three of their six highest shot takers from last season (Michail Antonio, Mohammed Kudus and Carlos Soler). They have lost two of their highest chance creators (Kudus and Soler) and Antonio would likely have featured in that list were it not for his serious car accident.
Nicklas Fullkrug will hope to be available more often and Callum Wilson has come in but, without Kudus’ unpredictability, there is so much responsibility on Jarrod Bowen to write the theme tune and sing the theme tune that any injury to him grinds everything to a halt. And that’s before the reports linking Lucas Paqueta with a move.
Wolves – Can Wolves keep overperforming their xG?
While the focus has been on Brentford as the Premier League club who have lost the most key players (particularly if Wissa goes too), don’t sleep on Wolves. Of the 16 players who appeared against Palace in May, six have since left the club. That includes the two wing-backs, the most creative player and two wingers.
Last season, Wolves were the second highest overachievers for goals vs expected goals – they took their chances brilliantly, relied upon their creative players servicing the excellent Jorgen Strand Larsen and saw Cunha score five times from outside the penalty area (nobody in the league did so more).
But three of Wolves’ highest chance creators (Cunha, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Nelso Semedo) have left. The highest chance creator from last season still at the club is Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, with 28. It is asking a huge amount of Jhon Arias (first season in European football) and Fer Lopez (only just 21) to carry that same burden.