The top of the final English Premier League season looks like a lifetime in the past after a summer time packed filled with worldwide video games. Now the Prem is out of the blue again, with the planet’s hottest and aggressive home circuit scheduled to kick off on Aug. 16 when Manchester United hosts Fulham and USMNT standout Antonee “Jedi” Robinson at Previous Trafford.
For the fourth consecutive 12 months, Manchester Metropolis is the defending champion. But a lot has modified elsewhere heading into 2024-25, most notably at Liverpool, which has a brand new supervisor in Arne Slot after the beloved Jürgen Klopp stepped down following his ninth season on Merseyside.
There are three newly promoted golf equipment in Leicester Metropolis, Ipswich City and Southampton. And there are many potential new stars, like West Ham striker Niclas Füllkrug and Arsenal defender Riccardo Calafiori.
It is an terrible very long time till the season concludes in Might. However on the eve of the brand new marketing campaign, here is how we see issues shaking out.
Even after promoting Argentine ahead Julian Alvarez to Atlético Madrid, there’s little motive to consider that Metropolis will not higher their very own report and add an unprecedented fifth straight Prem title subsequent 12 months. They nonetheless have the deepest and most skilled squad in England, if not the world. And so they nonetheless have arguably the most effective supervisor within the recreation in Pep Guardiola, who’s within the closing 12 months of his contract and will go away subsequent summer time after 9 years on the helm. What a mic-drop that might be, particularly if the Residents can even declare their second Champions League crown in three seasons. If Erling Haaland can keep slightly more healthy this 12 months, do not guess in opposition to it.
If Metropolis would not win all of it once more, absolutely the Gunners will. Arsenal has been excellent during the last 24 months below membership legend Mikel Arteta, Guardiola’s former assistant coach in Manchester. The North London facet completed a detailed second in every of the final two 12 months even whereas juggling a future within the Champions Legaue final spring. Arteta’s workforce is battle-tested, and so they’ll once more pose a formidable problem to the Sky Blues on the high of the desk.
Slot has the unenviable job of changing Klopp, who snapped the Reds’ 30-year league title doubt when he gained the Prem in 2020. Klopp completed runner-up on two different events and made three Champions League finals, successful as soon as. That is an unimaginable act to observe. Nonetheless, the Dutchman has a very elite squad at his disposal — as soon as that options lineup mainstays Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah.
The Magpies fell again to earth 12 months after incomes a high 4 end in 2022-23. As unforgettable as that Champions League group stage win over Paris Saint-Germain was, enjoying each three days caught up with Eddie Howe’s males, who’d slipped to seventh within the standings by 12 months’s finish. That could possibly be a blessing; Newcastle will not have to fret about European competitors and may focus solely on reestablishing themselves as one in all England’s finest.
Regardless of shedding captain Harry Kane to Bayern Munich, Spurs climbed from eighth to fifth below first 12 months supervisor Ange Postecoglou — ok for a spot on this season’s Europa League. Tottenham will likely be stretched thinner this 12 months, no query. However with the addition of $51 million midfielder Archie Grey and former Chelsea striker Timo Werner, “Large Ange” & Co. are nonetheless able to equaling their 2023-24 place.
It is onerous to know what to make of the Pink Devils, who completed eighth final time period however saved their season (and embattled supervisor Erik ten Hag’s job) by beating crosstown rival Man Metropolis within the FA Cup closing. United needs to be higher this 12 months. They landed blue chip 18-year-old central defender Leny Yoro on $66 million switch from Lille and in addition inked Dutch ahead Joshua Zirkee, who helped Italian outfit Bologna qualify for the Champions League final season. He’ll take a few of the stress off fellow striker Rasmus Højlund, scorer of 10 targets in his debut marketing campaign.
Final season was one to recollect for the Villans and supervisor Unai Emery, who guided Villa again to the Champions League for the primary time since they had been defending European champs within the early Eighties. The Birmingham membership is set to do properly each in that event and within the Prem, outspending each different English workforce this summer time. They dropped virtually $50 million on Dutch left again Ian Maatsen, and one other $64 million on Belgian destroyer Amadou Onana. Onana replaces the departed Douglas Luiz within the coronary heart of Emery’s midfield.
The Hammers received higher this summer time by including the prolific Füllkrug, who helped Germany’s Borussia Dortmund attain the Champions League closing in June. Making the transition to the Premier League is not straightforward for some strikers, however the brawny 31-year-old’s bodily recreation is well-suited to the pains of England’s high flight. Füllkrug is not even West Ham’s most costly summer time signing; that is $51 million man Max Kilman, who beforehand anchored Wolves again line below new Hammers boss Julen Lopetegui. The membership additionally acquired wingers Luis Guilherme and Crysencio Summerville for a mixed price of round $65 million.
Palace was a distinct workforce after changing supervisor Roy Hodgson with Austrian Oliver Glasner final February. The Austrian gained his first recreation in cost and ended Liverpool’s 29-match unbeaten run at Anfield quickly after. Solely Man Metropolis, Arsenal and Chelsea had been higher down the stretch as Palace, which sat sixteenth when Glasner arrived, completed tenth. With Glasner there from the start this 12 months, Palace can high that regardless of shedding star winger Michael Olise this summer time.
Maybe essentially the most dysfunctional membership in England’s high league, the Blues parted methods with supervisor Mauricio Pochettino although Pochettino led a Chelsea facet that completed an embarrassing twelfth in 2022-23 to sixth final season. The early returns below Enzo Maresca, the London membership’s fifth boss since September of 2022, have not been good: The Blues conceded 12 targets of their first 5 preseason tuneups, together with an unpleasant 4-1 loss to Scotland’s Celtic final month.
The Seagulls had been solidly center class final time period, ending eleventh even after shedding hard-running midfield duo Moisés Caicedo (to Chelsea) and Alexis Mac Allister (to Liverpool). The largest departure this 12 months is coach Roberto De Zerbi, who left for Marseille. Texas-born Fabian Hürzeler, contemporary off getting St. Pauli promoted to the Bundesliga, is now within the job as an alternative. With a roster bolstered by the big-money arrivals of Gambian winger Yankuba Minteh ($38 million from Newcastle) and Dutch midfielder Mats Wieffer ($32 million, Feyenoord), one other mid desk end is smart.
There is a stability round Fulham because the Cottagers enter their third consecutive Premier League season, a lot so {that a} three-spot drop from tenth to thirteenth final season would not really feel too regarding. Portuguese supervisor Marco Silva has been on the helm since 2021. Simply two senior gamers, USMNT veteran Tim Ream and Silva’s countryman João Palhinha, left. And whereas the latter’s departure hurts, it is offset by the arrival of the vastly skilled Ryan Sessegnon, Emile Smith-Rowe and Jorge Cuenca, a trio of 24-year-olds who had been recruited from Spurs, Arsenal and Villarreal, respectively.
Getting into their seventh straight high flight season, Wolverhampton nonetheless cannot afford to take something without any consideration — not when different mid desk groups have been backing up the Brinks vehicles this summer time. Wolves has spent $27 million on proper sided duo Rodrigo Gomes and Pedro Lima, however neither are confirmed within the Prem. Supervisor Gary O’Neil won’t be completed procuring, however that is a priority for a workforce that misplaced its defensive lynchpin in Kilman this summer time.
The 2024-25 season will likely be bittersweet for Toffees followers nonetheless they end: It is their final at Goodison Park, Everton’s dwelling stadium for greater than a century. The place they end issues vastly, although, for a membership that has spent 70 years in England’s high division. They survived the drop in every of the final two years regardless of factors deductions for violations of monetary honest play guidelines. But it surely’s onerous to argue that they received any higher this summer time after Villa’s swoop for Onana, who supervisor Sean Dyche has but to adequately substitute.
Having the smallest stadium within the Prem – there’s simply 11,300 seats at Dean Courtroom – hasn’t stopped Bournemouth from punching approach above its weight since returning to the highest division three years in the past. Final season, the Cherries’ first below Spanish supervisor Andoni Iraola, was their finest ever points-wise. Iraola returns virtually his whole squad, with Turkish striker Enes Ünal an improve over the departed Kieffer Moore.
Forest too stayed up final season following a factors deduction, securing security on the ultimate match day. So so long as they don’t seem to be docked once more in 2024-25, they need to have the ability to preserve their Premier League standing once more this season, the primary full one below skilled Portuguese supervisor Nuno Espírito Santo.
Again within the Prem for the primary time in additional than 20 years, The Cottagers are little doubt a preferred candidate to go straight again all the way down to the second tier Championship after successful promotion final spring. There’s motive to consider in any other case, the primary one being rising coach Kieran McKenna, who signed a brand new 4 12 months extension after drawing curiosity from Manchester United and Chelsea.
The Bees’ luck has to expire sooner or later. To be honest to Brentford supporters, Brentford’s 4 12 months keep within the Premier League has already lasted longer than most anticipated. And whereas they fell seven spots between 2023 and 2024, they added coveted Brazilian striker Igor Thiago to an in any other case secure lineup.
Again with the massive boys after one title successful season within the Championship, Leicester is going through a presumably extreme factors deduction upon their Prem return. For a squad that is gotten solely slightly bit higher the summer time, such a penalty may show deadly.
The Saints additionally got here proper again up a 12 months on from relegation. However even with a whopping 15 new signings, they in all probability have not improved sufficient from the workforce that completed fourth within the Championship.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports activities. A former workers author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports activities, he has coated U.S. males’s and girls’s nationwide groups at FIFA World Cups on 5 continents. Comply with him @ByDougMcIntyre.
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