Премьер лигийн 2026-27 оны улирлын өмнөх гол үйл явдлууд

Over the last decade, the Premier League has followed a pattern.

Pep Guardiola leading Manchester City. Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal attempting to keep pace. Promoted teams struggling to tread water, and Aston Villa and Newcastle United building momentum.

But last season, a lot of those expectations changed. Nine of the 20 teams have changed managers, making the 2026-27 campaign feel like the biggest reset in years.

So, with only a few days to go until the big kick-off, here are 20 of the biggest storylines of an exciting new season.

Can Arsenal do it again?

For Arsenal and Arteta, winning the title last season changed everything.

They are no longer vying to break the mould — they are the benchmark, and while it is not yet certain who will pose the biggest threat to them this season, they have the opportunity to push on and make this their era.

There might be some residual bitterness about the way they lost the Champions League final on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain but they have the depth to compete on both fronts again and have invested and improved in the transfer window.

The Premier League champions will face a very different kind of expectation.

Manchester City without Pep Guardiola

Remember Manuel Pellegrini? The Chile coach was the last person not called Pep Guardiola to take charge of a Manchester City game, in May 2016. Yes, it really has been that long.

Enzo Maresca does not inherit a typical Guardiola squad. Last season, City played with more directness and variation.

@tifofootball_ How similar is Maresca to Guardiola? #premierleague #mancity #transfernews ♬ original sound – Tifo Football by The Athletic

That setup may suit the Italian, but following a manager of Guardiola’s stature is daunting, even for Maresca, his former assistant at City in 2022-23.

Was City’s dominance over the last decade institutional? Or was it really dependent on Guardiola? This season will help answer those questions.

Will the big-money midfielders prove their worth?

Nearly £2billion (almost $2.7bn) has been spent by Premier League sides on more than 90 incoming players this summer, but this transfer window has undoubtedly belonged to big-money midfielders.

The fees for Morgan Rogers, Elliot Anderson, Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali total over £400m, with that quartet leaving behind talismanic status at their old sides to chase silverware at the traditional ‘Big Six’ teams.

Who will offer the best value? This season, we will see these players go head-to-head for dominance in the middle of the pitch, and their performances could define the season.

The Premier League’s managerial revolution

Nine new managers begin this Premier League campaign, an unprecedented number that reflects the change in playing styles in the division and a move away from Guardiola-style football.

During Guardiola’s time in English football, it felt like teams at all levels were aiming to replicate the Spaniard’s high-possession style. The game is changing again and the buzzwords of the incoming managers are intensity, pressure and vertical football.

Among the ‘Big Six’, there are three new managers (Xabi Alonso at Chelsea, Andoni Iraola at Liverpool and Maresca at City), plus two who only joined in the second half of last season (Michael Carrick at Manchester United and Roberto De Zerbi at Tottenham Hotspur).

Pierre Sage at Crystal Palace, Matthias Jaissle at Newcastle United, Marco Rose at Bournemouth, Alvaro Arbeloa at Fulham are new to Premier League management, but Oliver Glasner at Nottingham Forest and Gary O’Neil with Ipswich Town have experience in England’s top flight.

Who will succeed? And who will find themselves under pressure?

World Cup star Haaland chases a record fourth Golden Boot

This season will be Erling Haaland’s fifth in the Premier League, but he is already just one top-scoring campaign away from levelling Thierry Henry and Mohamed Salah’s record of four Golden Boot awards.

For context, Henry played eight and a half seasons in the Premier League and Salah played 10. Haaland is beating both in goals per game (0.85), with 112 goals in 132 Premier League appearances. He makes scoring look routine.

Four games is the longest spell Haaland has gone without scoring in the Premier League, and in his first World Cup this summer, the signs were that he might be getting even better.

World Cup fatigue? New system to adapt to? It will take more than that to stop Erling Haaland from scoring.

Chelsea’s new outlook

Since BlueCo bought Chelsea in 2022, the club have spent four years switching identities and approaches. This season will reveal if they have finally found one that sticks.

Alonso’s appointment marks the arrival of a coach who commands authority. Their squad has now mostly been together for at least a year and the startling additions of Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson should bring much-needed leadership to the dressing room.

With no European football, Chelsea can focus on adapting to Alonso’s methods in training and to setting the long-term ‘project’ back on track. If it falters, it would be hard to fathom where BlueCo goes next.

Can Carrick keep the momentum going in a permanent role?

Hired as an interim head coach in January, Carrick did far more than steady the ship.

United were top of the form table in his 17 Premier League matches in charge, securing the role on a permanent footing as a result.

However, sustaining that momentum into the new season is another matter. As Ole Gunnar Solskjaer found out after taking a similar path in 2019, it is much harder to build a sustainable winning culture and long-term identity.

Michael Carrick turned around Manchester United’s season (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Can Carrick get United back competing for silverware? Or will we be looking at another new United manager this season?

Will European football hurt Manchester United — and will a lack of it help Chelsea?

Avoiding the fixture treadmill of European football helped Carrick last season. The Champions League brings in valuable revenue, but playing midweek makes it difficult for coaches to find time to work properly with players on the training pitch.

Could Chelsea benefit from not being in Europe this season? Alonso’s biggest challenge could be maintaining team spirit among those who do not play regularly. Looking at the size of Chelsea’s squad, there will be plenty of them.

For United, they will surely believe they are back where they belong in the Champions League. But will that make things trickier for Carrick’s side to sustain a challenge in the league?

Can Liverpool rediscover their mojo?

As Arne Slot lifted the Premier League in his first season, it appeared Liverpool had seamlessly transitioned from one era of triumph to another. A year on, and we are looking at a very different picture, with Slot gone after a truly lacklustre season.

Iraola’s arrival from Bournemouth marks the return to the high-risk and high-reward football Anfield was craving last season.

Like Klopp, Iraola is committed to a set approach, his teams have been exciting and he has an articulate and outgoing demeanour.

Liverpool are no longer the underachievers they were when Klopp arrived, meaning Iraola must hit the ground running.

World Cup winner Rodri’s City exit and what it means

If there were any lingering doubts about the fairness of Rodri’s 2024 Ballon d’Or win, his controlling performances as Spain’s World Cup-winning captain silenced doubts over his credentials.

He looks set to depart for Barcelona, but City have been learning to play without Rodri since their treble-winning campaign, with the 30-year-old making only 29 starts in the past two seasons.

He did turn out to be a big miss, as City only won the FA Cup and Carabao Cup (both last season) in that period.

The incoming Anderson provides control but in a higher-energy manner than Rodri, and even if the long-term aim was for the Englishman to replace the Spaniard, a season together would have eased the Guardiola/Maresca handover.

At 23 years old, Anderson has to be ready now.

Can Spurs move on from being relegation candidates?

We have had our fun now. Surely.

After consecutive 17th-placed finishes, Tottenham look ready to push back towards where they feel they belong.

Spurs have recruited experienced Premier League talent across the defence and midfield, even if they still look light up front.

Under Roberto De Zerbi, Spurs were unbeaten in their final three home games of last season and maintaining that form at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will be the easiest way to climb the table. Between December 10 and the Italian’s first home game in mid-April, Spurs only won twice in north London (both in the Champions League).

Newcastle’s pain: Moving on from their fan favourites

The departure of Alexander Isak last summer was the first domino to fall, leaving Newcastle staring at a comprehensive reset a year later.

Finishing 12th last season was only going to pave the way for change, but losing Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali, captain Guimaraes and head coach Eddie Howe does not indicate change for the better.

In Sandro Tonali, Anthony Gordon and Bruno Guimaraes, Newcastle have lost arguably their three best players (Matt McNulty/Getty Images)

The figures who spearheaded their revolution since the takeover by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in 2021 could not remain forever, and the appointment of German coach Matthias Jaissle looks sensible, building on Howe’s high-tempo approach.

Newcastle must evolve, but it could be a painful process.

How will teams perform without their World Cup stars in the early games?

William Saliba was visibly unfit for much of France’s World Cup campaign, so it comes as no surprise that he will be unavailable for an “extended period”.

The 25-year-old is one of many returning World Cup stars who could begin the season slowly.

Many of England’s players only arrived at their club’s pre-season camps at the beginning of August, three weeks after many sides saw the bulk of their squads return.

Premier League clubs should have the depth to temporarily be without some of their key figures, but the opening weeks may produce a league table that bears little resemblance to the one that stands in May.

Will any of the promoted sides stay up?

Last season, Sunderland and Leeds United did something no club had done in the last two seasons — survive as a promoted team.

Bridging the gap depends more on recruiting a squad of talent and experience than simply carrying over momentum, and — at the moment — Ipswich Town look to be ahead in that area.

Promoted from the Championship in second place, they have added the nous of Issa Diop and Sasa Lukic from Fulham, along with O’Neil, a head coach with recent experience navigating relegation battles. This week, they added talented midfielder Julio Enciso to the squad.

Frank Lampard’s Coventry City have kept together the entirety of their title-winning XI and Hull City’s business appears sensible, but with Spurs and Forest among the underperforming sides now looking up, survival seems an uphill battle for the promoted trio.

Will Isak finally arrive at Liverpool?

Few people liked the way Isak forced his way out of Newcastle, but it was hard not to love the player he was at St James’ Park. Keyword: was.

His £125m deadline-day move to Liverpool last September dominated headlines, but he has struggled with injuries since then.

Can Alexander Isak rediscover his scoring touch? (Lewis Storey/Getty Images)

The 26-year-old netted four times in 22 games, but begins this season fully fit, and with Iraola’s football potentially mirroring the Howe setup that he thrived in, Isak has the tools to shine in a red shirt.

Can Aston Villa challenge for the title?

Yes, it would be a big ask, especially after losing Morgan Rogers, but if Unai Emery’s side are ever going to make a dash for the title, it has to be now.

Villa have finished in the top six for the last three seasons, and have become accustomed to challenging the established elite, and were in the title race at the halfway points of the 2023-24 and 2025-26 seasons.

Last season they got a taste of silverware with their Europa League win, and they have qualified for the Champions League for only the second time.

It would be hard for any side not to make Europe the main aim, but if Villa were to make the league their primary target, they could be the best-equipped side to challenge Arsenal for the title.

The new on-pitch laws…

There was confusion at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium in the first round of the Carabao Cup, when substitute Fin Cartwright was held back from entering the pitch straight away.

That was because the player being replaced — match-winner Will Lankshear — took more than 10 seconds to depart while applauding the supporters. It is one of many new rules set to be rolled out in the 2026-27 season.

Other new laws include requiring players receiving on-field treatment to stay on the sidelines for a minute rather than 30 seconds, a five-second window for throw-ins to be taken, and the video assistant referee (VAR) reviewing second yellow cards that result in players being sent off.

English football is also trialling a new rule aimed at eradicating goalkeepers feigning injury to allow for tactical breaks within matches — managers will now have to nominate an outfield player to remain off the pitch when play restarts.

… and the impact of off-pitch financial restrictions

The biggest grievance with the outgoing profit and sustainability rules (PSR) was that punishments for breaches could only be applied once the respective season was over, creating various messes for the Premier League down the line.

That all changes with the implementation of the squad cost ratio (SCR), in which any breach of a club’s “red threshold” based on their football-related revenue will be punished within the same season, with a minimum penalty of six points.

European sides will still have to comply with UEFA’s more stringent rules, which broadly mirror both SCR’s spending cap and PSR’s three-year rolling assessment period, but the faster implementation of sanctions makes the regulations seem fairer.

Can Leeds kick on from last season?

Daniel Farke faces a tough conundrum: stick with the pragmatic approach that saw Leeds surge to survival in the second half of last season, or attempt to evolve into the side you feel he truly wants them to be.

The back three implemented to turn last season’s fortunes around has remained in pre-season, and it was a formation and system the side grew into as the year progressed, going eight unbeaten before their final-day defeat to West Ham United.

Harry Wilson is among a number of smart Leeds signings (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

They have recruited sensibly in the transfer window — goalkeeper James Trafford, defender Tarik Muharemovic and winger Harry Wilson have arrived at Elland Road — and if they can convert some of their 14 draws from last term into wins (the second-most in the division), they will be well on their way to re-establishing as a Premier League mainstay.

Will set pieces be as effective?

In the Premier League last season, 27.4 per cent of goals were scored through set pieces — a higher rate than any of the previous five campaigns.

Free kicks and corners are no longer a secondary detail favoured by struggling teams. Instead, they are a major league-wide attacking weapon.

But the upward trajectory will surely end soon, and as teams become more familiar with the various routines, the specialist coaches must start to earn their money in the defensive penalty area.