By: Dylan T. Gassert
English football is finally back! That’s right, the most exciting show in club football is making its way back following a rather interesting World Cup, but now it is encountering a difference, which could determine how the season will turn out to be.
With a mere 26 days between the end of the World Cup and the start of the Premier League, there’s been no chance for the players to catch a breather, in a literal sense. By all means, the opening fixtures of the Premier League has lost a tad bit of attention, given the riveting electricity revolving Russia 2018. All of this is further complicated by the transfer window being shortened, with clubs facing issues pertaining to how many players they’ll have available for the opening fixtures.
The fact that world class players will not undergo a proper pre-season could greatly shape the opening games, and thereby condition the rest of it. Hence, strong competitors for the trophy such as Manchester City, Liverpool, and Manchester United might not even be in the run for it at all given their lack of star players, mainly because of the lack of sufficient rest.
It does look like one thing that won’t be changed is Manchester City’s supremacy. The expectations put on City’s title winning side is for them to defend their status as champions in the 2018/2019 season. Regardless of what Pep Guardiola said about how impossible it would be for his side to replicate last season’s record breaking win, City’s performances in the Community Shield set an ominous tone for everyone else. Even without the likes of De Bruyne and David Silva, City actually looked more physically powerful and it came a shock to see how good this team could be so early on.
One team with realistic odds to challenge City, along with their rock and roll style of football, is Klopp’s Liverpool. With the possibility of ending a 29 year wait, they have been one of the few teams to display proper forward thinking for this unfamiliar summer by analyzing their flaws and signing the players to address them. With the likes of Fabinho, Allison, and Naby Keita, Liverpool has somewhat transformed their side from a group of average players to one that is unfamiliar to us all. It had been a quite direct way to match some of Klopp’s intense football. But, the question to whether or not they’ll be able to do this week in week out is still being asked.
For the rest of the last year’s top-six teams in the Premier League, old themes are being seen at Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, new ones at Arsenal, and a mix of both at Chelsea.
The champions of the 2016/2017 campaign have once again changed managers. This time, luring Maurizio Sarri from Napoli, Chelsea is bound to produce something different, maybe even something fun and exciting. But, yet again, Sarri is under immense pressure to implement his philosophy and show results before Roman Abramovich suffers from is regular impatience with results and a lack of silverware.
Meanwhile, United look like the same old side as it was last year. With very poor business being done, Manchester United is one team that is suffering from the shortened transfer window, evidently shown by their two new signings, namely Fred and Diego Dalot. All of this shows how they are so much lesser than their financial size dictates they should be, with complaints running out of Mourinho’s mouth. The question that frames United’s campaign is if they’ll be another one of Mourinho’s third season syndrome victims. If that were to be the case, then United’s title chances could be ruled out before any games have been played. Unfortunately, the likes of Mourinho’s physical and defensive football does not make it look like all of the pieces seem to be in place quite correctly for them.
Moving over to North London, Arsene Wenger is no longer with Arsenal. With this being the first premier league start without Arsene Wenger since 1997, it would be very interesting to see Unai Emery’s first season at Arsenal. Whether we liked it or not, Arsenal needed to badly change, but by bringing in a manager who can hardly speak the language really makes it an unpredictable one. Regardless, Emery’s coaching would be more than enough for the time being in order to make Arsenal a more ordered prospect coming into the upcoming season.
Don’t forget the newly promoted clubs (Cardiff City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Fulham), have done their fair share of business. Specifically, Wolves bringing in quite a large amount of Portuguese players into their squad, namely Rui Patricio and Joao Moutinho, makes them a prospect to look at when they are being compared to mid-table teams like Everton or West Ham.
Even after all of that, it still is a free-for-all once more. It simply too hard to predict what will go on this season. However, what we can hope for is that there will be a lot of frenetically entertaining football that will build up to all clubs fighting till the end for that one piece of precious silverware.
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