The English Premier League returns to action after almost three months. The final whistle of the last season was blown on May 24, and the kick-off for 2026-27 is on Friday, August 21.
Arsenal, who wear the tag of ‘defending champions’ after over two decades, play promoted side Coventry City in the one-match fixture before the rest of the pack start the battle on Saturday and Sunday.
It’s amazing. After years of chasing the title and enduring taunts of “Bottling” the league, Mikel Arteta and his men will finally emerge from the dressing on Friday as the team to beat. They are the team rivals will fear.
Brazil midfielder Bruno Guimaraes has joined from Newcastle to bolster an already-strong midfield and left winger Christos Tzolis signed from Club Brugge to replace the departed Leandro Trossard. There is strength in depth in every position.
Guimaraes’s arrival will give some respite to workhorse Declan Rice, who played more than 4000 minutes for Arsenal last season and had to play through pain during the World Cup.
Only three managers – Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola – have retained the Premier League crown, a reminder that England’s cut-throat top flight has a habit of consuming champions almost as quickly as it celebrates them. Arteta enters the campaign attempting to join that exclusive company.
“We are very conscious of what it’s going to take to deliver that. I feel the ambition, desire and ability and conviction around the team that we can do it,” Arteta said in the build-up to the new season.
Missing in action
This season onwards, the EPL will not see quite a few familiar faces. Faces who dominated television screens, digital space and sports pages.
Guardiola left Manchester City after 10 years, stamping his class as the world’s best manager; Rodri, whom Guardiola brought from Atletico Madrid in 2019, signed for Barcelona in native Spain; his teammate Bernardo Silva will be at Real Madrid under new manager Mourinho. Mohamed Salah, who played a stellar role in Liverpool’s two Premier League title wins (2020 and 2025), has moved to Turkey.
Two Manchesters
In all the churn that happened in the EPL – coaches fired, managers swapping sides – City have been the worst hit. In place of Guardiola, his former assistant Enzo Maresca is at the helm now. City will have to adapt to a different life.
The midfield looks bare sans the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, who departed in the summer of 2025, Rodri and Silva. These three were the architects of City’s complete domination of the league till the implosion happened in November 2024.
City have already signed Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest and are on the verge of signing a deal with French club Lille’s Morocco star Ayyoub Bouaddi. It’s believed they have shown keen interest in roping in Enzo Fernandez from Chelsea. A new midfield cycle is taking shape at City, but whether Maresca will be able to mould it to perfection like Guradiola did is difficult to predict.
Maresca had a nightmarish debut as City coach when Arsenal walloped them 3-0 in the Community Shield clash on August 16. Will he have control of the dressing room? Maresca has inherited an unavoidable problem – Guardiola’s influence was much greater than tactics.
It’s the same as what David Moyes faced after taking over the baton from Alex Ferguson as Manchester United coach in 2013. Moyes found it difficult to handle the pressure that comes with being the United coach. And he was constantly compared with the Ferguson legacy. United have never really shown their true self after the grand old man left and are yet to win a league title since 2013.
Ferguson had a different control over the Premier League psyche. That was also expected from a coach who stayed at one club for more than 26 years, winning every trophy under the sun. It is around 9,691 days. This total is higher than the combined active tenures of all current Premier League managers at roughly 9,200 to 9,241 days!
The mood at United before the new season is upbeat. Once Michael Carrick took over from a faltering Ruben Amorim, United’s performance graph has gone north. They finished third, something nobody would have believed in December 2025. Carrick now has a full season in his hands and the return of Marcus Rashford from Barcelona has bolstered the attack.
Struggling duo
Liverpool, whose season unravelled in Arne Slot’s second year in charge, have a new manager in former Bournemouth coach Andoni Iraola.
Iraola’s teams traditionally bring aggression, verticality and pressing. If he
can transfer those principles to a squad accustomed to a different managerial language, Liverpool could become Arsenal’s most serious challenger.
Like City and United, Liverpool are also looking for someone as decisive a coach as their former man Juergen Klopp. Slot promised that in the successful 2024-25 season, but then everything was frittered away.
Chelsea have brought in Xabi Alonso, the former Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen coach. They once again spent heavily. England midfielder Morgan Rogers moved from Aston Villa for a reported $159 million, making him the most expensive British player in history.
With no European football to distract them, Chelsea have little excuse not to challenge much closer to the top of the table this season.
New Three
The trio of Coventry City, Hull City and Ipswich Town are back in the top flight. Coventry return for the first time in 25 years; Ipswich come back after just one season in the Championship, and Hull are in for the first time in a decade.
Coventry’s promotion also brings Frank Lampard back into the Premier League dugout. The former Chelsea midfielder has previously managed Chelsea and Everton.