The new Premier League season kicks off on Friday, August 15, when champions Liverpool entertain Bournemouth.
Arne Slot’s Reds will be favourites to lift the trophy once more, but can Arsenal improve on three consecutive second-placed finishes? Manchester City are expected to bounce back from an uncharacteristically quiet season under Pep Guardiola, while Chelsea are the FIFA Club World Cup (CWC) champions.
Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at the likely candidates.
Liverpool
Slot’s side stormed to a record-equalling 20th Premier League title last season. The Reds finished 10 points clear of Arsenal – and that after taking their foot off the gas in a winless four-game run to finish.
Florian Wirtz is the big name summer arrival from Bayer Leverkusen and comes with a hefty price tag of $156m. The German midfielder follows French forward Hugo Ekitike and Dutch wide man Jeremie Frimpong through the Anfield gates.
The latter will be utilised both in covering for Trent Alexander-Arnold, who has joined Real Madrid, and Mohamed Salah, who will depart midseason to represent Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Securing the ongoing services of both Salah and Virgil van Dijk, however, was undoubtedly the biggest piece of business the Reds needed.
Egyptian forward Salah was heavily linked with the Saudi Pro League and, having topped the goalscoring charts against last season with 29 goals, would have been a huge loss.
Dutch defender and Liverpool captain van Dijk has been the rock upon which the Reds’ fortunes have been built since his arrival from Southampton in 2018.
The pursuit of Aleksander Isak from Newcastle United has been ongoing for some time. Slot has teased the Reds may return with a second bid, and if one position has been in question, it is an out-and-out striker – Isak’s 23 goals last season proved he is one of the hottest talents in that role.
“Every team in the Premier League is spending money,” Slot said in the run-up to the new campaign. “So if we are only favourites because we’ve spent a bit, I would see that as weird because we’ve lost a lot as well. But that we are favourites because we won it last season and we played so well, that’s clear.”
The tragic death of Diogo Jota, in a car crash in Spain in July, supersedes all concerns of success. Coming to terms with his loss will be painful in training and in matches, with his absence felt in ways far beyond the gap the Portuguese forward leaves in the starting XI each week.
Arsenal
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have been the form team of the last three seasons in the Premier League, but three second-place finishes in a row are starting to burn deeply in north London.
Substantial reinforcements have been sought to help the Gunners end their 22-season wait to lift the Premier League title once again.
Viktor Gyokeres is the headline news, given Arteta made little secret of his frustration with the club’s lack of striking options last season.
The signing of the Swedish striker from Sporting Lisbon for 63 million pounds ($85m) will be seen as the best chance to close the gap on Liverpool.
Noni Madueke’s capture from Chelsea, meantime, divided Arsenal fans. The England international does, however, bring further depth and additional quality to a forward line, whose top scorer last season was Kai Havertz with a paltry nine goals.
The arrival in midfield from Real Sociedad of Martin Zubimendi, a Euro 2024 winner with Spain, can only solidify the already meticulously manufactured system Arteta has arranged.
Chelsea
Chelsea will surely hit the ground running following their stunning FIFA Club World Cup success against European champions Paris Saint-Germain last month.
Enzo Maresca’s side stormed to a 3-0 win against the Parisians, who swept through the UEFA Champions League – culminating in their own 5-0 demolition of Inter Milan – to complete the treble.
Joao Pedro’s three goals across the semifinal and final at the CWC have already gone a long way towards validating his 60-million-pound ($80.7m) signing from Brighton before the tournament. That move came on top of the capture of fellow strikers, Liam Delap from Ipswich and Estevao from Palmeiras.
Estevao scored against the west London club in his last game with his Brazilian outfit during the quarterfinals of the CWC.
Disjointed has long been a word associated with Chelsea on and off the pitch, certainly since their last Premier League title win in 2017.
Whether Maresca can continue to tie the team together following the CWC triumph, and whether that tournament will test the legs of the Blues players later in the season, could well be deciding factors in Chelsea’s title challenge.
Manchester City
Will Pep Guardiola’s team bounce back to the form that saw them claim a record fourth consecutive Premier League title only a season ago? Or will the light blues of Manchester continue to feel the heavy burden of a side that conquered all before them, only to seemingly lose control of their own success last season?
The injury to Ballon d’Or holder Rodri undoubtedly hit City hard last term, and the news that he will miss the start of the new campaign will also come as a huge concern to Guardiola.
For a team that won an unprecedented five trophies in 2023, and the record-setting Premier League title the following year, to fall so far last season came as a huge shock to all, not least their manager.
Indeed, many believed last season may well have been Guardiola’s final term. Even with a two-year contract extension signed midway through the last campaign, a slow start to this season will once again cast doubt where once it seemed unthinkable.
The departure of Kevin De Bruyne marks a passing of the guard, and that absence will now be doubly felt in the early stages with the unavailability of Rodri.
Their nine league losses last season were more than their two previous seasons combined and resulted in a first finish outside the top two since 2016-2017. The Blues also crashed out of the Champions League and League Cup early, and their FA Cup final defeat by Crystal Palace meant no silverware for the first time in eight years.
Midfielder Tijjani Reijnders, defender Rayan Ait-Nouri, winger Rayan Cherki and goalkeeper James Trafford have all been recruited in the close season.
The summer spree pushed City’s spending for 2025 past the 300-million-pounds ($403.5m) mark, following the arrivals of Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov, Nico Gonzalez and Vitor Reis in the January window.
“I’m pretty sure it’ll be good, but it won’t be a red carpet season,” Guardiola said.
“The expectation at the beginning of the season is always, let’s go and try to do our best, win the first games, get confidence and move forward. We want to try and do better than last season, especially with consistency.”
A cloud that continues to hang over the club, however, is that they still face 115 charges of breaking Premier League financial regulations.
City, who have always denied any wrongdoing, were charged with the alleged breaches in February 2023. A verdict during the October international break.
Manchester United and the rest
United have defied their financial woes to reinvent their front three with Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo signed earlier in the window, and the big-money move for Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig.
The Red Devils’ captain Bruno Fernandes hit out at a “lazy” preseason performance following the 2-2 preseason draw with Everton, and also called for more reinforcements.
One of the longest serving players at the club, England international Luke Shaw, also criticised a “toxic” dressing room culture that manager Ruben Amorim was trying to change.
Just like Guardiola, his opposite number across the Manchester divide, how long the reversal in fortunes takes is likely to take will define how much longer Amorim has at the helm.
A slow start may mean his tenure barely lasts a year having replaced Eric ten Hag as manager last November.
Newcastle United narrowly missed out on a top-four spot, and with it Champions League qualification, last season, having been seen as early-season title contenders.
The doubts surrounding their star name, Isak, cast huge doubts heading into the new season for Eddie Howe’s side. Should the Swede depart, and with their own top target, Sesko, moving to Old Trafford, the Geordies look the most under threat of falling short of last season’s progress.
Aston Villa were another side that have threatened to break into the Premier League’s elite, having secured Champions League football two years ago, which resulted in a run to the quarterfinals last year.
Ivory Coast forward Evann Guessand has been signed from French club Nice for a reported fee of at least 30 million euros ($35m). The 24-year-old winger scored 13 goals last season.
If the transfer merry-go-round continues, however, then Villa striker Ollie Watkins could be the next on the move, with all of last season’s top four having been linked with a move for the England international at some stage.
Indeed, Isak’s future at Newcastle could well be the trigger for whether Watkins remains at Villa Park when the transfer window shuts on September 1.