With transfers occurring left and right after clubs loosened their purse strings, this season in the English top flight will prove to be exciting
Last year’s Premier League season saw Manchester City win the league title with a few games to spare with a relatively paltry sum of eighty-six points. Although their devilish city neighbour’s form saw them only mathematically win their third league title in four years with three matches to spare, the Citizens hardly had to produce the same world-beating form that kept Liverpool from winning their first title in the Premier League-era two seasons prior. With the pandemic delaying the start of that season, there are many who felt that things got off to a sleepy start and stayed that way; although superhuman to many, finishing the 2019-2020 season and almost immediately diving into the next meant many players displayed very human levels of fatigue and many suffered injuries.
Having had some vacation and a proper preseason under their belts, the league’s talent is ready to shine once again with full stadiums of supporters beckoning. Considering that almost all the clubs strengthened their ranks this past year, football fans are in for a blinder in England’s topflight. Having said that, only four clubs can be said to be veritable title challengers this year: Liverpool, the Manchester sides, and Chelsea. North London’s Arsenal and Tottenham are nowhere near the aforementioned clubs as far as quality, depth, and managerial nous go, and upstarts Leicester are too prone to peaks and valleys to offer a veritable threat.
Chelsea
Fresh off the backs of the penultimate glory in club football having done the business against City in Porto to win their second Champions League, Thomas Tuchel’s West London side is poised to kick on from the brilliant end to last season that saw them climb from the midtable position that Frank Lampard had left them in at the time of his sacking, to fourth place and Champions League qualification. Coming in to put out fires after a club legend saw the axe was never going to be a simple task for Tuchel, especially given the sky-high expectations of the Chelsea board, but Roman Abramovic’s famed brittle patience was never even called into question. The rangy German’s arrival in the dugout saw Chelsea pivot from a 4-3-3 that didn’t seem to get the best out of summer signings Kai Havertz and Timo Werner, to a 3-4-3 that shored up the leaky defence at the back and paved the way for some brilliant counter-attacking football. The illustrious silverware that Tuchel secured for Stamford Bridge trophy cabinet was repaid in kind by his backing in transfer market this past summer.
Although striker Erling Haaland was seen by many to be the top target, his club Dortmund saw off all potential suitors that his agent Mino Raiola didn’t manage to alienate – whether that’s a smart move when the prolific Norwegian’s contract expires next season remains to be said. However, that twist of fate meant Chelsea was free to pursue Romelu Lukaku, and they found more joy negotiating with Inter Milan, a club under fire from their own supporters for having parted ways with manager Antonio Conte as well as several key players following a historic title-winning season in Serie A. The Belgian’s arrival back at Cobham is a proper homecoming, with his love for his former club being no secret. Having had his first spell in West London cut short before he could make his mark, the free-scoring striker will be highly motivated to prove naysayers wrong and has already got off to a brusque start in what will surely be a neck and neck race for the Golden Boot.
Last season’s summer signings will also have had longer to acclimatize to the robust physicality and pace of the league and will be under the gun to offer more contributions. With the addition of Saul on loan from Athletico Madrid, Chelsea could very well claim the best midfield in the league at the moment; Jorginho had a year for the ages winning the Champions League, Euro, and Super Cup, Kante is in the form of his life, and Mateo Kovacic is shining in his new number eight shirt. Mason Mount will also find no small measure of joy in a forward role this year.
Manchester United
Manchester is ablaze with a red fever following the return of their Portuguese son in Cristiano Ronaldo. The thirty-six year-old may no longer possess the pace required to commandeer the wing in the way he once did following his transfer from Sporting Lisbon, but his colossal stage presence will no doubt give confidence to a crop of players who often lack nerve under inexperienced manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Ronaldo is famed for his attention to detail in his training and recovery, and his influence will surely prove massive on the Carrington training pitch. Raphael Varane’s signing from Real Madrid will also prove a tidy bit of business, with the Frenchman sure to bring solidity to a backline that could use it despite the presence of Shawberto – if he can manufacturer an understanding with the free-fouling man they call Slabhead, opposing clubs could have trouble finding a way past United’s backline. That said, United failed to sign a veritable holding midfielder in the same window, leaving them with the clumsy Fred, an aging Nemanja Matic, and loutish Scott McTominay as options to choose from in that role.
While goals have been free-flowing at Old-Trafford on occasion in the past year, they always occur in fits and spurts, or off the back of some questionable refereeing decisions that see Bruno Fernandes further his trade as a penalty merchant. Solskjaer will feel the pressure to produce more consistent results and will find little solace in hiding behind his iPad in the Old Trafford dugout, or offering thumbs up while his side are losing. The arrival of Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund was seen as a massive score and the young Englishman will surely grow to form part of a formidable attacking partnership with fellow countryman Marcus Rashford. Although the latter has proved he can put food on the table, we’ll see if his manager can put trophies in the cabinet and do away with the looming sceptre of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Manchester City
That a domestic league title and league cup-winning season could be seen as something of a failure for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City is testament to the high expectations the Catalan labours under. Having taken the reigns of one of the perversely rich club five years ago, Guardiola will have been expected to deliver a Champions League trophy to the Etihad Stadium. That he failed to do so after finally reaching the final last year, and that he did so in such catastrophic fashion having rejigged his tried-and-true formula for a tactical experiment in midfield, would have no doubt angered owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Given the funds that Guardiola had to play with this summer, one wouldn’t know it. After having been linked with Aston Villa ace Jack Grealish all summer, Guardiola finally succeeded in luring the Birmingham man to the Etihad campus for 100 million pounds after his Euro 2020 campaign ended in tears with a loss to Italy at Wembley. With his squad already bursting with attacking talent like Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, Riyad Mahrez, Raheem Sterling, and Gabriel Jesus, Guardiola will feel as if he is in a good position to repeat the title-winning triumph of the season before. This is all despite his obnoxiously public courtship of Harry Kane ending with no signature on the dotted line, with Daniel Levy ensuring his crown jewel stayed in Tottenham, doomed to a career of trophyless mediocrity.
Despite the Kane chronicles not concluding with Guardiola getting his way as he so often does, he will be expected to not look back in anger, and instead persevere in finally delivering the Holy European Grail to his wealthy benefactors. Given the wealth of talent at his disposal, he should have no trouble in making his way into the knockout stages of the Champions League. The Premier League should prove to more difficult for him to secure this year, even if the Etihad can welcome back all three actual City fans in Manchester to offer their deafeningly quiet support. Time will tell if Sergio Aguero’s absence will be felt keenly, but City fans will no doubt find comfort in that famous Martin Tyler call of the Argentine’s historic goal against QPR.
Liverpool
Fresh off the self-satisfied glow of winning their long-overdue first league title in the Premier League, the Reds would not have expected to stumble as they did in their title defence. That their hard-pressing style inevitably resulted in a pile-up of injuries that ultimately stifled Jurgen Klopp’s plans to play with the same intensity that saw his side steamroll opposition in the campaign prior should have come to no one’s surprise, but the scruffy German cut a disconsolate mopey figure on the touchline and in press conferences.
Yes, Virgil Van Dijk was certainly a big miss at the back, as were various other injuries that riddled his first-team squad, but the club’s board should wear the blame in not choosing to strengthen their title-winning squad. As Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte learned in their respective stints at Chelsea, so too did Klopp in his largely positive one at Merseyside: if you fail to add to your squad after winning a league title, you will suffer regardless of whether you’re hit with unfortunate injuries or not.
Learning from last year’s bumps and bruises, Liverpool brought in promising young centre-back Ibrahima Konaté to slot into the back four and held onto their formidable attacking players. Players like Takumi Minamino and Thiago Alcantra should offer pace and more than thumbs-up idea ball respectively after having a season to bed in at Melwood.
In life there are bigger things than football, as goalkeeper Alisson Becker found when his father passed away last season. After some errors in goal that could be attributed to the loss in concentration that such a shocking loss could inspire, the Brazilian should be back to his towering best.
The long shadow of the looming African Cup of Nations will surely already be casting a dour look upon Klopp’s face as he plans to walk alone without Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, and Naby Keita for close to a month during the league season. If the manager can find a solution to that problem and lead Liverpool to another title, he will surely be deserving of a statue outside Anfield.