It could be a long summer for Premier League fanbases. Most of us want transfer business to be finished “yesterday,” but in a World Cup year, it can be a little bit more difficult to get those deals completed. The World Cup ends on 19th July, and the new season starts on 22nd August, so there are 34 days to get players back and match fit before the campaign starts. It’s not always ideal, especially when some players come back fatigued or injured.
Overall, it gives a sense of the unknown going into the new season, one where the title race feels wide open. As expected, Arsenal are favourites at this point, which is hardly surprising when you factor in the Gunners’ winning the title without really looking in danger of letting it slip during the run-in. But we’d also argue that, while deserved favourites, Arsenal are hardly a lock to retain the Premier League title.
Right now, the bookies have basically put four teams in the driving seat, led by Arsenal. City are second favourites, followed narrowly by Liverpool and Manchester United. Those odds could certainly move during the summer as transfer business firms up, and it will be worth keeping an eye on sports predictions markets online to see how experts are trading the Premier League in the coming months.
The sense of the unknown also comes through City’s and Liverpool’s changes in the managerial hot seat, as well as Chelsea, too, of course. If Pep Guardiola had remained in post, you’d have expected City’s odds to be closer to Arsenal’s. Andoni Iraola arrives at Anfield with a brilliant reputation coming from Bournemouth, but we have been here many times before where a coach arrives at a big club from a mid-tier one only to struggle; just ask Thomas Frank. Chelsea will feel they have a coup with Xabi Alonso, but will it be the mercurial Bayer Leverkusen version or the one who struggled to manage egos at Real Madrid?
And then there is Manchester United, so often a laughingstock over the past 13 years. Yet, for all the problems at Old Trafford down the years, we should not forget that there was no Premier League club that amassed as many points in the Premier League after Michael Carrick took the reins in January. It was, put simply, title-winning form, and they should not be ruled out next season, especially when they seem to have a transfer war chest to beef up the midfield.
One of the issues for United and everyone else, though, is that there is no magic formula that says transfer business is going to guarantee success. Look at Liverpool last summer. While hindsight is a wonderful thing, most of us thought that the arrivals of Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike represented a masterstroke, strengthening from a position of strength, so to speak, but the Reds faltered, having a fairly poor defence of their title.
So, for want of sounding non-committal, we’d say this could be a wait-and-see season. So many factors – managerial changes, World Cup injuries and hangovers, squad rebuilds, and more – will influence the new season. You can appreciate that the bookies have gone for Arsenal, who not only are the champions but also have the least in the way of squad needs, not to mention a settled line-up and coaching philosophy, but the pendulum might swing in other directions. Most football fans will be too glued to the action of the World Cup to care over the next month or so, but August is looming, and it will be back to business for the 20 Premier League teams.
