Category: English Premier League

• Measures planned to run throughout 2026-27 season

• Ifab yet to give permission for proposed rule change

English football will introduce a trial this season in an effort to end the goalkeeper tactical time-out.

The trial – backed collectively by Pro Ref (formerly Professional Game Match Officials), the Football Association, Premier League, English Football League, Women’s Super League and National League – aims to prevent goalkeeper injuries used to disrupt momentum and allow opportunities for tactical instruction.

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• Argentinian surplus to requirements at Chelsea

• Deal follows Morgan Rogers’ switch to Stamford Bridge

Aston Villa have confirmed the loan signing of the Chelsea winger Alejandro Garnacho, as a summer of change continues at Villa Park.

The deal for Garnacho’s season-long loan includes a conditional obligation to buy a player who joined Chelsea last August from Manchester United in a deal worth £40m. Villa will be expected to pay a similar fee for Garnacho, who struggled to impress at Stamford Bridge despite featuring in 43 games in all competitions and scoring eight goals.

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• Losses increase between 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons

• Transfer spend and lack of one-off sales account for rise

The combined pre-tax losses of Premier League clubs climbed from £135m in the 2023-24 season to £948m in 2024-25, according to Deloitte’s annual review of football finance.

This rise was attributed by Deloitte to transfer spending and the absence of significant profits from one-off sales. Net debt of Premier League clubs was up to £3.6bn in 2024-25, compared to £3.5bn the season before, Deloitte found.

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• 43-year-old led French side to Conference League semis

• Burnley pushing to bring in Craig Bellamy as head coach

Gary O’Neil is poised to become Ipswich’s new head coach, with the 43-year-old expected to return to England from Ligue 1 Strasbourg.

There are only minor details to sort with O’Neil primed to succeed Kieran McKenna, who announced his wish to depart Ipswich after leading them to the top flight for a second time.

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• Manchester United travel to Hull on first weekend

• Manchester City without Guardiola host Bournemouth

Coventry will begin their first Premier League campaign in 25 years with a Friday night trip to the champions, Arsenal, on 21 August.

Their fellow promoted club Hull begin at home to Manchester United on the Saturday and Ipswich entertain Sunderland that day.

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• Burnley relegated in 2022 after Everton breached PSR

• Everton ‘angered’ by verdict and have appealed

Burnley have won a landmark legal case against Everton for breaching Premier League financial rules, with the Merseysiders ordered to pay nearly £40m in compensation. It is the largest financial penalty ever imposed on a Premier League club.

The verdict by a Premier League independent disciplinary commission – comprising the same three-man panel that deducted Everton 10 points over the same £19.5m breach in November 2023 – has widespread ramifications for the competition and increases the likelihood of more clubs taking legal action against members who have broken league rules.

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• Last of his 24 Premier League seasons was at Brighton

• ‘I could never have dreamed of the journey,’ he says

James Milner has finally pulled down the curtain on a distinguished, record-breaking and extraordinary playing career. It involved the highly versatile 40-year-old midfielder spending 24 seasons in the Premier League and winning 61 England caps as he traversed a road that carried him from Leeds to Brighton with stops at Newcastle, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Liverpool along the way.

In February, Milner, who also had a short loan at Swindon, broke the Premier League appearance record while playing for Brighton against Brentford. He ends his career having clocked up 658 top-tier games for six clubs and represented England in four major tournaments.

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We picked Liverpool as champions, Chelsea as challengers and tipped Brentford and Sunderland to go down. Oh dear

What we predicted: Mikel Arteta vowed this would be a “big summer” after finishing as runners-up in the Premier League for a third season in succession and the new sporting director, Andrea Berta, has delivered on a number of signings in his first transfer window. The question now for Arsenal supporters is whether Martín Zubimendi, Christian Nørgaard, Noni Madueke, Viktor Gyökeres, Cristhian Mosquera and Kepa Arrizabalaga can help them take that elusive final step to becoming champions for the first time since the Invincibles in 2004.

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The Premier League season is over, but what did Guardian football writers enjoy, dislike or marvel at over the last nine months?

Goalkeepers never usually get a mention for this award but David Raya played an integral role in Arsenal finally getting over the line, winning the Premier League’s Golden Glove award for a third year in a row thanks to 19 clean sheets. Declan Rice and Bruno Fernandes were the outstanding outfield players. Ed Aarons

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Slip-ups are brutally punished in English football’s top flight, but enlightened management can still transform a team’s fortunes

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The final day of the season, to a modern audience, can seem almost overwhelming: 10 games going on at once, each with their own rhythm and dynamic and storyline. It can be hard to imagine that at one time, before the advent of regular live television coverage, this is how it was every weekend. But from the mass of narratives, one key theme, one that has lurked in the background all season, emerged: that this is a brutally hard, extremely competitive, league in which any slip-up is punished.

There have been complaints this season about the style of many games, but then there comes a point towards the end of most seasons when a number of fans pronounce themselves bored and declare it a bad season; that tends to correlate quite strongly with how well their team has done.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition

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The BBC’s triple threat has been a hit on Match of the Day while TalkSport’s Sports Bar fits these football times

With Gary Lineker gone after 26 years, the BBC opted, in replacing a big beast, for a triple threat for Match of the Day duties. Lineker’s dad jokes are gone, and so is the going off-piste on social media controversy, now that three of the most solid pros in the business have the anchor. Not that the game’s big issues are sidestepped, each of the trio is a fully trained-up broadcast journalist with an attendant wealth of experience. If in “Chappers”, there is a residual, clubbable blokiness and the trademark giggle of the former Radio 1 sidekick, both of his co-hosts are just as happy to join in the fun. Both Logan and Cates possess the icy, sardonic armoury to cut Micah Richards and Alan Shearer down to size when required should the incumbent, top-band pundits get ahead of themselves. All three have even been known to get Danny Murphy laughing. The revolving cast has supplied a largely seamless transition, and in lowering the heat on a BBC forever targeted by certain vessels, a definite success.

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The most infuriating things, including mayhem at set pieces, daft jerseys and a largely ignored video game

You will almost certainly be aware that there have been a load of set-piece goals this season, and an extraordinary proliferation of long throws. At times the self-styled greatest league in the world has drowned in a torrent of guileless ball-flinging.

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The league has been awash with youthful talent, led by a Manchester City converted midfielder who is already filling his medal cabinet

There have never been as many good young players in the world as there are now, so we have limited this list to those aged 21 and under at the time of writing. And, though both are extremely good, neither Max Dowman nor Rio Ngumoha has played enough to be considered this season – though it seems unlikely either will be missing from the selection a year hence.

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Dominic Calvert-Lewin has discovered a new lease of life in Yorkshire while Adrien Truffert made a big impression

Considering the cost of signing elite Premier League strikers, Calvert-Lewin deserves a spot because he cost absolutely nothing. Plenty played a part in other clubs deciding the centre-forward was not for them after leaving Everton; his injury and goalscoring record left plenty to be desired but everyone knew what was available, if a club could get him fit. Still only 29, Calvert-Lewin wanted a change of scenery and has proved plenty wrong by missing only three Premier League games all season and producing the goals that have gone a long way to keeping his side in the Premier League – scoring seven in six games at the end of 2025 – and earning a first England call in five years along the way. “For me, he is one of the best English strikers in this league,” Daniel Farke said. “Harry Kane is playing in Germany for Bayern Munich, but in the Premier League, he is definitely one of the best English strikers and he will be a key player for us going forward.”

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From Wissa’s solitary goal for Newcastle to Postecoglou’s brief reign at Forest, it’s been a campaign to forget for some

Newcastle’s year-long chase to sign Yoane Wissa from Brentford felt like it would never end until they paid £55m for his services in September. The Democratic Republic of the Congo forward arrived after banging in 19 goals for Brentford last season and was supposed to lead the charge for Eddie Howe in the Premier League and Europe. In reality it has been a whimpering experience. Admittedly, none of Newcastle’s attacking recruitment paid off; Wissa sat on the bench alongside £65m Nick Woltemade and £55m Anthony Elanga in the April defeat away to Crystal Palace where the manager preferred to start Jacob Murphy and Will Osula. Wissa has scored once in 13 league appearances, starting only four times because he does not fit into the system and has not built the level of rapport he had with Bryan Mbeumo. The team as a whole has struggled, finishing 12th, a drop of seven places from last season, meaning they will not be returning to Europe. With Anthony Gordon expected to depart in the coming months, having faith in the reinvestment is not a given.

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