Category: English Premier League

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Will Liverpool canter to another title? Have Manchester City rediscovered their mojo? Have Arsenal finally found the missing pieces of the jigsaw? Will Chelsea’s midsummer Copa Gianni endeavours catch up with them? Can any or all of the three promoted sides make a decent fist of not going straight back down this time? Will Fulham finish 11th or 12th? How adverse an effect will being the father of twins going through the terrible twos have on the form of Jarrod Bowen? Some early clues to the answers of these and many other questions will be provided this weekend as the latest beautifully packaged model of the Premier League rolls off the assembly line, kicking off with tonight’s ding-dong between Liverpool and what’s left of a Bournemouth carcass that has been feasted upon by a wake of vultures during the transfer window. A club so resilient and resourceful that at one point they exhibited the massed ranks of their lame and halt David Blaine-style in a perspex box at the Vitality Stadium, Andoni Iraola’s side will almost certainly be just fine.

This season you want to make sure that you don’t lose those stupid points. There were a few games where we analysed them back and said to ourselves: ‘This can’t happen’” – Youri Tielemans gets his chat on with Ben Fisher, and reveals how Aston Villa have done the research and will be higher up the table if they cut down on daft mistakes.

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Thomas Frank takes charge of his first Spurs league match against Burnley while Arsenal travel to Manchester United

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Villa Park

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Vítor Pereira’s side may at best stand still but hopes are high some of their youthful talent could change the picture

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 16th (NB: this is not necessarily Ben Fisher’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 16th

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• German has to stay fit like Salah, says Slot

• Giovanni Leoni moves summer spend past £300m

Arne Slot has said Florian Wirtz must reach the standards set by Mohamed Salah to realise Liverpool’s ­expectations of their new record signing.

Wirtz will make his Premier League debut when the champions open the season at home to Bournemouth on Friday. Slot said the Germany international’s “adjustment went better than expected, and we already expected a lot”, but admitted a more accurate gauge would take time.

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Clubs are spending like there is no tomorrow but the title looks to be between Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea

And I heard, as it were, a sound of thunder. I heard multitudes marching to the big kettle drum. Not to mention, it should be said, even larger multitudes talking on the wicked and unholy internet about agent sightings, failed here-we-gos and the Alexander Isak wheel of global conspiracy.

Let he that hath understanding count the number! Because, let’s face it, it really is an absolute beast of a number, 215 live Premier League games on Sky Sports alone, an endless rolling debauchery of games, of graphics that go whoosh, of arguments by the lighted dias.

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Frank deserves a chance to prove himself but the new manager will need a strong start after last season’s calamitous league campaign

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 6th (NB: this is not necessarily Ed Aarons’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 17th

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Celebrities play it. Footballers play it. Gradually, insidiously, fantasy football has seeped into the way we consume the game

Perhaps you’re a template kind of guy. Perhaps, by contrast, you’re spurning the triple Liverpool consensus and stacking your team with handy differentials like Jarrod Bowen and Donyell Malen. Perhaps even Erling Haaland could be considered a differential given his historically low current ownership stats. Perhaps you’re feeling a cheeky BB GW1, followed by a FH GW2. Perhaps, by contrast, you’re furiously stabbing at the “close tab” button on your browser in the hope of purging these words from your eyes as expeditiously as possible.

In which case, relax. This is actually a column about sport: what it is, what it isn’t, how we watch it, where it’s going. Most important, you can rest assured I shall not be relating any details of my Fantasy Premier League exploits, for the same reason I will not be sharing my dreams, my Wordle stats or the contents of my belly button. However fascinating you may find your own, it is genuinely no excuse for wasting anybody else’s time.

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It was only the Community Shield, but issues from pre-season popped up again for Arne Slot in Liverpool’s loss on penalties to Crystal Palace

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

It was the Community Shield, and that should not be forgotten. There isn’t anybody who has been watching English football for any period of time who hasn’t made the mistake of taking too seriously a conclusion drawn in the midst of the traditional curtain-raiser, giddy on the sight of Wembley in its pomp and the return of competitive club football from the summer wilderness.

Any analysis has to be tempered. Teams are always works in progress, evolving and developing, but that is never truer than in early August with new signings adapting to their teammates and surroundings, and others shaking the summer from their legs. Things will change. But after Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace and subsequent defeat on penalties in the Community Shield, it can be said with a degree of certainty that their new signings have gelled better at the front of the pitch than the back.

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• England international due to have medical on Monday

• City have been asking for £12m loan fee for £100m signing

Jack Grealish is poised to sign for Everton on loan after agreeing to leave Manchester City in an attempt to revive his stalled career.

Everton’s interest in the City midfielder was reciprocated over the weekend with Grealish accepting the opportunity to join David Moyes’s side in their first season at Hill Dickinson Stadium. The 29-year-old is due to undergo a medical on Monday and confirmation of his loan deal could be announced swiftly, providing there are no issues.

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The Guardian’s fans network looks ahead to the new season: fresh talent, weak links, and who will be sacked first

Optimism abounds in London N5. I had some doubts about Arteta’s ability to keep motivating this group, but this summer’s heavy spend should fix that, reinvigorating the squad. Only time will tell whether the new faces can gel and develop chemistry, but it’s a relief to have the clamour for a centre-forward answered at last. Hopefully come May we’ll be lauding Victor’s veni, vidi, vici Premier League triumph.

Bernard Azulay onlinegooner.com; @GoonerN5

Jonathan Pritchard (With thanks to Ozzy and all the Holte Enders in the Sky.)

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Supporters will hope inactivity in the transfer market this summer will not lead to the club treading water

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 11th (NB: this is not necessarily John Brewin’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 11th

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Every team enters preseason at a different stage of readiness and with different goals, making results hard to decipher

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Glory for Manchester United, who lifted the Premier League summer series on Sunday despite twice being pegged back by Everton to draw 2-2 in Atlanta. A degree of relief for West Ham, who beat Bournemouth to finish second in the competition despite all the gloomy prognostications about their campaign to come. In Seoul, meanwhile, there was a very Tottenham moment as they followed the glee of last week’s 1-0 win over Arsenal with a 1-1 draw against Newcastle in which James Maddison was stretchered off with a knee injury described by his manager Thomas Frank as “bad”.

It all looks real, it sounds real and yet everybody knows it isn’t real. That even now, in this age of data and minute analysis, there remains an element of randomness, is one of soccer’s great joys as a sport. But that tendency is magnified in pre-season.

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After years spent in striker-less formations, the Premier League’s top teams are seemingly all set to rely on a big body (or two) up top

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It’s only been a decade since it seemed the center-forward was being refined out of existence. Spain had won Euro 2012 with Cesc Fàbregas as a false nine, and Germany, who largely took Spain as a model, were less than convinced they needed one at the 2014 World Cup. They fielded Thomas Müller as a false-ish nine until the quarter-final, when Jögi Löw finally went back to basics and turned to Miroslav Klose. That he was 36 only seemed to confirm that the old-fashioned No 9 was an old-fashioned phenomenon – a dying breed. Yet this summer, the main interest in the transfer market has been the carousel of strikers.

Of course, strikers never entirely disappeared. The four leading scorers in the Premier League in 2014–15 were Sergio Agüero, Harry Kane, Diego Costa and Charlie Austin. Mauri Icardi and Luca Toni topped the charts in Italy, while Cristiano Ronaldo, his conversion to A No 9 complete, was top scorer in Spain (although that he was followed by Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann, and Neymar suggested a greater variety of goalscorer there).

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• Fee for forward could reach £71m with add-ons

• Mbeumo wanted United despite Spurs interest

Manchester United have agreed a deal worth more than £70m to sign Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford. A fee of £65m will be paid up front and a further £6m could follow in add-ons

The Cameroonian, who scored 20 Premier League goals last season, has been a key target for Ruben Amorim. United first made an offer for Mbeumo six weeks ago and had a number of bids rejected. Mbeumo made clear he wanted to move to Old Trafford despite interest at Tottenham from his former head coach Thomas Frank, and personal terms are not thought to be an issue.

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• Offer to Brentford for forward includes guaranteed £65m

• Manchester City sign 18-year-old midfielder Sverre Nypan

Manchester United have made an improved bid for the Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo. The offer is worth up to £70m, with £65m guaranteed and the rest add-ons.

Ruben Amorim is eager to sign Mbeumo, who has indicated to Brentford he would like to join United, but Sir Jim Ratcliffe is eager not to pay over the odds. The London club have turned down at least one bid for Mbeumo from United and have demanded about £70m for a player who scored 20 Premier League goals last season.

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