English Premier League News
With most of their rivals changing managers, can the champions go back-to-back for the first time in more than 90 years?
Guardian writers’ predicted position: 1st (NB: this is not necessarily Ed Aarons’ prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Last season’s position: 1st
Continue reading...Mikel Arteta’s team and the Brazilian star could be a perfect match. It also could be a risk that ends in disaster
Sometimes what is needed is something different.
There is a long history in football of counterintuitive thinking being successful, of the benefits of creative tension, of adding grit to the oyster to generate the pearl, but even so, the news that talks between Vinícius Júnior and Arsenal on personal terms are progressing comes as something of a shock. Mikel Arteta’s great followers of a blueprint adding a free spirit like the Brazilian? Really?
This is an extract from Soccer Desk, a newsletter from the Guardian. Subscribe for free here.
Continue reading...Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta is perhaps best placed to fill the void but the coaching contenders are legion as another season looms
This used to be a land of giants. This used to be a land where big men fought. This used to be a land where Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger tussled, then José Mourinho joined the fray. This used to be a land where Jürgen Klopp made Pep Guardiola reconsider, and he changed his style and won anyway.
Not any more. Next season will be the first since the inaugural Premier League in 1992 not to feature any of the five big managerial beasts – not Ferguson, not Wenger, not Mourinho, not Klopp and not Guardiola.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...Slip-ups are brutally punished in English football’s top flight, but enlightened management can still transform a team’s fortunes
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
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...