On Friday, the Premier League starts its new season with the London derby Crystal Palace against Arsenal (9 p.m. / live Sky). The “Gunners” are one of the teams that want to challenge champions Manchester City for the title. Liverpool is again the number one challenger for the defending champion around coach Pep Guardiola. Austria’s contribution to the top English football league is currently limited to Southampton coach Ralph Hasenhüttl.
For the first time since the 2004/05 season 18 years ago, the world’s most popular league will probably be staged without Austrian kickers. The only contribution last year, ÖFB team goalie Daniel Bachmann, relegated to Watford. However, Florian Grillitsch, who is currently without a contract, is considered a candidate for a move to the island. So Hasenhüttl – who is fighting for relegation in Southampton with his co Richard Kitzbichler and is a guest at Tottenham on Saturday – remains the red-white-red beacon in England’s upper house.
This was last dominated by Manchester City. Four of the last five championships have gone to Guardiola’s team. Liverpool could only succeed in 2020. With the signing of ex-Salzburg player Erling Haaland, Guardiola has another superstar in his ranks who should extend City’s dominance. Further reinforcements such as Argentine striker Julian Alvarez (River Plate) and international Kalvin Phillips (Leeds) overcompensate for departures such as Gabriel Jesus (Arsenal) and Raheem Sterling (Chelsea).
“There is no reason not to be confident,” said Guardiola. “I don’t know what will happen this season but I have no doubts about my players. We won’t change the way we play,” announced the Spaniard. The first test comes on Sunday in the away game at West Ham United.
Liverpool, on the other hand, want to sow doubts about City, the “Reds” are visiting Fulham on Saturday. Coach Jürgen Klopp’s team, who only had to bow to the Guardiola squad on the last day of the season last season, defeated their rivals 3-1 in a duel for the Community Shield at the weekend. For the goal of the championship title, EUR 75 million striker Darwin Nunez from Uruguay should be more than just a replacement for Sadio Mané, who moved to Bayern Munich. “We had time to prepare for his departure and we did that,” emphasized Klopp.
The remaining members of the “Big Six”, the three London clubs Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal as well as City’s city rivals United also want to have a say in the championship fight. One can be curious about the fourth of last season, Tottenham Hotspur. Under the successful coach Antonio Conte, the north Londoners put in a strong second half of the season, defeating City, among others. With the Brazilian Richarlison, the Croatian Ivan Perisic and the Ivorian Yves Bissouma, Conte has also cleverly strengthened his team around Harry Kane.
At Chelsea, on the other hand, who started the season at Everton on Saturday, the German coach Thomas Tuchel was dissatisfied. After the change of ownership, the hoped-for reinforcements have not materialized so far. On the contrary: Romelu Lukaku was loaned to Inter, the defensive supports Antonio Rüdiger (Real) and Andreas Christensen (Barcelona) were given up, further departures are not excluded. “We know that some players want to leave us,” said Tuchel. On the plus side so far are Sterling and Napoli’s Senegalese centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly.
Arsenal, under manager Mikel Arteta, is beginning to see hope that they can attack the top four with more consistency. In any case, the goal is to achieve a place in the Champions League. They were upgraded accordingly: Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko came from City, the young Fabio Vieira from FC Porto. They face an already extremely talented team around Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard.
Manchester United are in a state of upheaval as they meet Brighton on Sunday. Ralf Rangnick successor Erik ten Hag should lead the club back to the top. However, the future of the superstar Cristiano Ronaldo who is willing to change is unclear, which causes unrest in the club. If the 37-year-old Portuguese leaves, the Red Devils would be comparatively thin in attack with Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford. After the departure of Paul Pogba (Juventus), the desired player Frenkie De Jong could not be brought from Barcelona. Denmark’s Christian Eriksen is the most notable addition.
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Featured image: Imago