The 2024-2025 English Premier League football season starts today. As usual, Manchester City starts the season as the reigning champion. The successful big club has now reached the top six times in the last seven seasons.
In the opening match of the season, Manchester United and Fulham will meet, on Saturday there will be a round of six matches. The season lasts until the end of May and the final round of the Premier League will be played on Sunday, May 25, 2025.
Urheilu’s football expert Miika Nuutinen find out the possible twists and turns of the coming months under the season and the phenomena talked about before the start of the season.
Who is the biggest champion favorite?
The settings for the coming season are clear. Manchester City’s superiority has created a power relationship where the 19 other clubs in the series are mostly trying to challenge the sky blue shirts.
The most important cornerstone of a successful team is continuity. The most recent championship was the fourth in a row for the Spanish pilot who has coached the team since 2016 Pep Guardiola’s under.
– Guardiola has been in charge for a long time and the body is quite unchanged. They haven’t relented in the transfer market and the team starts the season largely with the same team, Nuutinen emphasizes.
According to Nuutinen, when talking about champion favourites, what is interesting is what Guardiola has come up with this season. Every season, the team’s playing has been managed to be changed on the tactical side.
There are also dark clouds hovering over Manchester City as the club is accused of more than a hundred violations of financial rules. The Premier League has been investigating the club’s financial activities for more than four years and City is suspected of wrongdoing over 14 seasons.
The story of the 2024–25 season may also be determined a lot by what happens after consulting the club. The hearing is scheduled to start in September.
– They face the threat of possible point deductions and other sanctions. In terms of play, City had to be pretty tight last season, so it is by no means excluded that the power would change this year.
The toughest challengers?
Season after season, Arsenal from London has taken steps towards the status of the league’s long-lasting success. Last season, it was also the best special situation team in the series.
– The team played a large part of their last season like a champion. The fact that there happens to be a team like Guardiola’s City in the series was the biggest reason why the championship did not come.
Among the top teams, Liverpool will start the season under a new head coach, while until October 2015 the coach Jurgen Klopp abdicated his throne.
Dutch coach Arne Slot has successfully taken over the manager’s scepter based on the training season.
– Slot has been able to freshen up Liverpool’s playing in a certain way and the team’s player material is of high quality. If it gets its machine started well, the team will be in the championship fight.
Nuutinen also raises another north London club, Tottenham, who brought excitement at the beginning of last season, to the group of challengers. Repeat through Ange Postecoglou however, the backwater stages of the team playing under took the last edge from the top fight.
Outside of last season’s top teams, Nuutinen also includes Newcastle United, who reached seventh place.
– Their game is based on high-intensity defense, where they run a lot. The head coach With Eddie Howe has the most important pieces and the team has a lot already ready.
Follow these players
The superstars of the Premier League will surely shine as usual this season as well. They include Manchester City, who won the goal crown for the second time last season Erling HaalandArsenal Pier Bukayo Saka and the City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne.
As the most important individual player in the series, Nuutinen mentions the recent European champion, the Spanish midfielder Rodrin.
– If we think about what can threaten Manchester City’s championship, it can be difficult for the team to survive if Rodri is injured. Otherwise, there aren’t many dark clouds around.
However, dark clouds hung over the Manchester players for a while, as Rodri will not play in his team’s opening game against Chelsea. The Spaniard injured his hamstring in the summer EC final and only returned to City’s training on Wednesday of this week.
Performed cheerfully in Liverpool last season Dominik Szoboszlai according to Nuutinen, might be ready to take a bigger role in his team’s attack. A Swedish striker who plays at the top of Newcastle From Alexander Isak we can also wait for the last step towards the top.
– Isak’s ball delivery is of top quality and he is the kind of playground-like player that the audience can fall in love with.
At the end of last season, it became a sensational team by Oliver Glasner playing under Crystal Palace. Its young players under transfer rumours, Eberechi Eze and Marc Guéhiwere part of England’s European Championship team.
According to Nuutinen, a breakthrough could also have been expected from City’s Norwegian winger Oscar from Bobbi. However, the youngster’s recent injury will keep him out of the game for at least the next four months.
The most significant transfers
Several major clubs currently rely on continuity and have kept a surprisingly low profile in the transfer market, according to Nuutinen.
Manchester City has attached to its ranks only Savinhowhich, according to Nuutinen, is a question mark at the Premier League level.
Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta will get new winds in their defensive line, when starting the season, the team has been strengthened by a transfer from Bologna With Riccardo Calafiori.
– Calafiori is certainly a useful player for them. Central defender Jurriën Timber is also a bit of a new signing at Arsenal as he was on the sidelines for almost all of last season.
As far as the top row is concerned, the most significant move within the series is Dominic Solanke transfer to Tottenham. The attacker changed his address from Bournemouth for 76 million euros.
In addition, in the Premier League you can find, among others, Chelsea, which starts the season with the strength of young players. However, there are enough players in the team, as there are currently 43 gamblers in the representative team, according to the club. However, the team lacks actual superstars.
– On the other hand, no Cole Palmer too should have been, but in the end he ended up being Chelsea’s single most important player last season.
The transfer window is open until August 30.
What are we talking about?
At the start of the season, the eyes are mainly focused on head coach changes. Klopp was the face of Liverpool, but no other significant transfers have taken place in the club before the coming season.
– Klopp was at Liverpool for so long, so all eyes are there at the moment. What does Slot achieve and where does the game process go.
Another club attracting interest is Brighton, who go into the season with the league’s youngest ever permanent head coach by Fabian Hürzeler31, under the leadership.
According to Nuutinen, Brighton has been a statistical freak as a club for several years – the club has been able to overperform and fight for European spots, even though the budget is one of the smallest in the league.
Last season’s tactical phenomenon was Unai Emery’s Aston Villa’s really high defensive line.
– Every time an exceptional way of playing is invented, antidotes are often invented for it, Nuutinen reminds.
The fate of the rising teams?
After last season, none of the rising teams from the previous season managed to keep their place in the league. From the Premier League to the second highest league level, Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton were relegated to the Championship.
Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton were promoted to the Premier League this season. Of the trio, Ipswich is making a return to the Premier League after 22 years.
– They have a great story and the club will certainly be an object of interest for football romantics. They didn’t dominate the Championship like a storm and the rise came a bit unexpectedly.
Southampton and Leicester return to the Premier League after one season away.
– Leicester’s biggest challenge is how to change the playing from the best team in the championship to the worst in the Premier League. However, they have the skills to come to the league in order to stay.