The hunt for Manchester City begins

The Premier League starts its new season on Friday with the London derby Crystal Palace against Arsenal (21.00 p.m.). The “Gunners” are one of the teams that want to challenge champions Manchester City for the title. Liverpool is once again considered the number one challenger for the defending champions around coach Pep Guardiola.

England's upper house was recently dominated by Manchester City. Four of the last five championships went to Guardiola's team. Liverpool was only able to 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 national player 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.

The Citizens want to celebrate again this year © APA/afp / PETER POWELL

Liverpool, on the other hand, wants to sow doubts at City; the “Reds” are guests at Fulham on Saturday. Coach Jürgen Klopp's team, which only had to bow to Guardiola's troops on the last matchday last season, defeated their rivals 3-1 in the duel for the Community Shield at the weekend. For the goal of winning the championship, 75 million euro 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 excited about the fourth place from the previous season, Tottenham Hotspur. Under successful coach Antonio Conte, the North Londoners put in a strong second half of the season, defeating City, among others. Conte has also cleverly strengthened his team around Harry Kane with the Brazilian Richarlison, the Croatian Ivan Perisic and the Ivorian Yves Bissouma.

Ivan Perisic will make the wings at White Hart Lane unsafe in the future. © APA/afp / JACK GUEZ

At Chelsea, however, which starts its season at Everton on Saturday, German coach Thomas Tuchel was dissatisfied. After the change of ownership, the hoped-for reinforcements have not yet materialized. On the contrary: Romelu Lukaku was loaned out to Inter, the defensive pillars Antonio Rüdiger (Real) and Andreas Christensen (Barcelona) were given away, and further departures cannot be ruled out. “We know that some players still want to leave us,” fears Tuchel. On the credit side so far are Sterling and the Senegalese central defender Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli.

At Arsenal, coach Mikel Arteta is slowly starting to 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 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, which meets Brighton on Sunday, is in a state of upheaval. Ralf Rangnick's successor Erik ten Hag should lead the club back to the top. However, the future of superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who is willing to change, is unclear, which is causing unrest in the club. Should the 37-year-old Portuguese leave, the Red Devils would be comparatively thin in attack with Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford. After the departure of Paul Pogba (Juventus), dream player Frenkie De Jong could not be brought in by Barcelona. Denmark's Christian Eriksen is the most notable addition.

GB Premier League International	SP	TV	P
1. Arsenal FC	30	72:24	68
2. Liverpool FC	29	67:27	67
3.Manchester City	30	67:29	67
4. Aston Villa	31	63:46	59
5.Tottenham	30	62:44	57
6. Manchester Utd.	29	40:40	48
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The hunt for Manchester City begins

The Premier League - touted by its own fans as the best league in the world - enters its 31st season this week. However, alongside the usual favorites Man City and Liverpool, several teams have hopes of winning the title.

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