Players are preparing to return to Premier League action beginning on August 11, with champions Manchester City looking to follow up an historic campaign last time.
Pep Guardiola’s side are favourites to add another title to their honour roll after last season’s Treble, though rivals will be confident of at least closing the gap.
Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the talking points ahead of the 2023-24 campaign.
City to make history… again?
No English club have won four consecutive league titles, so Manchester City stand once again on the precipice of making history.
How the team respond to last season’s remarkable Treble – whether it will be the catalyst for domination domestically and in Europe or will hang over them like a cloud – is the main question ahead of Guardiola’s eighth season in charge, particularly after finishing the last campaign on such a high.
Manchester United added back-to-back titles after their Treble success in 1999, and with City seemingly not getting any weaker it will be hard to look past them matching their great rivals’ feat again.
Chelsea bidding to return to the elite
Chelsea finished last season in need of major surgery but early indications are that the club are using pre-season effectively, both on and off the pitch, to turn things around.
Transfer activity has looked promising with a bloated squad having been slimmed down, even if new head coach Mauricio Pochettino has emphasised the need for further cuts.
Recruitment has been more targeted to the team’s requirements than in previous windows, with Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku having impressed in attack on the tour of the United States, while player fitness has also improved.
A return to the Champions League next season after a dismal 12th-place finish last term will likely be viewed as the minimum requirement.
Added time to add up
A significant increase in time added on at the end of either half split opinion when it was introduced at last year’s World Cup, but the change is set to apply to Premier League games this season.
The stated aim from FIFA is to eradicate time-wasting and increase the proportion of a match that the ball is in play.
Luton looking to home comforts
Luton were one of the 22 original signatories to the document that founded the Premier League, but after being relegated in 1992 it has taken the Hatters 33 years to finally take their place back in England’s top flight.
Apart from the novelty of the club’s 10,356-capacity Kenilworth Road becoming the smallest ever Premier League ground – with its famous away entrance that involves effectively cutting through somebody’s back garden – there will be the question of how cut out Rob Edwards’ side are for competing in the world’s richest league.
There has been little transfer activity to reinforce Edwards’ promotion heroes so far, with Aston Villa’s Marvelous Nakamba the only player in with significant Premier League experience. The cramped, inhospitable conditions of their home ground could prove their greatest asset if they are to beat the drop.
The spectre of Saudi Arabia
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has said he is not concerned about the growing financial power of Saudi Arabia and its success so far in luring world stars, but the conversation about the Pro League’s emergence as an attractive home to players still in their prime is unlikely to die down soon.
The question of co-ownership and its potential to undermine Financial Fair Play will continue to be asked, as it was when Allan Saint-Maximin moved from Newcastle to Al Ahli – two clubs owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund – for £23million.
Masters may be moved to revise his outlook should the exodus of stars to the Gulf state continue.
Keane doubts Man Utd will crack top four under Amorim this season
Roy Keane does not believe Manchester United will get back into the Premier League's top four under Ruben Amorim this season due to a "real lack of quality".
The Red Devils legend was speaking after United started life under the Portuguese with a 1-1 draw at Ipswich Town, as Omari Hutchinson cancelled out Marcus Rashford's second-minute opener.
Keane acknowledged Amorim has to be given time to turn things around at Old Trafford, but does not see United cracking the top four this season.
"You have to give the man a chance," Keane told Sky Sports. "But the threat going forward, it's a huge problem for Man Utd. It's not good enough.
"Do I believe they have the quality to get them back to top four? Absolutely not. The evidence is not there. It's the same old stuff. Predictable and a real lack of quality."
United created 0.9 xG compared to Ipswich's 1.75 and had fewer shots on target (four) compared to Ipswich (six) at Portman Road.
They did have more touches in the opposition box (16 to 11) but had fewer final-third entries (48 to 61) and big chances created (two to three).
Ipswich were extremely resilient opponents after their early setback, and Tractor Boys boss Kieran McKenna praised his side, particularly Hutchinson after he grabbed his first Premier League goal.
"I thought he (Hutchinson) was a big threat first half, naturally more a winger, but most teams are going to press us high and in the spaces in the middle of the pitch having a dribbler in the middle of the pitch who's elusive and hard to pick up can be a big threat," he told Sky Sports.
"I think it's his first goal in the Premier League he'll be happy to have that of his back and he's improving."
"The first half, it's a blow to concede the early goal but I thought as the half went on we grew in the ascendancy, and the intensity of pressing and work on the ball.
"I thought we were the dominant team in the first half and deserved to be going in at least level. Second half in fairness, Man Utd had more control. It was difficult, we had to defend with real discipline on shape."
Leganes 0-3 Real Madrid: Mbappe and Bellingham score as Blancos close on Barcelona
Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham were both on target as Real Madrid moved to within four points of LaLiga leaders Barcelona with a 3-0 win at Leganes.
Federico Valverde also scored for Carlo Ancelotti's side, who still have a game in hand on leaders Barca, who were pegged back in a 2-2 draw with Celta Vigo on Saturday.
Mbappe ended a goal drought of over 400 minutes after being teed up by Vinicius Junior shortly before half-time, moments after Leganes had surrendered possession near the edge of their own area.
Madrid dominated possession throughout the second half and doubled their advantage in the 66th minute, Valverde drilling a low effort home from a free-kick won by Bellingham.
Bellingham later got in on the act with a header on the rebound after substitute Brahim Diaz rattled the crossbar, as Madrid cruised to back-to-back league wins.
Data Debrief: Dirty work pays off for Madrid
Mbappe's opener, scored at a vital time shortly before the interval, set Madrid on their way to victory on Sunday.
Eduardo Camavinga and Bellingham both pressed high to help the visitors recover possession in the build-up, and Madrid have now scored five goals resulting from high turnovers in LaLiga this season – the most of any team across Europe's top five leagues.
This was the first time Ancelotti had faced Leganes in LaLiga, and he has now beaten all 28 different opponents he has come up against in the competition.
Napoli 1-0 Roma: Lukaku downs former club on Ranieri's return
Claudio Ranieri's Roma return was spoilt by Romelu Lukaku, whose goal against his old club sealed a 1-0 win for Napoli.
Ranieri was appointed Roma boss over the international break, with the 73-year-old coming out of retirement to take charge of the club for a third time.
Yet it was ex-Roma striker Lukaku who decided Sunday's contest at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, with his 54th-minute effort sending Antonio Conte's team back to the top of Serie A.
Lukaku was well-placed to convert from Giovanni Di Lorenzo's cutback, bringing up his fifth Serie A goal of the campaign.
Roma, who had just two attempts and managed only 0.07 expected goals (xG) in the first half, woke up after Lukaku's goal, with Artem Dovbyk powering a header off the woodwork from a free-kick minutes later, but the visitors' comeback attempts proved fruitless.
Ranieri's next task is to rally his troops for a Europa League clash with Tottenham on Thursday.
Data Debrief: Ranieri's underwhelming return
There was no sign of an immediate upturn for 12th-place Roma, if they were hoping for a new-coach bounce.
Roma ended the first half with fewer than 70 successful passes (68). It is the first time they have had so few successful passes in the opening half of a league game since 2004-05.
With only three wins to their name in the league, they have won fewer than four matches in their opening 13 Serie A games for the first time since the 1978-79 campaign (also three).
And of course, it had to be Lukaku, who was leading their line last season, that delivered the hammer blow. The Belgium international has been involved in nine goals in Serie A this term (five goals, four assists). Only his former Everton club-mate Ademola Lookman, now a star at Atalanta, has contributed to more goals in the competition (seven goals, four assists).
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
