Key events
Florian Wirtz makes his Premier League debut tonight. With his control, vision, movement and weight of pass, he’s a delightful footballer and it’s easy to see why Liverpool paid the big bucks. Arne Slot is thrilled to have the German on board but offered a tinge of realism in his press conference.
Here’s Barney Ronay as the starting gun prepares to fire on the new Premier League season.
There are very good reasons why this thing has become the world’s dominant pop cultural stage. It works. No matter how sated you might have become by the end of the last one, there is always renewal and fresh hunger. Albeit with an even stronger sense this time of shifting planes, hard lines dissolving, a Premier League that is, for the first time in some time, a little menaced by omens, portents and notes of horn-parping rapture.
Let’s get straight into it by welcoming back an old favourite. Ladies and Gentleman, I give you 10 things…
Preamble
It’s back! The Premier League is back! A whopping 83 days since the 2024/25 season came to an end, champions Liverpool get the new 2025/26 campaign underway with a home game against Bournemouth tonight. Of course, we’ve hardly seen a ball kicked inbetween bar a dramatic Women’s Euros, a bonkers one-sided Champions League final, a turgid Europa League final, entertaining renewals of the Community Shield and Super Cup, rough-and-tumble action in the Championship, League One and League Two, key Champions League qualifiers, clue-gathering pre-season friendlies… you get the idea. But let’s not spoil the ‘it’s back’ narrative because now are empty lives are about to be filled again. We’ll have an absolute raft of scene setters for the big kick-off which starts at Anfield tonight and concludes at Elland Road on Monday via a Matchweek 1 which also features five games on Saturday (just three at 3pm) and three on Sunday.
Will we have a four-way title race? Will the three promoted sides go straight back down? How much improvement do Manchester United and Spurs have in them after hideous finishes last time? Will Alexander Isak move from Tyneside to Merseyside? Buckle up, it’s time to find out!
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