Football Season Start Preview

After a shorter than usual summer break, due to the World Cup interrupting the upcoming season in November and December, the European domestic Football season is already upon us.

The last weekend of July sees a full set of fixtures from the Championship, the second tier in England which always starts one week before the Premier League. As well as this, first round of action from the Scottish Premiership as well as cup matches from the first rounds in Germany and Italy will take place.  

On Saturday 30, the English season begins with its traditional curtain raiser, the Community Shield match between the winners of the FA Cup and the League. This time around it’s Liverpool who take on Manchester City for the chance to claim the first piece of silverware of the season, and set a marker down.

The following week, the Premier League kicks off with the first fixture being a Friday night match between Crystal Palace and Arsenal. This season is set to be another one full of high-quality football, drama, rivalries and shocks. The challenge for most teams is whether they can close the gap to Manchester City and Liverpool, who were a good distance ahead of their rivals last season.

Defending champions City have added one of Europe’s most feared strikers to their ranks as well as midfield enforcer Kalvin Phillips.  Liverpool responded by splashing the cash on Darwin Nunez from Benfica. Chelsea have had a poor pre-season with coach Tuchel not happy with his team so they will need to up their game if they are to make a good start to the season.

Tottenham have had a very impressive transfer window, adding quality players all around the pitch, as they look to solidify their spot in the top four and make a good impression in the Champions League.

Manchester United have looked better in pre-season than they did in most of last season and have seen several high-profile players leave and a few fresh faces arriving.

By contrast, Arsenal have been busy bringing in five quality new players and releasing twenty-one from their squad.

Newcastle United haven’t been as active as many might have predicted. It will be interesting to see whether newly promoted Fulham, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth have what it takes to stay in the division. There will undoubtedly be many surprises along the way and hopefully the fight for the title, top four and survival will be entertaining all season.

The season starts on the same weekend in Germany and France, two leagues that have been dominated by one team in recent times. In Germany, Bayern Munich start as big favourites to win yet another league title although they have lost star striker Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona. They have strengthened by bringing in Sadio Mane from Liverpool and Matias De Ligt from Juventus but will have been disappointed to lose Niklas Sule to rivals Borussia Dortmund who have also added Sebastien Haller to their ranks.

They remain, however, a distant second favourite to win the league, ahead of RB Leipzig. Even more one-sided is France Ligue 1 with PSG expected to face very little opposition on their run to another league title. The Parisians will be hoping to finally add the Champions League to their trophy cabinet as the league title has become much of a formality.

The following week the league campaign starts in Spain with Real Madrid slight favourites over Barcelona to win a second title in a row whereas the Catalan giants will be hoping to win their first since 2019. The latter have been slowly rebuilding their squad despite financial issues and the additions of Raphinha, Kessie and Christiansen have made them look like a more complete team.

Real Madrid have added Tchouameni and Rudiger to their ranks giving them more options. Rumours persist linking Cristiano Ronaldo with a move from Manchester United to Atletico Madrid and if that happens it would certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons. In Italy, Inter Milan are the current favourites for the title, just ahead of Juventus and last year’s winners AC Milan with Roma, who have added well to their squad, currently fourth favourites. Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba, Angel Di Maria and Nemanja Matic are amongst the major signings so far this summer in Serie A.

Later in August, we will be able to witness the draws for the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League. That heralds the start of the high-level midweek Football we all look forward to. Last season, Real Madrid’s remarkable run saw them win their 14^th European Cup, an extraordinary achievement, breaking the hearts of Liverpool fans all around the world as they fell at the final hurdle.

This season we can expect a stronger Barcelona, PSG and Manchester City sides desperate to get their hands on Europe’s top prize for the first time as well as the usual suspects of Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Juventus and the Milan giants. Who will make the final in Istanbul is anyone’s guess at this stage, but we can be sure of some excellent matches along the way. Whichever team or competition you follow, we can surely all agree that after two months with no Football, it’s great that the new season is just around the corner.