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The Assist: The Premier League Restart

Get set for the new season in the world's most popular league.

The 2025/26 season in England’s top flight starts this weekend! With that in mind, we thought we’d dedicate almost all of this week’s newsletter to the fixtures taking place across the opening weekend - From Liverpool’s Anfield, home of the champions, to Leeds United’s Elland Road, which hosts the Monday night football.

The Champions

Arne Slot’s side averaged the most goals (2.3 per game), racked up the most big chances in the Premier League (150) and had the highest Expected Goals total (83.5). 

The tragic passing of Diogo Jota hit Liverpool hard, not just off of the pitch but also on it. Luís Diaz was then sold to Bayern Munich for an initial £66million while Darwin Núñez joined Al Hilal for £46million. It meant Arne Slot is down three senior attackers and, right now, just one new attacker has made the switch to Anfield, with Hugo Ekitike moving for £69million. 

He scored just four minutes into his competitive debut for the Reds, giving Slot’s men the lead in the Community Shield after combining well with fellow new signing Florian Wirtz. The pair will fancy their chances on Friday evening too as the Premier League champions kick off the 2025/26 campaign hosting Bournemouth at Anfield. 

The Cherries have been raided this summer, losing Kepa, Milos Kerkez, Dean Huijsen and Illia Zabarnyi. That quartet started the majority of games for Andoni Iraola’s side last term on their way to posting the eighth best defensive record in the top flight, when looking at xG faced. 

It’ll be a new look Bournemouth defence coming up against a new look but just as ominous Liverpool attack. The Reds should have enough to see them start their season with a win, especially at Anfield, but they did struggle against Palace in the Community Shield, losing the xG battle.

The Challengers

The latest iteration of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal project, which has so far seen the Gunners finish second in each of the last three seasons, starts at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Manchester United vs. Arsenal would be a headline fixture on any given weekend but to front load the calendar with this game in the opening round is a blessing from the powers that be. Both sides have, famously, added firepower to their forward line over the summer. The need for that was obvious at United, after their worst season in half a century, but also at the Emirates, where the lack of a top class, out-and-out centre forward was also keenly felt.

Arsenal took their time but settled on bringing in Swedish striker Viktor Gyökeres. No one in a top ranked UEFA league scored more goals than him last season. And over two years at Sporting in Portugal, Gyökeres managed 97 goals in 102 appearances (all comps) - the kind of numbers only the robot, Erling Haaland tends to produce.

United, instead, have gone for volume and variation in their attacking signings - bringing in a No. 9, Benjamin Šeško, plus the Premier League experience of Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha as wide options.

These signings are dominating the pre-match narrative and if at least one of them delivers on Sunday, they’ll dominate the post-match headlines as well.

World Club Champions Chelsea take on Crystal Palace on Sunday. Enzo Maresca’s side impressed in the United States over the summer, beating PSG in the final of FIFA’s enhanced flagship Club World Cup tournament, and using that time to bed in new signings like Liam Delap and João Pedro.

The thinking is that the Blues should, therefore, be able to hit the ground running this season, and perhaps sustain the title challenge that they threatened during the last campaign. But if Chelsea must always come with the new ‘World Champions’ prefix, then their opponents can claim a similar title as FA Cup and Community Shield winners Crystal Palace.

Underestimating Oliver Glasner’s Eagles has come at a cost, as Liverpool and Manchester City before them have found. Then again, Sunday’s game doesn’t come at Wembley, where Palace have shone in recent times. It’s played at Stamford Bridge, where they’ve only managed to pick up one point and score four goals in nine previous visits.

In contrast to Chelsea, Manchester City’s Club World Cup adventure ended prematurely in a surprising defeat to Saudi giants Al Hilal. It was a sign that Pep Guardiola’s latest overhaul of his first team squad may take a little longer to bear fruit. City start their season at Wolves in the Saturday evening kickoff. A game that will be watched closely in our Norwegian headquarters - it being a battle between two Nordic No. 9s, Erling Haaland and Jørgen Strand Larsen.

The Promoted Sides

The three teams coming up from the Championship have been relegated straight back down in each of the last two seasons. The last time that happened in the Premier League was way back in 1997/98.

Messrs Burnley, Leeds United, and Sunderland will be desperate to ensure that this recent phenomenon does not become the new normal - something evidenced by the eye-watering amount of spending, and the sheer number of signings that all three have made over the summer. Now, they must start as they mean to go on, and signal their intent by winning on the opening day of the season.

Playoff final winners Sunderland kick off their first Premier League campaign since 2016/17 with a home game against West Ham United on Saturday, a side they have not faced in any competition during the intervening years.

The Black Cats appear to be investing wisely from the big money sales of Jobe Bellingham and Tom Watson, bringing in a mix of experience or Premier League-ready players (Granit Xhaka, Simon Adingra) and emerging talents. West Ham fans are less happy with their summer recruitment drive so far.

Also playing on Saturday, Burnley visit Spurs, the side where manager Scott Parker both played and started his coaching career. Burnley boasted the best defence in the Championship last season, conceding just 16 goals at a rate of 0.3 per game, and the hope will be that they can maintain that solidity having made the step back up to the big time. Thomas Frank must rally his troops after they came undone, conceding two late goals to PSG, and then suffering the heartbreak of a penalty shootout defeat in the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday night.

Leeds United, who prevailed in the closely fought Championship title race, have to wait until Monday evening to get their season underway. Then, they take on David Moyes’ Everton at Elland Road. The Toffees made waves this week by announcing the loan signing of Jack Grealish from Manchester City so there will be plenty of interest in where exactly he will slot in to the team. Leeds’ yet to be confirmed move for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who recently left Everton after nine seasons with the club, would add some extra spice to this one.

Of the three new sides, Leeds are being touted as the best equipped to stay up, but to do so they’ll need to remain strong at home. Across the top four tiers of English football only Birmingham City (61 points in League One) picked up more points on their own ground than Leeds last season (58 points).

Two of Europe’s other Big Five leagues also get underway this weekend and you can, of course, follow all the action in the app.

LaLiga champions Barcelona are heading where a lot of us would like to be going during the summer - across the Balearic Sea to the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, where they play on Saturday evening.

PSG, the Champions League holders, newly anointed Super Cup winners, and Club World Cup runners-up, start the latest defence of their Ligue 1 crown away at Nantes, on Sunday evening.

Sam McGuire is back with his assessment of the potential impact that Manchester United’s newest striker and potential chaos merchant could have on the Premier League.

Learn all you need to know about teenage Kazakhstani sensation Dastan Satpaev, the 17-year-old who has been making a name for himself in the Champions League qualifiers over the summer, and who Chelsea have already snapped up for 2026!

The Toffees have a new ground and new owners but is there fresh hope for David Moyes’ side after what many would call a disappointing summer in the transfer window? Graham Ruthven runs his eye over the new recruits on Merseyside.

Compare and contrast your club’s summer spending with our handy new player market value filter, which can be found in the lineup page on all Premier League matches, and indeed, games in all competitions where that information is available.

Just swipe to the lineup tab and click on the relevant filter. During live games you can also check the age and nationality of the players, and in the Premier League in particular, track live fantasy points.

Follow the weekend with us on Instagram, TikTok, X, or Bluesky.