The 2022-2023 season has got off to a spectacular start, with Manchester City flattening their engines to defend the title, Liverpool FC eager for revenge but so far they appear just a shadow of last season’s team, Arsenal London is looking for lost glory, and Manchester United perennial title contenders, but unable to find its rhythm after the ‘’Sir Alex Ferguson era’’ despite investments and changes on the coaching bench, with Chelsea London in disarray after losing its main backer (Abramovic), with Tottenham always capable of big surprises, with an outsider, Newcastle United, in the most financially prosperous period of its history.
The Premier League is the Everest that every team in English football dreams of climbing. Being in the Premier League means exposure, money, and the pleasure of playing football at the highest level for those who are part of this exclusive ‘club’. The stadiums are full in the Premier League, the TV channels are fighting to broadcast the matches to all corners of the globe, which proves that all those who love the phenomenon called football appreciate the policy of those who run English football, appreciate the effort of the teams to transfer the best players, to bring in the most talented managers, to provide entertainment on the pitch, in the stands and outside the arenas.
Having mentioned the Premier League giants earlier, the experts see Manchester City as favorites to win the league title again this season. In the last five, Pep Guardiola’s side have won four titles. Before the start of the current season, the bookmakers gave Manchester City odds of only 1.57 for another success in the 2022-2023 season. Runners-up FC Liverpool were given odds of 3.50. “The ‘Cormorants’ were over-excited after their 3-1 FA Community Shield win over rivals Manchester City, a match which officially opened the 2022-2023 season, but which subsequently marked the team’s worst start to a season since German Jürgen Klopp took over as manager on 8 October 2015.
Arsenal have been the pleasant surprise of the early season. With the same Mikel Arteta on the bench, the Gunners got off to a blistering start with five straight wins, only stumbling in the sixth round at Old Trafford in a game in which they dominated, had the statistics on their side and, say the pundits, were better. But not enough! Arsenal haven’t won the league title since 2004, when Arsene Wenger was manager and Patrick Vieira, the current Crystal Palace manager, was captain. To be champions, Arsenal apparently needs consistency of results first and foremost, but also luck!
Chelsea London and Tottenham Hotspur don’t seem capable of challenging for the title this season, but they can referee it. Newcastle United, who I mentioned earlier, a team with a huge budget, needs time to return to the Premier League elite, of which they were last part at the start of the current millennium.
As for the fight to avoid relegation, no conclusions can be drawn yet. Leicester City, the 2016 champions, are off to a catastrophic start to the season. The revolution promised by Northern Irishman Brendan Rodgers is, so far at least, a fiasco!
What will happen to Brighton & Hove Albion, last seasons Premier League revelation is another interesting topic of this Premier League season. The architect of the new Brighton & Hove Albion, Graham Potter has left the team after just six games, leaving them in 4th place! After 135 games on the Seagulls bench, Graham Potter has embarked on the most spectacular, yet dangerous adventure of his life. The charismatic manager has accepted a proposal from a huge club, Chelsea London, who have parted company with little regret with the German Thomas Tuchel, who brought three major trophies to Stamford Bridge last year, the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup! Praised and appreciated, but without experience at such a level, Graham Potter will have an almost impossible task at Chelsea, given that the London club’s budget has been drastically reduced.
English football has welcomed Nottingham Forest back to the topflight after a break of more than two decades, the side that made history in the late 1970s by winning the title and the European Champions Cup, the latter twice in succession. The Forest are aiming to stay in the Premier League.
The Premier League has kept its old rivalries but given birth to new ones. The Premier League remains a never-ending source of spectacle, topics and, not least, predictions!
