Welcoming a New Cycle in the Premier League

LONDON, WEDNESDAY — With all due respect to Liverpool supporters, the Premier League competition for the 2025-2026 season is highly unlikely to favor them. Instead of "The Reds" being able to maintain their dominance, the greater possibility lies in the emergence of a champion outside the duo of powerhouse teams that have dominated the top tier of English competition for the past eight seasons.

Liverpool is preparing to welcome a new campaign with great ambition. Unlike the 2024-2025 season, which was very economical due to the acquisition of only Federico Chiesa from Juventus, Liverpool Manager Arne Slot has already established Liverpool as the team with the highest spending in this summer's transfer market.

Si Merah has spent approximately 293 million euros or around 5.56 trillion rupiah to bring in four key new players. They are Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez, and Jeremie Frimpong. This transfer value represents Liverpool's largest expenditure in history.

However, Liverpool has the potential to become the second English Premier League team to spend over 300 million euros in the transfer market. Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace) and Giovanni Leoni (Parma) are the latest targets for Slot to strengthen the very fragile defense during the 2025-2026 preseason.

If they officially bring in just one of those center-backs, Liverpool will become the second most extravagant team in Premier League history. Chelsea previously spent lavishly, with an expenditure of 630 million euros in the 2022-2023 season and 464 million euros in the 2023-2024 edition.

However, that significant expenditure does not guarantee that Liverpool will dominate in England. This was reflected in the Community Shield match against Crystal Palace on Sunday (10/8/2025).

Liverpool's frightening attacking play is not matched by the solidity of their defense. The team still has homework to do in integrating their icon, Mohamed Salah, with the new playing style of the Reds. Although they already have Wirtz, Ekiteke, and possibly Alexander Isak, Salah remains the most intimidating face for Liverpool's opponents in the 2025-2026 season.

"Every team wants to defeat us, so we must be more prepared than last season. In order to win something, we cannot be complacent and allow our opponents to easily create opportunities in every match," said Slot regarding his team's evaluation after losing in a penalty shootout to Palace in the Community Shield, as quoted by the club's website, Wednesday (13/8/2025).

While Liverpool is still racing against time to unify the cohesion of new players with the veteran stars who already understand the club's culture and the demands of playing in front of Anfield Stadium, other teams are showing their readiness to threaten the throne of the Reds. Chelsea, Arsenal, and Manchester City are the three biggest threats to Liverpool this season.

Chelsea begins the 2025-2026 season with high confidence. The UEFA Europa Conference League title of 2024-2025 and the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup are evidence that the team coached by Enzo Maresca has become increasingly mature. The arrival of new players, such as Joao Pedro, Liam Delap, Jorrel Hato, Estevao, and Jamie Gittens, will make "The Blues" even more formidable.

The youthful spirit of Chelsea players has already been tamed by Maresca. The Italian tactician understands how to assist his players in showcasing their best abilities and delivering an impressive collective performance.

After achieving success in international competitions, Maresca has the best momentum to assert Chelsea's maturity in competing for the English Premier League trophy this season. Moreover, the Blue squad has already demonstrated that they possess a champion's mentality.

One concern for Chelsea is the injury suffered by their key central defender, Levi Colwill. He is the central defender most frequently utilized by Maresca. Colwill's record from last season includes 43 matches with 3,747 minutes of playtime. Unfortunately, the development of the defender born in Southampton has been hindered due to an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury during the preseason.

Quickly finding a formula to address the loss of Colwill, Maresca has the opportunity to quench the thirst for the English League title that has persisted since 2017. At the same time, the Blues could end the hegemony of the two powerhouses, City and Liverpool, which began in the 2017-2018 season.

"When we finished in the top five, won the Conference League and the Club World Cup, I think it gave the players more energy to start the new season. I saw a different team atmosphere, things were much better than last year," Maresca said, as reported by Football London.

Strengthening the attacking line is also being undertaken by city rivals Chelsea, Arsenal. The arrival of Viktor Gyokeres is expected to eliminate the weakness of "The Gunners," who lack a pure center forward.

Undoubtedly, the sharpness of the player from Sweden will have a significant impact on Arsenal's ambition to quench their thirst for the Premier League title since 2004. In addition, the depth of Arsenal's attacking line has also been strengthened by the arrival of Noni Madueke from Chelsea.

Regardless of the increasingly dangerous attacks, a crucial aspect of Arsenal's game revolution this season is the arrival of two defensive midfielders, Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad and Christian Norgaard from Brentford.

The presence of both can enable Declan Rice and Mikel Merino to take on a more attacking role. Rice and Merino each scored nine goals last season. They were only outperformed by a quartet of forwards, namely Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard, and Gabriel Martinelli.

Meanwhile, City is in a mode to seek revenge for their failure to retain the English League trophy last season. The arrival of the best midfielder from Serie A 2024-2025, Tijjani Reijnders, along with the gem from Ligue 1, Rayan Cherki, is expected to bring a change to City's gameplay.

However, the threat of recurring injuries to Rodri, along with the departure of club legend Kevin De Bruyne, has slightly diminished City's chances of winning. Besides affecting the playing style, both are leaders within the "The Citizens" squad.

City is no longer reinforced by Kyle Walker, who often served as the spokesperson for Manager Pep Guardiola to all the players. The potential arrival of Gianluigi Donnarumma from Paris Saint-Germain and Rodrygo from Real Madrid could provide a different dimension to Guardiola's squad.

By observing the preparation period of the team ahead of the new season, the English Premier League trophy has the greatest chance in the last eight years to return to the capital of England, London.