A year after Leicester City surprised everyone with a shocking championship run in the Premier League, the order of the high-powered teams was restored. Chelsea took the crown last season, book-ending Leicester City’s improbable title with two championships in the past three years. Can they repeat as champs? Or will familiar faces like Manchester City or Manchester United claim the crowd.
With the 2017-18 Premier League set to get underway on Friday, here’s a look at seven clubs poised to challenge for the league’s title.
1) Manchester City
After winning their first six league games under Pep Guardiola, Manchester City looked like heavy title favorites. They promptly hit a poor run of form, slipped to the point where Champions League qualification was in some doubt, and then finished the season losing just one of their final 16 games — and that loss came at Stamford Bridge to the eventual champions, Chelsea.
Still, a third-place finish was not what City’s ambitious owners were looking for after investing over $200 million into the squad and bringing in Guardiola, who had been the most sought-after manager in world soccer. As such, even more money has been invested this summer — to the tune of $275 million and counting — with the intention of winning the club’s first title since 2014.
They have brought in three new full backs after not buying any for six years. They brought in what they hope will be a long-term answer at goalkeeper in Ederson, admitting that the Claudio Bravo experiment failed miserably. They added yet another attacking talent in Bernardo Silva to go along with Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva, already two of the most dangerous players in the league. Rumor has it they’re still in the hunt for another defender and keen to sign yet another forward, be it Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez or Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe. In short, another trophy-less season will not be tolerated.
If anything holds City back, it will be the same thing that has held them back in years past. They still have yet to sign a new center back, meaning they’ll again rely on injury-prone captain Vincent Kompany, unproven talent John Stones, and the occasionally rash Nicolas Otamendi. New full backs Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker should help, but City are definitely taking a risk relying on the same unit that got them into trouble far too frequently last season. If it improves, City might be favorites for the title — their attacking play will be something to behold.
2) Chelsea
Have Chelsea done enough to retain their title? While reigning champions like to make a statement of intent that is as psychological as it is adding talent, the Blues have mostly settled for replacing outgoings.
Young midfield destroyer Tiemoue Bakayoko enters as a replacement for Nemanja Matic, while striker Alvaro Morata is in to replace Diego Costa, who is soon to depart the club after falling out with manager Antonio Conte. They’ve also brought in Antonio Rudiger. But none of these players are enough to make you jump out of your seat in excitement. Losing out on striker Romelu Lukaku after looking to be in the driver’s seat all summer was also an embarrassing affair for Chelsea. They’ll also have to contend with the Champions League this season after not appearing in Europe last term, which could have a profound impact on a squad that didn’t have to rely much on depth as they marched to the title.
The summer, plagued at one time by rumors that Conte could depart after leading the club to the title, has not been what Chelsea was looking for. Still, writing off the Blues would be a big mistake. This was a historically great team last season — their 93 points was the second-highest tally since the Premier League came together in 1992 — and that core of players led by Eden Hazard remains in place, with a manager who has a penchant for winning. There’s still an odd feeling around the club, and with the Manchester clubs spending so freely, expect Chelsea to come back to the pack this season, though they’ll still easily qualify for the Champions League.
3) Manchester United
After a surprising and disappointing sixth-place finish, Jose Mourinho managed to lead Manchester United to a Europa League title, ensuring they’d appear in this season’s Champions League. It was a vital moment for a club that have been missing from Europe’s premier club competition far too often since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. The finish meant United were prepared to heavily invest in the squad with the intention of making a run at multiple titles in 2017-18.
The signs were there for United last season. Only Tottenham lost fewer games in the league, as United’s problem was easy to diagnose — not enough goals. 54 goals in 38 teams actually gave them one fewer than Bournemouth, and a string of home draws to lesser squads led to a lot of points dropped. United’s defensive effort was second only to Tottenham in the division, but their league-leading 15 draws cost them a title challenge.
Romelu Lukaku has been brought in to rectify that. He scored 25 goals for Everton last season, and United were happy to spend nearly $100 million to bring him into the club. The other signs are good, too — Marcus Rashford looks poised to break out, goalkeeper David De Gea leads a strong rearguard, and the hope is that players like Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who was inconsistent in his first year with the club, will really be settled in and ready to roll now.
Still, United have not, on paper, improved quite as much as City have, though their improvement is clear. They should find themselves in a close title race with City and Chelsea. Remember, Mourinho has won the title in his second season at every club he’s been at — and he knows it, too.
4) Tottenham
Tottenham’s lack of summer investment — to date, they have yet to sign a single new player — definitely looks very bad on paper. Sure, this was a squad that collected 86 points last season, a tally which would have won them the league a year before. They have also kept the team pretty much intact, with right back Kyle Walker the lone notable departure, a player with a ready-made replacement in Kieran Trippier already at the club. However, as with Chelsea, it’s easy to look at Spurs, then at their rapidly-improving rivals, and be disappointed.
In doing so, you also have to remember that Mauricio Pochettino is one of the best managers in England; Harry Kane is a two-time Golden Boot winner; Dele Alli has attracted interest from the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid for a reason; and no one, not even Chelsea, scored more goals or allowed fewer than Spurs did in 2016-17. Over the last two seasons, they have comfortably accrued more points than anyone else in the league, and that talent and successful bond forged between teammates should be enough to keep them in the top four.
One important thing to note — Tottenham will spend the season playing their home games at Wembley as they await the construction of their new permanent home. The Spurs played their Champions League home games at Wembley last season and struggled in them, never looking comfortable on that stage, which could be a factor this year.
5) Arsenal
The inevitable finally came to pass in 2016-17 — Arsene Wenger could no longer drag Arsenal into the Champions League. It was the first time in the Wenger era that Arsenal had finished outside of the top four, but it’s unlikely to be the last.
To their credit, the Gunners, plagued by a reputation of being too miserly, went out and spent a big sum of money on French striker Alexandre Lacazette, but that will not be enough to help them. The rest of the club has more or less stood still. Arsenal have won a staredown with Alexis Sanchez over a potential move to Manchester City, a scenario in which the club would have folded many times in the past. Still, Sanchez is indisputably Arsenal’s most vital player. He is entering the final season of his contract and appears to have no desire to sign a new deal right now, having spoken publicly about his desire to play in the Champions League. There is a very real chance that they lose him for free next summer, which would be a body blow to the club. Couple that with Mesut Ozil’s future also being up in the air, and you have a recipe for lots of distractions and incessant questions that Wenger will not like.
Already coming off a fifth-place finish, they’ve likely fallen behind Manchester United now as well. Wenger, back for another year, has lost the support of portions of the fanbase, often coming off as aloof and indifferent to the problems that plague the club. Once a revolutionary, Wenger has failed to adapt along with the sport, and while their decline is certainly not all his fault, Arsenal are paying the price for years of questionable decisions.
6) Liverpool
Liverpool finished in the top four for the first time since the 2013-14 season and, as they did after that year, look set to sell one of their best players in response. Reports are indicating that the Reds are poised to sell Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona to replace Neymar — just as Luis Suarez went to the Spanish giants in 2014. Couple that with the fact that Liverpool have spent the summer in doomed pursuits of defender Virgil van Dijk and midfielder Naby Keita, and you have a lot of red flags.
Liverpool still have talent in attack, with a unit that dazzled at times under manager Jurgen Klopp last season. When Sadio Mane was on the team, Liverpool were a different beast, and it’s fair to say his absence in January to play in the Africa Cup of Nations had a palpable impact on the club’s form. Mane, Roberto Firmino, and Divock Origi will once again join together to create a frightening attack, joined by new signing Mohamed Salah, who should have a much better time of things at Liverpool than he did at Chelsea in his previous Premier League spell.
Liverpool’s defense conceded 42 goals in 38 games, the second-worst mark of any top six team, and they’ve done little to address that over the summer. Klopp’s intense style of play seemed to wear on the team after the new year, which could become an even bigger problem this season with Liverpool having added little in the way of depth and now having to balance Champions League obligations with league games. These factors could keep them from finishing higher in the table.
7) Everton
Everton probably don’t have a realistic shot at winning the title, but could make a run at a Champions League spot if they have an excellent year while one of the bigger teams has a bad year. Everton lead the charge among this group, having reinvested the money they got for Romelu Lukaku into three major signings: creative midfielder Davy Klaassen, defender Michael Keane, and young goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. All of these players are young — Klaassen and Keane are 24, while Pickford is 23 — and Everton clearly have an eye on building a successful core for years to come.
The trick for Everton will be replacing the goals they lost when Lukaku moved to Manchester United. The Wayne Rooney signing will provoke a lot of sentimentality for the club, but he’s not the player he once was and will not be able to do it all by himself. They’ve also brought in 22-year-old forward Sandro from Malaga, where he scored 14 goals in La Liga last season, but the adaptation to the Premier League will be difficult. If Everton can find enough goals, they’ll be okay, but Lukaku won’t be easy to replace.
