⚽ Premier League 2025/2026 Discussion Thread ⚽

[Lannakosa]

I will say every position being considered so far are crucial positions and positions Arsenal are lacking in. If Arsenal successfully sign a striker today either ways they will still need to sign a centre back, a left winger and as well replacements for Jorginho and Thomas Partey which the club has now done. For me it doesn’t really matter the sequence because all will still be considered no matter which comes first or last.

Arsenal had the best defense in the Premier League last season. They conceded only 34 goals in 38 matches, which is the best defense. So I think Arteta should be happy with his defenders, and I also believe that Raya is a very good goalkeeper. But despite this, Arsenal also bought a new goalkeeper who will most likely be Raya’s backup. As for the attack, yes, they could strengthen it because they were significantly behind Liverpool in goals scored.

[SmartCharpa]

If Leipzig really wants €100m+ for Sesko they must be dreaming.    Or they just want to state they aren't keen on selling him yet. But honestly I don't think he'd like to stay anymore. They aren't going to compete in the CL after many years.

As you said, I don't think they're ready to sell the player yet, otherwise, €100 million for a player who scored just 13 league goals last season? Arsenal only considers the player because he is still young, otherwise, I believe Arsenal should not bid for the player since he can lose some opportunities to score. Arsenal need to think about signing Gyøkeres, who scored 54 goals last season, instead of the price Leipzig is demanding for releasing the player. Arsenal deserves a striker who can lead them to win titles next season.

Everyone sees Gitten’s signing as a waste of money but I view that transfer as a prospective move not just for immediate impact. He is young with good skills and with the right grooming has the potential of being one of the best young talents in the game.

I agree with you, I don't think Gitten's move to Chelsea is a waste of money, the player is young, and I'm sure he would be more important than keeping Sancho at the club. Perhaps those who used to watch Dortmund games might think he is worth the money Chelsea paid to sign him. The player scored four goals in the Champions League and 8 in the league with 32 games. Chelsea believes he is worth signing than Sancho, who Manchester United is only asking for €25 million to release him but Chelsea does not want to keep him. Let's see what Chelsea can do next season since their frontline will be very dangerous.

[Volgastallion]

When all the shadows and ghosts were starting to go away from the Manchester City team, yesterday they comeback in the form of Al Hilal, a disaster performance made by the Manchester team, and puttin shame on the premier league.

I know Al Hilal have big names but you cant lose in this way.

[hyudien]

I agree about a part here. The transfer policy of Chelsea is trash. They are filling the squad with so many useless players. I agree 55m euros is also too much for the 20-year-old.

What I don't agree is that you say he is a bad player. I think he has a good talent. He just doesn't deserve to be spent this much money on truthfully. 

It's better to keep Sancho instead, indeed!

Just like last year transfer market, many regretted Chelsea recruitment but what was the result? They managed to compete at the top of the league, on the one hand it could be said to be wasteful, but on the other hand if the results are positive, why not? The price set for Gitten is indeed quite expensive but remember it is Dortmund, a club that usually sells its players well, they always manage to convince their customers, and I also think there is another plan that we may not know why Chelsea wants to recruit him. Regarding Sancho, he has a fairly expensive salary and his contribution is not comparable so Sancho should be released from Chelsea.

[Velvet78]

When all the shadows and ghosts were starting to go away from the Manchester City team, yesterday they comeback in the form of Al Hilal, a disaster performance made by the Manchester team, and puttin shame on the premier league.

I know Al Hilal have big names but you cant lose in this way.

European teams don't take the Club World Cup as serious as the Champions League. This is why Manchester City got a ridiculous result like that. Normally they would easily crush them. 

Speaking of Manchester City, Guardiola has already spent around 130 million euros by signing 3 names:

- Reijnders
- Aït-Nouri
- Cherki

Probably there could be more to come as we haven't even reached the middle of the summer. Still there is a case of 115 breaches waiting for them on one hand right? 

[pawel7777]

How do you guys judge Man City's yesterday's performance against Saudi Al-Hilal, when the Citizens unexpectedly dropped out of the FIFA Club World Cup after losing 4-3?
I'm not going to lie, this is not the result I was expecting. The City did perfectly in the group stage (winning 3 out of 3) and I believed they are level above and would not have any problems going through to the quarter-finals.
I'm not sure if I underestimated Al-Hilal, or overestimated Man City. Either way, losing 4 goals in a game is a clear indicator of something not working as it should in the defense. They did dominate in both ball possession and shots on goal, but they still allowed Al-Hilal to make 17 shots with 6 on target, which is quite a lot.

I hear that Guardiola acknowledged the problem, so hopefully he will work towards fixing it before the season starts. But it's a shame they dropped out so early being one of the favourites.

[MainIbem]

...I'm not going to lie, this is not the result I was expecting. The City did perfectly in the group stage (winning 3 out of 3) and I believed they are level above and would not have any problems going through to the quarter-finals.
I'm not sure if I underestimated Al-Hilal, or overestimated Man City. Either way, losing 4 goals in a game is a clear indicator of something not working as it should in the defense. They did dominate in both ball possession and shots on goal, but they still allowed Al-Hilal to make 17 shots with 6 on target, which is quite a lot.

It's a very disappointing result by City no one would've ever believe the outcome of that match, inasmuch both teams did well in the group stage, but Manchester City were more favored to win that match but they couldn't defend properly. Guardiola have his own share of the blame, if he has started Cherki and Foden, maybe City would've scored more goals. Guardiola should figure out the missing piece in the upcoming pre-season matches so it won't affect them when the next season starts, if Al Hilal could score 4 goals you could imagine the number of goals Liverpool or Amy other top EPL team would score. Anyways I'm impressed with Hilal though they did the unexpected and made the tournament more interesting.

[Oluwa-btc]

I hope it isn't more than only a weak rumour about Jackson to Arsenal. Otherwise I can't imagine how disappointed the fans would be.    They are waiting for a big name in the position. A really talented one.

Sesko signing is more realistic than Gyökeres currently. Because Sporting chairman wants an excessive fee which even made Gyökeres angry too. He doesn't want to play there anymore. If he drops out of squad then I wonder whether he will still end up in a Premier League team...

Nicholas Jackson to Arsenal is far from happening. The recent I've read and heard from newspapers and radio stations would be Eze from Crystal Palace and also Noni Madueke from Chelsea. I'm a Manchester United fan quite well but I don't think Madueke is worthy to represent Arsenal. That said, a move for Gyökeres would be best for them atm. Why splurge such on a player without premier league experience?

[Velvet78]

Unfortunately we have got really sad news... 

Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva have died in a car accident... RIP for both of them. According to the report, their car caught fire after a tire burst while overtaking.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/13391754/diogo-jota-liverpool-forward-dies-in-car-accident-in-spain

I couldn't believe my eyes when I first read the news. Jota got married only 10 days ago and now this happened. He was 28 years old. It must be really hard for his family, friends and all the people who have loved him.

[SatoPrincess]

Kepa was backup for Real Madrid and they won the Champions League Competition. ARSENAL NEXT?!  

If Kepa continues to do his magic (!) then yeah it is Arsenal's turn.    All jokes aside, I think he is better than Onana at least. There will be different opinions on this for sure. But this is my thinking honestly.


Nicolas Jackson's name started to be called with Arsenal recently. Please say it is fake news... What is Arteta planning to do with this loser? This would be like the biggest mistake they can make while searching for a proper CF.

I don’t doubt that Kepa would be a good backup in goalkeeping for Arsenal judging from his backup role with Madrid in the absence of Courtois. He was excellent and helped the team during the time.
Nicolas Jackson linked with Arsenal better be a joke cause I will rather play Havertz and Gabriel Jesus throughout the season, yeah it is that bad!

[hyudien]

Unfortunately we have got really sad news... 

Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva have died in a car accident... RIP for both of them. According to the report, their car caught fire after a tire burst while overtaking.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/13391754/diogo-jota-liverpool-forward-dies-in-car-accident-in-spain

I couldn't believe my eyes when I first read the news. Jota got married only 10 days ago and now this happened. He was 28 years old. It must be really hard for his family, friends and all the people who have loved him.

Until now I still can't believe what happened to Jota, for me it's like a dream, but whatever it is, this is the path of destiny that he and his younger brother must accept. Life and death, no one knows, even a second from now we don't know what will happen. My condolences for the incident that befell one of Liverpool and Portugal best strikers, may Jota family, wife and relatives be given fortitude.

[Pandu Geddon]

Nicolas Jackson linked with Arsenal better be a joke cause I will rather play Havertz and Gabriel Jesus throughout the season, yeah it is that bad!

Nicolas Jackson was also linked with Juventus. But it seems like it will not continue to negotiations. Who knows how Arsenal can be linked with Nicolas Jackson, who is even labeled by some Chelsea fans as a bad striker. Arsenal do need a striker for the new season, but they have to consider carefully which striker they have to get to be able to compete in the new season.

[Volgastallion]

Nicolas Jackson linked with Arsenal better be a joke cause I will rather play Havertz and Gabriel Jesus throughout the season, yeah it is that bad!

Nicolas Jackson was also linked with Juventus. But it seems like it will not continue to negotiations. Who knows how Arsenal can be linked with Nicolas Jackson, who is even labeled by some Chelsea fans as a bad striker. Arsenal do need a striker for the new season, but they have to consider carefully which striker they have to get to be able to compete in the new season.

I cant belive how a team can ask for a player like Nicola Jackson, i mean he is gonna have a high salarie and you receive a player who miss every big chance he have.... and Juventus for what they want him? They already have Kolo Muani who is way better than him and worth a lot more.

PD: Condolences to Diogo Jota family rest in peace. Very sad news

[Inwestour]

I don’t doubt that Kepa would be a good backup in goalkeeping for Arsenal judging from his backup role with Madrid in the absence of Courtois. He was excellent and helped the team during the time.
Nicolas Jackson linked with Arsenal better be a joke cause I will rather play Havertz and Gabriel Jesus throughout the season, yeah it is that bad!

In the absence of Courtois, Lunin played almost all the games as goalkeeper, so I do not know how anyone can really judge Kepa based on his time at Real. Maybe the fact that he was a backup keeper for Real gives him some status, but it is very hard to evaluate his performance with so few matches. I think he would be a good backup goalkeeper for Arsenal. But Raya is doing very well there too, so I do not think Kepa would get much playing time at Arsenal either.

[Cookdata]

Until now I still can't believe what happened to Jota, for me it's like a dream, but whatever it is, this is the path of destiny that he and his younger brother must accept. Life and death, no one knows, even a second from now we don't know what will happen. My condolences for the incident that befell one of Liverpool and Portugal best strikers, may Jota family, wife and relatives be given fortitude.

I was furious when I saw post notifications from my socials, i was shocked for some minutes. I mean, 5 days after marriage? Damn this is not something anyone that is that young should experience, too cold and hard at the same time. The agony and pain of this exit will not only affect the family, Liverpool included because they have loss a friend, a brother and investment. However, I think this should be to other players that fast cars are very dangerous to play around.

I don't know what to say about X(formerly Twitter), those guys are weird like completely out of this world. People were using the image to gain engagement and all sort of things I don't understand. Like people are very wicked, it's normal to engage fans about a tragedy, and be a compassion to the fan base but what is "if you are a fan of Diogo, drop a like" and I'm like, is this people serious, some are even asking for retweets just for impressions and I know it's Elon money does guys are farming.

[Mame89]

Unfortunately we have got really sad news...  

Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva have died in a car accident... RIP for both of them. According to the report, their car caught fire after a tire burst while overtaking.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/13391754/diogo-jota-liverpool-forward-dies-in-car-accident-in-spain

I couldn't believe my eyes when I first read the news. Jota got married only 10 days ago and now this happened. He was 28 years old. It must be really hard for his family, friends and all the people who have loved him.

Until now I still can't believe what happened to Jota, for me it's like a dream, but whatever it is, this is the path of destiny that he and his younger brother must accept. Life and death, no one knows, even a second from now we don't know what will happen. My condolences for the incident that befell one of Liverpool and Portugal best strikers, may Jota family, wife and relatives be given fortitude.

This is really hard to believe news because Diogo Jota is still young and he is also in his golden age right now. However, no one knows how long a person will live. Liverpool must feel a great loss because he is one of the attackers who when on the field is almost always able to make an impact, whether it's a goal or an assist. Clinical, slippery, clever. So of course this news is very devastating and feels like a loss for Liverpool and Portugal.

Diogo Jota and Adre Silve are brothers and both are also football players, of course this news is very shocking in the world of football. Diogo Jota is a Liverpool player, and died at the age of 28. Meanwhile, Andre Silva, a Penafiel FC player, died at the age of 25. May their families be given fortitude in facing this disaster.

[Dzwaafu11]

~snip~

Until now I still can't believe what happened to Jota, for me it's like a dream, but whatever it is, this is the path of destiny that he and his younger brother must accept. Life and death, no one knows, even a second from now we don't know what will happen. My condolences for the incident that befell one of Liverpool and Portugal best strikers, may Jota family, wife and relatives be given fortitude.

It is really sad seeing something like this happen to such a family. When I saw this news this morning, I couldn’t believe it. I kept on searching to get the vital information, and now I’m still wondering how such things happen, but in the end, it’s destiny and how God plans his doings, which we can’t deny.

This is really sad. I don’t even know how his family will cope because this happened together with his brother, and they lost their lives, both of them, which is very sad. May his soul rest in peace. Liverpool lost a player.

[Zaguru12]

I don’t doubt that Kepa would be a good backup in goalkeeping for Arsenal judging from his backup role with Madrid in the absence of Courtois. He was excellent and helped the team during the time.
Nicolas Jackson linked with Arsenal better be a joke cause I will rather play Havertz and Gabriel Jesus throughout the season, yeah it is that bad!

In as much as I don’t understand the relationship between Arsenal always going for Chelsea players that the club rejects or are selling is something still baffles me, they paid almost €70m for Harvetz, collected the reject Sterling and yet none of this people actually clicked. Now they are after Jackson and Medueke who Chelsea that struggled last season are looking to offload, as for Medueke I understand because he can be a very good back up on the right wing for Saka but Jackson can’t be the leading striker.

But come to think of it, let’s compare the striker of Arsenal to Chelsea, I will say Jackson is still better than Gabriel Jesus and even the stats confirms that and he is not that of an injury prone, but Harvtez has much better stats with 23 in 44 while Jackson is 13 in 32 games. So logically there is no reason for Arsenal to go for Jackson except there are looking for someone to replace Jesus on the bench

[Egii Nna]

...I'm not going to lie, this is not the result I was expecting. The City did perfectly in the group stage (winning 3 out of 3) and I believed they are level above and would not have any problems going through to the quarter-finals.
I'm not sure if I underestimated Al-Hilal, or overestimated Man City. Either way, losing 4 goals in a game is a clear indicator of something not working as it should in the defense. They did dominate in both ball possession and shots on goal, but they still allowed Al-Hilal to make 17 shots with 6 on target, which is quite a lot.

It's a very disappointing result by City no one would've ever believe the outcome of that match, inasmuch both teams did well in the group stage, but Manchester City were more favored to win that match but they couldn't defend properly. Guardiola have his own share of the blame, if he has started Cherki and Foden, maybe City would've scored more goals. Guardiola should figure out the missing piece in the upcoming pre-season matches so it won't affect them when the next season starts, if Al Hilal could score 4 goals you could imagine the number of goals Liverpool or Amy other top EPL team would score. Anyways I'm impressed with Hilal though they did the unexpected and made the tournament more interesting.

You are right, Guardiola is to be blamed for what happened in that game. He brought on Cherki and Foden almost too late, as he introduced them in extra time. At least they tried their best, and they were able to score a goal that brought them level. However, just a few minutes later, Al Hilal scored again.

As you said, if Guardiola doesn’t figure out the missing piece, especially in their defense, it will be very difficult for them to achieve anything tangible in the upcoming pre-season matches, if they don’t act fast and this is the time that they need to act.

Although, Ronaldo once said that Al Hilal plays better than most teams in Europe, and we have witnessed that after the match between Manchester City and Al Hilal in the Club World Cup.

[Distraction]

We have the odds for next season PL winner already.

The top favourites:

• Liverpool - 2.85
• Manchester City - 3.25
• Arsenal - 3.50

Chelsea and Newcastle follow this trio with 17.00 odds given. In short, there is no expectation for the title to go to a team other than these 3 teams. Probably most people are sharing the same opinion. 

As for whom I favour, I'm going with Liverpool again. But I'm curious what Guardiola will do this time also. When it comes to Arsenal, they need to be more convincing next time.