⚽ Premier League 2025/2026 Discussion Thread ⚽

[Cryptoprincess101]

Anyway, Arsenal officially announces that they're successful signing contract Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal just now.
Finally, Arsenal have signed 5-year contracts with Bologna  Centre-Back until 2029. They achieved agreement for £42m deal worth. Actually, this is not new news because there was already an agreement before, only, in the end they have officially signed the contract and now Calafiori is wearing the Arsenal jersey with the number 33.


Source: Riccardo Calafiori signs for Arsenal

Yes that was a good signing by Arsenal because the position of Riccardo Calafiori is a very important and sensitive area of the defense and since Arsenal have got good strikers, the area they are having major challenge is within the defense region but now that Riccardo Calafiori who plays as a center back have been signed to the team, we should expect Arsenal's defense line to be solid since William Saliba who is a major figure in the defense line will now play along with Riccardo Calafiori and I have come across some news in the media that shows how eager Riccardo Calafiori was to sign for Arsenal, he was so happy to join a very active competitor of the English Premier league so i believe he will give his all to see them make good improvements in the new season. Within this 5 years of his contract with Arsenal, he must have blended so well with the team.

[nelson4lov]

~Snipped

I am not that too surprised by how Chelsea have been performing, you  know why, because in as much as he is a championship manager that has no profile, Todd boehly and co has practically ruined the club to an irreversible decline, because if you look at the kind or clueless and stupid decision they are making everyday, you will understand fully well what am saying, let's take a look at their defense, players like badiashile, fafana, colwill and desasi, they are not good enough to play for Chelsea, and the most annoying thing they did was dropping cholaba which is way much better than these guys I mentioned, just because they knows absolutely nothing about football and instead of them removing their ugly hands on the day to day running of the club, they are busy buying more kids into the team as if the English premier league is an under 20 competition.

And as for the present manager Enzo, sincerely speaking I don't expect anything big from him, because the English premier league is not the championship,and looking at this Chelsea team, they will definitely struggle the more,  due to lack of experience in the team and poor quality.

Ngl, I was surprised when Enzo got the job despite the fact that Chelsea really needs a very experienced coach that cn take up a young team and turn them to champions but I respect the owners decision if the club owners did so. Like I said, it's only going to get tough from here for Chelsea because teams in the EPL will eat this their young team. Imo, they should have given pochettino more time because he was already beginning to find his feet at Chelsea despite a difficult start for him. I don't want to conclude for Enzo because we never can tell — he might do bad in preseason only to make some streaks and do a whole lot better in the EPL. Fingers crossed. 

[uchegod-21]

Chelsea doesn't look like they are in good condition. Celtic just crushed them in a friendly. When will this team get better for real?    I'm going to continue to say this, Boehly made a big mistake by parting ways with Pochettino...

Honestly I did not expect Chelsea to be in good condition this season. If they eventually do well, it will be called a miracle to me. In as much as this seasons English Premier League will not be as competitive as last season, Chelsea still does not have a place in the top 4. Boehly made a double mistake, first dismissing Tuchel, secondly dismissing Pochettino.

Arsenal and Manchester City are the only teams I'm expecting big from this season. I'm not expecting the same effort from Liverpool also for now. Because I haven't seen them active in transfers this summer until now. Arne Slot should be faster with determining his targets. Salah is staying I guess. It is good. He is still making the biggest contribution to the team. Unless they find a direct replacement, he should be kept.

You are not alone on this, I also do not expect that Liverpool will be competitive this season. First it will take slot a good time to adapt to the team and the English style of play and secondly Liverpool is not active in the transfer market. However Liverpool will comfortably be in the top 4 wether or not they re-enforce.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Chelsea doesn't look like they are in good condition. Celtic just crushed them in a friendly. When will this team get better for real?    I'm going to continue to say this, Boehly made a big mistake by parting ways with Pochettino...

Honestly I did not expect Chelsea to be in good condition this season. If they eventually do well, it will be called a miracle to me. In as much as this seasons English Premier League will not be as competitive as last season, Chelsea still does not have a place in the top 4. Boehly made a double mistake, first dismissing Tuchel, secondly dismissing Pochettino.

I agree with you that it would be a miracle if Chelsea do well this season. I do not expect that we will see good performances from this team next season. A good performance is not possible by changing coaches so quickly. Last season we saw coach Pochettino manage to stabilize the Chelsea team to a great extent. We have seen good performances from Chesley in the last few games of the season. However, Chelsea management decided to sack Pochettino. Chelsea also need time to stabilize the team now with a new coach.

Arsenal and Manchester City are the only teams I'm expecting big from this season. I'm not expecting the same effort from Liverpool also for now. Because I haven't seen them active in transfers this summer until now. Arne Slot should be faster with determining his targets. Salah is staying I guess. It is good. He is still making the biggest contribution to the team. Unless they find a direct replacement, he should be kept.

You are not alone on this, I also do not expect that Liverpool will be competitive this season. First it will take slot a good time to adapt to the team and the English style of play and secondly Liverpool is not active in the transfer market. However Liverpool will comfortably be in the top 4 wether or not they re-enforce.

It cannot be said for sure whether Liverpool team will perform well next season. After a long time Liverpool changed their coach. We also don't know yet whether the new coach will be able to stabilize the team. I would say it is very difficult to predict Liverpool's performance before the start of the season. But hopefully Liverpool will do well next season and challenge for the title.

[Litzki1990]

What I always say is that Manchester United is a very old club and this club has a lot of tradition but in terms of performance this club is not in a good position at all.

Yes it is true that Manchester United is a very old club even they have a lot of tradition. During the game tradition and old clubs have to play well on the field to win the match. We enjoyed a friendly match between Arsenal and Manchester United where Arsenal players performed best. If we take a complete overview of this match, we can see that Arsenal progressed in ball positions and passing the ball perhaps proving that they worked hard today even got their hard work rewarded. However, in today's match, Manchester United scored first and then they started playing sloppy football and Arsenal players took advantage of that opportunity to score two goals in Manchester United's net to bring their team to the brink of victory.

Scored a Goal for Manchester United team
R. Hojlund

Scored goal for Arsenal.
Jesus and Martinelli

The match between Arsenal and Manchester United was a friendly but there was no shortage of excitement. Arsenal performed well against Manchester United but Manchester United did not perform well against Arsenal. Since it was a friendly match, the performance of this match might not be that important but Manchester United's performance against Arsenal can at least give an idea of how Manchester United's performance is going to be in the next season. Since there has not been much change in the team, it is natural that there will not be much change in performance. 

Manchester United are relying on their current manager, maybe this manager will disappoint them next season as well and they will not be in a very good position in the Premier League points table at the end of a full season.

[Mr.right85]

Anyway, Arsenal officially announces that they're successful signing contract Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal just now.
Finally, Arsenal have signed 5-year contracts with Bologna  Centre-Back until 2029. They achieved agreement for £42m deal worth. Actually, this is not new news because there was already an agreement before, only, in the end they have officially signed the contract and now Calafiori is wearing the Arsenal jersey with the number 33.


Source: Riccardo Calafiori signs for Arsenal

Yes that was a good signing by Arsenal because the position of Riccardo Calafiori is a very important and sensitive area of the defense and since Arsenal have got good strikers, the area they are having major challenge is within the defense region but now that Riccardo Calafiori who plays as a center back have been signed to the team, we should expect Arsenal's defense line to be solid since William Saliba who is a major figure in the defense line will now play along with Riccardo Calafiori and I have come across some news in the media that shows how eager Riccardo Calafiori was to sign for Arsenal, he was so happy to join a very active competitor of the English Premier league so i believe he will give his all to see them make good improvements in the new season. Within this 5 years of his contract with Arsenal, he must have blended so well with the team.

I saw a video of his introduction to the Arsenal team in the US, I could tell that Calafiori was very happy to join them. He’s been waiting for them to finalize the deal. He had a good season in at Bologna and also did well for Italy in the just concluded Euros.
Arsenal have gotten themselves a solid defender. He gives me the vibes of Maldini and those traditional Italian defenders. He will bring more than we can imagine to that Arsenal defense. Arsenal had a good defense last season, which won Raya the Golden Glove award, now they’ve added another solid player to the same defense, I can only imagine what it’ll take their opponents to break through that Arsenal.
Arteta want to achieve another feat this season. I can feel what he wants to achieve with this Arsenal team. They’re still hoping on bringing in more players to strengthen their squad entirely.

[Smack That Ace]

What I always say is that Manchester United is a very old club and this club has a lot of tradition but in terms of performance this club is not in a good position at all.

Yes it is true that Manchester United is a very old club even they have a lot of tradition. During the game tradition and old clubs have to play well on the field to win the match. We enjoyed a friendly match between Arsenal and Manchester United where Arsenal players performed best. If we take a complete overview of this match, we can see that Arsenal progressed in ball positions and passing the ball perhaps proving that they worked hard today even got their hard work rewarded. However, in today's match, Manchester United scored first and then they started playing sloppy football and Arsenal players took advantage of that opportunity to score two goals in Manchester United's net to bring their team to the brink of victory.
Scored a Goal for Manchester United team
R. Hojlund
Scored goal for Arsenal.
Jesus and Martinelli

The match between Arsenal and Manchester United was a friendly but there was no shortage of excitement. Arsenal performed well against Manchester United but Manchester United did not perform well against Arsenal. Since it was a friendly match, the performance of this match might not be that important but Manchester United's performance against Arsenal can at least give an idea of how Manchester United's performance is going to be in the next season. Since there has not been much change in the team, it is natural that there will not be much change in performance. 
Manchester United are relying on their current manager, maybe this manager will disappoint them next season as well and they will not be in a very good position in the Premier League points table at the end of a full season.

Manchester United players performed very well in this match. Manchester United players performed very badly against Rosenborg in the first friendly match. Throughout the match we saw slow performance from Manchester United players. And Manchester United lost the match by 1-0. Despite a poor performance against Rosenborg, Manchester United's performance against Arsenal improved.

Manchester United lost 2-1 against Arsenal. Manchester United's players attacked a lot in this match. Even then, Manchester United players could not score more than one goal. However, Hojlund suffered an injury in this match. And it's a big loss for Manchester United.

[Velvet78]

With this performance Chelsea have shown in the friendlies so far, I'm not sure what they will do on the first week of the season. I mean they are going to host Manchester City already at the beginning. It is going to be interesting to watch. As it is only the beginning of the season, maybe Manchester City might not also have a great start. That would help Chelsea more of course.

But in the long run, Chelsea will need to make a big progress. A new manager and a new adaptation process... I wish Pochettino still kept his job then there wouldn't be any need for this. They would be able to start better. 

[BlackBoss_]

Anyway, Arsenal officially announces that they're successful signing contract Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal just now.
Finally, Arsenal have signed 5-year contracts with Bologna  Centre-Back until 2029. They achieved agreement for £42m deal worth. Actually, this is not new news because there was already an agreement before, only, in the end they have officially signed the contract and now Calafiori is wearing the Arsenal jersey with the number 33.

There are very limited Italian players who succeed in Premier League and Calafiori is very brave to accept this challenge and move from Serie A to Premier League. He can have intelligence to play smartly and cleverly but in Premier League, a central defender will need more physical strength that seems to non exist with Calafiori now.

He will need to use rest time in summer pre-season to work with physical staffs and improve his muscles, and continue to do this in early month at Arsenal. With his current body, it will be hard to play in Premier League with higher intensity and more physical fights than in Serie A.

I saw a video of his introduction to the Arsenal team in the US, I could tell that Calafiori was very happy to join them. He’s been waiting for them to finalize the deal. He had a good season in at Bologna and also did well for Italy in the just concluded Euros.
Arsenal have gotten themselves a solid defender. He gives me the vibes of Maldini and those traditional Italian defenders. He will bring more than we can imagine to that Arsenal defense.

Calafiori is a scarce defender in Italy now who can play like Maldini, Nesta, Baresi and does not rely too much on his physical strength. His play style can be good support for other defenders in Arsenal but he will still need to improve his physical strength rather than depends on support of his teammate. Face to face fight with attacking players will need better strength and Calafiori must work hard to get it.

[Nheer]

Good point, mate. I was also concerned about how garbage Chelsea's performance was. People say they never took the pre-season game seriously. But, look at how Chelsea played poorly against a team they humiliated last season.

They'd shown horrible gameplay and tactics against Wrexham and Celtic. Sorry, but this GIF said it all about how horrendous Chelsea's gameplay is.



The current gameplay of Chelsea is far from the Premier League's level. I believe other PL clubs will bully them for their terrible play. I'm feeling Chelsea may be facing competition for relegation.
 

The result was not so encouraging especially when you look at how the defense and the goalkeeper performed it will make you think poorly about the team but them there are some few things i noticed about the team style of play, you can’t say they played exactly the way the GIF image is displaying throughout the matches, there were some good display as well and it means the team will progress gradually. With a lot of key players not available and majority of the new players are young you shouldn’t expect an excellent performance from them too soon. I believe when the players are back things will change and we will see an improvement from the team.

I don’t think Chelsea will be so bad that they will be battling to escape relegation, they can’t be as bad as they have been in the last two seasons all you have to do is to trust the process. There is an ongoing news about bringing in Osimhen which will be a major boost to have a player of his caliber on our squad.

[red4slash]

It's too early spot out the differences between the game pattern of the new coach and in comparison with others. Enzo Maresca have more work to do in Stamford Bridge, it's just a matter of time before the club's sits in prominent form for next season. I'm watching their pre-season games, it's interesting and their attacking lines becomes very competitive with more players to fit in. Chelsea unable to win the pre-season matches and that doesn't prove any doubt from their ends especially from Enzo Maresca.

But at least with some friendly matches that Enzo Maresca has done at least we know how he manages players and does the attack scheme that he will do in the new season.  There are still many things that he must pay attention to including the problem of teamwork which is still not solid when we look at Chelsea's performance in their 2 friendly matches.

This must be fixed immediately because after all this is an important thing to support their performance next season considering that at this time Maresca's burden is still the same as the previous Chelsea coach by trying to improve performance to be even better later.  This is still a heavy burden for Chelsea and Maresca especially by looking at the conditions of friendly matches which are actually not very good for Chelsea it makes me a little doubtful whether this will improve before the new season starts or not.

[knowngunman]

I agree with you that it would be a miracle if Chelsea do well this season. I do not expect that we will see good performances from this team next season. A good performance is not possible by changing coaches so quickly. Last season we saw coach Pochettino manage to stabilize the Chelsea team to a great extent. We have seen good performances from Chesley in the last few games of the season. However, Chelsea management decided to sack Pochettino. Chelsea also need time to stabilize the team now with a new coach.

Some new couches always come with a good fighting spirit when they arrive newly at a club and probably relent after some few games but Enzo Maresca case is different. From the beginning, the few games he has managed there's nothing to write home about for now. Thou I do expect things to fall together for him when they finish accumulating all the players they've been running after. At least, there won't be any excuses after the have enough players at their disposal. They seem to have prioritize business now more than making a working team as they were before.

[asriloni]

What I always say is that Manchester United is a very old club and this club has a lot of tradition but in terms of performance this club is not in a good position at all.

Yes it is true that Manchester United is a very old club even they have a lot of tradition. During the game tradition and old clubs have to play well on the field to win the match. We enjoyed a friendly match between Arsenal and Manchester United where Arsenal players performed best. If we take a complete overview of this match, we can see that Arsenal progressed in ball positions and passing the ball perhaps proving that they worked hard today even got their hard work rewarded. However, in today's match, Manchester United scored first and then they started playing sloppy football and Arsenal players took advantage of that opportunity to score two goals in Manchester United's net to bring their team to the brink of victory.
Scored a Goal for Manchester United team
R. Hojlund
Scored goal for Arsenal.
Jesus and Martinelli

The match between Arsenal and Manchester United was a friendly but there was no shortage of excitement. Arsenal performed well against Manchester United but Manchester United did not perform well against Arsenal. Since it was a friendly match, the performance of this match might not be that important but Manchester United's performance against Arsenal can at least give an idea of how Manchester United's performance is going to be in the next season. Since there has not been much change in the team, it is natural that there will not be much change in performance. 
Manchester United are relying on their current manager, maybe this manager will disappoint them next season as well and they will not be in a very good position in the Premier League points table at the end of a full season.

Manchester United players performed very well in this match. Manchester United players performed very badly against Rosenborg in the first friendly match. Throughout the match we saw slow performance from Manchester United players. And Manchester United lost the match by 1-0. Despite a poor performance against Rosenborg, Manchester United's performance against Arsenal improved.

Manchester United lost 2-1 against Arsenal. Manchester United's players attacked a lot in this match. Even then, Manchester United players could not score more than one goal. However, Hojlund suffered an injury in this match. And it's a big loss for Manchester United.

The result against Rosenberg was a different case. This was because Manchester United did not use many key players against Rosenberg. However, they did start many key players in a friendly against Arsenal. Though it was not a serious match.
Mount, Hojlund, or even Rashford took part in that game, and Arsenal was also using its main squad as well.



So, Manchester United lost narrowly to Arsenal in that friendly. But the stats showed that United could match Arsenal. The gap was not as big as last season when Arsenal always humiliated United.
Yet Arsenal was still too strong, but that's a really nice progress for Manchester United. Also, Hojlund's new injury shows that buying Zirkzee from Bologna was the right choice.

[Oluwa-btc]

Anyway, Arsenal officially announces that they're successful signing contract Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal just now.
Finally, Arsenal have signed 5-year contracts with Bologna  Centre-Back until 2029. They achieved agreement for £42m deal worth. Actually, this is not new news because there was already an agreement before, only, in the end they have officially signed the contract and now Calafiori is wearing the Arsenal jersey with the number 33.

Saw the video of him welcomed by his new family ( Mikel Arteta and Arsenal squad ) I got a close look at him and saw a video of him pocketing Victor Oshime last season during one of Seria A fixtures against Napoli. Finally, I'm not saying he is on the same level as Paulo Maldini, but he reminds me of Paulo Maldini. He does nothing but beat defending, he will bring so much energy and depth to that Arsenal squad. I love the guys playing, with both defending and going forward.

Whenever I look at what gunner's did last season defending, I'm sure as hell they'll repeat whatever they did if possible, up the performance and keep more clean sheets.

I have also seen recent news of Victor Oshime joining Chelsea, I have always said this last season, even in my previous post before, Chelsea is the right destination for him. They have always had the chances created but what they lacked last season was a proven striker like Victor Oshime.
Having Victor Oshime in would be perfect. He will benefit from the likes of Cole Palmer, Malo Gusto, Recce James crosses and creativity of Christopher Nkuku. It's a great season ahead indeed.

[emrecemsan]

Manchester City have been winning the Premier League for 4 years in a row... This is a proof that they have turned it into a farmers league I'm afraid.    Other teams should do something about it.

Arsenal are the team I have the biggest expectations from at this moment. Because you know, we have all watched last 2 seasons. They were in the title race until the final moments. Neither Liverpool nor other top teams were able to do it better. Arsenal were just lacking in consistency. I think that is an issue which can be solved. Arteta is the 2nd best manager of this league after Guardiola.

Lastly, I hope they sign a decent striker too before new season starts. 

[legendbtc]

Anyway, Arsenal officially announces that they're successful signing contract Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal just now.
Finally, Arsenal have signed 5-year contracts with Bologna  Centre-Back until 2029. They achieved agreement for £42m deal worth. Actually, this is not new news because there was already an agreement before, only, in the end they have officially signed the contract and now Calafiori is wearing the Arsenal jersey with the number 33.

Saw the video of him welcomed by his new family ( Mikel Arteta and Arsenal squad ) I got a close look at him and saw a video of him pocketing Victor Oshime last season during one of Seria A fixtures against Napoli. Finally, I'm not saying he is on the same level as Paulo Maldini, but he reminds me of Paulo Maldini. He does nothing but beat defending, he will bring so much energy and depth to that Arsenal squad. I love the guys playing, with both defending and going forward.

Whenever I look at what gunner's did last season defending, I'm sure as hell they'll repeat whatever they did if possible, up the performance and keep more clean sheets.

Calafiori is Arsenal's first big deal in the summer of 2024. He is a fantastic signing and gives Arsenal a huge boost in defense. He is a player with personality, and special skills and will help Arsenal become stronger in the race for major titles. To get Calafiori's signature, Arsenal overcame Juventus, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich.

Arsenal's appeal after two recent successful seasons in the Premier League is a huge support for Mikel Arteta in every negotiation to buy players. Now, when arriving at Arsenal, in addition to filling the gap on the left wing, Calafiori also helps the "Gunners" become more confident when having enough depth to compete with Manchester City. If Arsenal want to overthrow Manchester City in the Premier League, they still need more quality signings. Arsenal cannot stop at Riccardo Calafiori.

[mamesso]

Manchester City have been winning the Premier League for 4 years in a row... This is a proof that they have turned it into a farmers league I'm afraid.    Other teams should do something about it.

Arsenal are the team I have the biggest expectations from at this moment. Because you know, we have all watched last 2 seasons. They were in the title race until the final moments. Neither Liverpool nor other top teams were able to do it better. Arsenal were just lacking in consistency. I think that is an issue which can be solved. Arteta is the 2nd best manager of this league after Guardiola.

Lastly, I hope they sign a decent striker too before new season starts. 

Manchester City success in dominating the EPL for four consecutive years cannot be said to be the EPL has turned into a farmer's league because Manchester City has to go through a tiring journey to win the trophy. The situation in the EPL is very different from Ligue 1 or Bundesliga when Bayern Munich still dominated, they could easily win trophies because there were no other teams able to provide competition.
Meanwhile in the EPL, Manchester City has to fight hard because they have very tight competition from Arsenal. Arsenal presence in the title race has forced Manchester City to wait until the final game to become champions.

Arsenal will try to make up for their failure this season, but there are still other teams who are in the competition such as Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea who are very active in bringing in new players in the transfer market. This season will be more exciting than last season, Manchester City must be able to maintain its performance if it does not want the EPL trophy to be taken by another team.

[bitcampaign]

Arsenal will try to make up for their failure this season, but there are still other teams who are in the competition such as Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea who are very active in bringing in new players in the transfer market. This season will be more exciting than last season, Manchester City must be able to maintain its performance if it does not want the EPL trophy to be taken by another team.

Arsenal's success in getting the targeted player has been realized in bringing in Calafiori to add ammunition to Arsenal's defense next season, of course it will not be easy for Manchester City to face next season easily because clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool are also aggressively adding ammunition to thwart Manchester City next season, although in the last two seasons Manchester City has been able to win the EPL title in a row, of course the journey is not as easy as previous seasons there will definitely be a lot of pressure from rivals.

[Luzin]

This season will be more exciting than last season, Manchester City must be able to maintain its performance if it does not want the EPL trophy to be taken by another team.

The transfer market will still be until early September. So every team still has a chance to improve the team with transfers. I think the big teams in the EPL at the moment don't have much financial problems. So it seems that the rich team can maximize the finances they have. So at the moment I see all the big teams are improving with some big transfers. It is very difficult to see their performance next season.

[yudi09]

Anyway, Arsenal officially announces that they're successful signing contract Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal just now.
Finally, Arsenal have signed 5-year contracts with Bologna  Centre-Back until 2029. They achieved agreement for £42m deal worth. Actually, this is not new news because there was already an agreement before, only, in the end they have officially signed the contract and now Calafiori is wearing the Arsenal jersey with the number 33.


Source: Riccardo Calafiori signs for Arsenal

Riccardo Calafiori is the right recruit made by Arsenal. Now Arsenal already has 3 strong center-backs because previously Gabriel and Saliba had become a strong fortress in Arsenal's defense so that the presence of Riccardo Calafiori adds options for Arteta to formulate his defensive strategy.
Congratulations on wearing the Arsenal uniform and hopefully his career will be good in the English Premier League.