Thursday, August 20, 2026

Premier League Returns!

The world’s strongest and deepest domestic league begins play on Friday when the English Premier League commences its 35th season. A relatively quiet transfer window has done little to identify major changes of fortune for those clubs hoping to wrest the title from Arsenal. The defending champions strengthened by adding midfielder Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle, a skillful player who will help to unlock the type of packed in defenses which the Gunners will surely face this season. Arsenal opens the season at home on Friday against newly promoted Coventry City and its familiar manager, Frank Lampard.

Manchester City meanwhile will have a new manager for the fist time in a decade as Enzo Maresca takes the reins from legend Pep Guardiola when City plays Bournemouth Sunday at the Etihad. The Citizens, who finished seven points behind Arsenal last season, have also said goodbye to Rodri and Bernardo Silva, while being rebuffed so far in attempts to bolster the roster. The club received a stern no from Crystal Palace this week for Adam Wharton. Expectations, however, are that Maresca will have some new weapons before the window closes on September 1st.

Former Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola will be on the touchline for Liverpool when the Reds play at Newcastle on Sunday. Iraola’s high pressing style may remind supporters of the Jurgen Klopp days, but this is a lesser squad that Iraola inherits. Mohamed Salah is gone. Hugo Ekitike is still recovering from a devastating injury, and Iraola will hope to resurrect the failing fortunes of last season’s transfer bust Florian Wirtz. A return to form by striker Alexander Isak after a lost 2025/26 season would also help Iraola make hay with a roster lacking in star power.


Isak will face former club Newcastle on Saturday though he may not recognize many familiar faces. The Magpies are no longer managed by Eddie Howe. Anthony Gordon is off to Barcelona, Sandro Tonali is at Tottenham Hotspur and Bruno Guimaraes is now an Arsenal player. Kieran Trippier, Matt Targett and Aaron Ramsdale have also left as part of Newcastle’s massive housecleaning.

Things are more stable at Manchester United where Michael Carrick returns as manager after the club’s former player led the Red Devils to a surprising third place finish as an interim manager. Carrick will be without the departed Casemiro, but Youri Tielemans has come abord in a somewhat pleasant surprise. The real story, however, could focus on the return of Marcus Rashford from his loan to Barcelona and assuming he stays in Manchester for this season. At his best, Rashford provides an exciting attacking option for the Red Devils who begin their season at newly promoted Hull on Saturday.

Aston Villa has had a tough transfer window. In addition to Tielemans, Villa lost perhaps its best player in attacking midfielder Morgan Rogers to Chelsea. Little has been done to date to repair the bereft Villa midfield as the team prepares to travel to Brighton for a Sunday match.

Chelsea, which plays a London derby at Fulham on Monday, will hope Rogers can build a connection with Cole Palmer who was largely ineffective last season after a breakout 24/25 season. A young and undisciplined Chelsea side has added not just Rogers but also graybeard veterans Jordan Hendersen and Danny Welbeck as new manager Xavi Alonso hopes to bring order to chaotic Chelsea. Alonso will have plenty of time to work with his squad as the Blues play no European football this season as a result of last season’s misadventures.

Crystal Palace, which is a reining European champion after capturing the Conference League title, are under new management after Oliver Glasner walked out to take the job at Nottingham Forest in a seemingly strange career move for the fiery Austrian. Glasner’s temperament and past clashes with the ownership of his clubs is an odd pairing with Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis who has had his own battles with managers in the past. Palace is at Everton while Glasner and Nottingham Forest will host Leeds on Saturday.

Tottenham Hotspur, chastened by two consecutive relegation fights, will hope to battle with the likes of Palace and Forest in the middle of the table this season. Perhaps a modest objective for Spurs but Manager Roberto De Zerbi has his hands full to establish a winning culture after he narrowly rescued the club from demotion last season. Towards that end, headlines this week have reported Spurs to be hotly pursuing Manchester City players Savinho and Omar Marmoush. De Zerbi and his charges visit Brentford on Saturday. The Bees created buzz during the window with the signing of Mamadou Sangare, a versatile midfielder who helped French club RC Lens secure Champions League football.

Ipswich Town returns to the Premier League and can only hope to experience the success that Saturday’s opponent Sunderland enjoyed last season. The Black Cats, however, will now need to balance a European slate in addition to domestic challenges after Manager Regis Le Bris led promoted side Sunderland last season to their first European qualification since the 1970”s. Which team will surprise us this season?

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Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Arsenal Loses and Slot is Sacked

Champions League Final

Arsenal tested defending champion PSG but ultimately lost in penalty kicks after regulation and extra time left the two sides deadlocked at a goal apiece. Arsenal was determined to play its own pragmatic, defensive, even what some might characterize as ugly style against the more attack minded Parisians. The Gunners commitment to shortening the match and making life difficult for PSG increased when they were practically “handed” the early lead in the championship match.

An errant pass by PSG defender PSG Marquinos ricocheted off the arm of Arsenal’s Leonardo Trossard and fell kindly to the feet of Arsenal striker Kai Havertz who broke down the left flank ahead of PSG defenders who were unable to reverse their forward momentum quickly enough. Havertz, who scored the winner for Chelsea in the 2022 Champions League final, beat PSG goaltender Matvey Safonov by lofting the ball into the upper far corner of the net over a helpless Safonov who was protecting against an anticipated lower trajectory shot to the near side of the goal. Advantage Arsenal after six minutes of play.

The next fifty-nine minutes saw wave after wave of PSG attacks repulsed by the elite Arsenal defense led by center backs Gabriel and William Saliba. The match turned, however, when Arsenal fullback Cristhian Mosquera was late on a challenge to stop PSG’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia as he bore in on Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya. Ousmane Dembele put the ensuing penalty kick past Raya to equalize the match in the 65th minute at 1-1.

That score remained until the clubs went to penalty kicks after an extra period failed to decide the match. PSG would miss one of their allotted kicks but unfortunately for Gunner fans, the English side missed on two of their attempts. First, it was a miss by Eberechi Eze and then Gabriel missed the climactic fifth and final kick for the Gunners. Gabriel was taking his first penalty kick for Arsenal in the most pressurized of moments.

Manager Mikel Arteta will live with questions as to the wisdom and fairness in Gabriel taking that fifth Arsenal kick. There were others who could have taken the final chance at Safonov including Noni Madueke, a more technical striker of the ball who once infamously fought with Chelsea teammate Cole Palmer over a far less important penalty kick. As it was, Gabriel skied the kick and PSG were UCL champions for a second consecutive season.

Liverpool Sacks Arne Slot

Liverpool sacked Manager Arne Slot after a season in which the Reds lost 19 matches across all competitions just a year after Slot led Liverpool to a Premier League championship in his first season with the club. The title winning side was often thought to have been a parting gift from predecessor Jurgen Klopp with few changes made to the squad Slot inherited. Conversely, this season’s disappointment is all Slot’s.

Problems for Liverpool began during a turbulent offseason which saw the off-pitch death of Liverpool player Diogo Jota, a cloud over the season which never parted, and extensive retooling of the squad by Slot and Liverpool ownership and administration. The biggest summer outlay, Alexander Isaak, was unfit all season and contributed nothing while Hugo Ekitike, a rare bright spot this season ultimately ruptured an Achilles tendon. Fair or not, failed additions based on their performances to date such as Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez are clearly identified with Slot.

There also seemed a marked change to a slower pace with which Slot had his team play, a far cry from the heavy metal style of his predecessor. Meanwhile, a schism developed between Slot and underperforming Liverpool legend Mo Salah which the Egyptian superstar was all too happy to take public. Salah condemned Liverpool’s slower style and other tactical adjustments made by Slot as the now also departed Salah’s production fell off a cliff during the 2025/26 season with his goal involvements falling from 47 to 14.

Other veterans such as center back Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate also regressed in Slot’s second season which started poorly from the outset for the Reds. Liverpool seemed to be sleepwalking while losing nine of 12 matches across all competitions from September through November. Despite some mid-season improvement, results slid once again toward season’s end with Liverpool securing only two of its last 12 points in the critical Premier League run-in which saw the Reds just barely hold onto the Champions League berth available this season to the league’s fifth place finisher.

Beyond league play, a trophyless season began with a Community Shield loss to Crystal Palace, another loss to the Eagles in the EFL Cup, an embarrassing 4-0 thumping by Manchester City in the FA Cup and a rather predictable loss to PSG in Champions League where the Reds failed to score a goal across two legs against the ultimate UCL winner. The club’s play in both league and cup competitions was criticized not just by Salah but by supporters and pundits as well as being too slow.

Slot, who never connected even in a small way with Liverpool supporters accustomed to Klopp’s more gregarious style, unhelpfully tried to deflect criticism to opponents’ use of a low block (unsportsmanlike ?) against the Reds and uncharitable officiating. In the end, Liverpool decided Slot was not the man to turn things around next season.

The challenge will be enormous as supporters will look for instant improvement from a club which lost 20 times this past season, allowing the most goals ever by a Liverpool team in the Premier League and scoring the fewest goals in more than a decade. An interesting summer needs to begin with a new face on the touchline. The betting seems to be on Andoni Iraola as Slot’s successor. Iraola left Bournemouth at season’s end after a successful three season run where he put the Cherries into Europe for the first time.

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Thursday, May 28, 2026

Crystal Palace Wins Conference League

Crystal Palace won its first European trophy in the club’s 120-year history on Wednesday. The Eagles defeated Rayo Vallecano 1-0 in Leipzig Germany to win silverware in Manager Oliver Glasner’s final match in charge of the Premier League Club. Midfielder Adam Wharton, reportedly coveted by bigger clubs, dominated play for the Eagles in a seemingly direct response to his recent omission from England’s World Cup squad.

A shot by Wharton was parried by the Raya Vallecano goalkeeper into the path of the Eagles’ JP Mateta who proceeded to score the most meaningful goal in Crystal Palace history with a fortuitous, awkward but effective deflection off his upper leg. Mateta was not always as happy as he was during the post-match celebrations. The Frenchman went public with his desire to leave the Eagles’ nest during a dire midseason period for Palace which saw an extended winless run, the loss of club captain and star center back Marc Guehi in the January transfer window and the announcement that Glasner would leave at the end of this season.

Glasner, the disaffected manager, now leaves a historic legacy behind him in south London. In the last 375 days, Glasner has delivered An FA Cup win (over Manchester City in the final), a Community Shield (over Liverpool) and Wednesday’s Conference League championship. The European title caps a tumultuous season in which Glasner fell out with management in January when Marc Guehi was just the latest Crystal Palace star to move onto greener pastures.

Financial conservatism remains in vogue at Crystal Palace which has previously found itself in administration before being rescued by current Chairman Steve Parish. Parish has come under criticism, not just from Glasner but supporters who bemoan the stream of talents such as Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze and Guehi who have moved on form the club in recent years. Parish, however, has kept the Eagles in the Premier League for what will be a 14th consecutive season, a club record, and now has reached heights with Glasner that many Premier League observers never thought the mid to lower table club would ever reach.

Some credit needs to go to both men for persevering through their personal differences through the back half of this season to ultimately lift the trophy in Leipzig on Wednesday. The joy of Crystal Palace’s first European silverware far outweighed the angst experienced during a tumultuous season that saw Crystal Palace experience a winless run of 12 matches over December and January and their prized manager announce in January that he was leaving after the season, nastily indicting Parish for the club’s transfer policies. It seemed untenable that the two could co-exist for the balance of the season but a credit to both men that they did that very thing.

Glasner, for his part, is probably best suited to a richer club with higher ambitions. The Austrian, who once qualified the now relegated Bundesliga side Wolfsburg to the Champions League, also fell out with Eintracht Frankfurt ownership over ambition and transfer spending after winning a Europa League title for that German club. Glasner reportedly had a chance to move onto Bayern Munich at one point during his London stay but was contractually blocked by Crystal Palace.

The Crystal Palace victory marks the third time in five seasons that the Premier League has won the Conference League title; fellow London side Chelsea having claimed the silverware last season. The Premier League has also won the Europa Cup the last two years. Arsenal now has the chance on Sunday to win the Champions League and deliver a European treble to Europe’s strongest top to bottom league.

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