Kolkata: “Everybody’s waiting,” says Claude Makelele throwing his head back and laughing. “Every single team is waiting.”
The midfield engine – the one Real Madrid’s Bentley missed, according to Zinedine Zidane – was reminiscing about Chelsea defending the 2005-06 Premier League title in “Mourinho”, the eponymous Netflix series on his former manager.
Frank Lampard, another voice in the three-part series, says Mourinho transformed Chelsea “from nearly wanting to be winners, to winners.” There is resonance in comments on a season 21 years ago as Arsenal mount their title defence, at home on Friday against newly promoted Coventry where Lampard is in charge, as another season starts. One where an outfield player will leave the pitch for one minute if play is stopped because a goalkeeper needs treatment as new rules, many of which were implemented in the World Cup, kick in.
It took Arsenal 22 years to be England champions again. They were consumed by the challenge, especially after three successive second-place finishes. Can manager Mikel Arteta get his team to turn up for 38 matchdays against opponents who will want to be the best version of themselves because they are playing the defending champions? If he cannot, Arteta will be on a list that has, among others, Kenny Dalglish, Arsene Wenger and Juergen Klopp. If he can, Arteta will join Mourinho, Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola as managers who were successful in retaining the title.
Guardiola did that an incredible four times and is the only Premier League manager to have won the title in four successive seasons (2020-21 to 2023-24). He will be missed. Manchester City’s shoddy show in the Community Shield is no indication of how the season will pan out; out of 34, only eight Community Shield champions have won the league that season. But Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool are proof of how difficult it is to replace managers who have shaped the club.
For being able to transform City, Guardiola headlines the list of tacticians who have left. But with nine new men in charge, 2026-27 starts with a league record. The list gets longer if you consider that Roberto de Zerbi and Michael Carrick weren’t at Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United when the year began. Guess who is the fourth longest-serving manager/head coach? Regis le Bris of Sunderland and he joined in 2024.
At 44, Arteta is not just the longest-serving manager in the Premier League, he is that in the top four divisions of English football. Which makes this an unusual season. Unusual because there isn’t a Wenger or a Ferguson ready to mount a challenge to Mourinho’s champions. Or Arteta, Klopp and Guardiola locked in battle as they were in two of the last three seasons.
Arsenal have not won back-to-back league titles since the 1930s but they start as favourites because four of last season’s top 10 have appointed new coaches. “I want to live that moment again,” Arteta has said. Arsenal aim to be the best club in the world, he told Sky Sports last week.
They missed out on Vinicius Jr but signing Bruno Guimaraes, Piero Hincapie (on loan last season, now permanent), and Christos Tzolis is proof of Arsenal walking Arteta’s talk. By the time the summer transfer window ends, Ezri Konsa could join. Konsa, 28, can play right-back and centre-back and provide cover for William Saliba and Jurrien Timber who are injured. Guimaraes should help manage Declan Rice’s minutes and Tzolis can provide attacking threat on the left after the departure of Leandro Trossard.
But Arsenal will need to improve their 25-26 tally of 42 goals from open play. It is the worst since Chelsea won the league in 2016-17 and they scored 61. They will also have to deal with World Cup fatigue with Rice, Bukayo Saka, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino and David Raya being involved till the final weekend and skipper Martin Odegaard for only a week less. Last term was not pretty and there was a lot of reliance on goals from set-plays (25 goals). Chelsea were dubbed boring in 2005-06 but they got the job done. Can Arsenal emulate their London rivals?
City’s rebuilding project hinges on how Enzo Maresca beds in and how they cope without Rodri. Replacing Guardiola is a privilege, Maresca has said but he knows how things will be and is ready for it. “After 10 games, if we have got 10 points, 20 points, 30 points. People will be comparing it to Pep after 10 games. It doesn’t put pressure on me,” he said.
It was Bournemouth’s impressive counter-attacks and press that brought Andoni Iraola to Liverpool but the short runs of Graham Potter at Chelsea and Thomas Frank at Spurs serve as a cautionary tale that not all promotions work. Apart from a revamped backline that includes Ronald Araujo and Jeremy Jacquet, Liverpool will have to deal with the departure of Mo Salah.
Marcus Rashford is back at Manchester United and how Carrick uses him, if at all, will be one of the things to judge him by. Youri Tielemans joins after a decent run in the World Cup and Andrey Santos has been signed to replace Casemiro. But for real progress, United will have to show they can do all season what they did for half of 2025-26 and compete in the Champions League.
Europe was where Arsenal fell short, only just, and Aston Villa won their first title after 1982. Unai Emery is the second long-serving manager in the league so Villa have continuity. They have also signed Japan goalie Zion Suzuki. But Morgan Rogers has left for Chelsea who, after years of signing promising players, have changed direction and got Danny Wellbeck, 35, and Jordan Henderson, 36.
“I was missing this… experience to know how to deal [with things] when things weren’t going your way,” new coach Xabi Alonso said in the television programme “Men In Blazers.” Chelsea and Spurs have spent close to £332m and £237m as they try to improve on 10th and 17th place finishes as the league splurged £2.4 billion in the summer transfer window that closes on September 1. Hull City, Coventry and Ipswich Town haven’t held back, spending between £75m and £150m as they try to emulate Sunderland who came up last term and finished seventh.