48 days later: The main questions as Liverpool begin title defence
The Premier League Trophy is dressed in Liverpool Red Ribbons ready for the presentation ceremony ahead of the Premier League match against Chelsea on July 22, 2020. Picture: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
We have repeatedly seen the difficulty in teams defending the Premier League title. Manchester City are the only club to do it in the last 11 seasons, and they signed Riyad Mahrez to freshen up the squad ahead of 2018/19.
Liverpool are opting for a different approach, retaining virtually the same starting XI that won them the Champions League and domestic title in consecutive years.
Liverpool’s rise under Jurgen Klopp has been fuelled by a desire to atone for previous underperformance: Make up for Kiev in the Champions League, make up for pushing Manchester City so close two years ago.
Asking the same group of players to retain that hunger having conquered England and Europe is a mighty ask, and a slight dip would come as no surprise.
If Liverpool do slip, Manchester City will back themselves to regain their crown. For the first time in three years, Pep Guardiola is under pressure to deliver.
City continue to be a brilliant, free-flowing attacking team and had the second best defence in the league last season, but thrashing bottom-half sides is only part of the job. City lost five of their six away games against the top seven clubs.
The key will be responding better to adversity. Too often last season - Tottenham, Wolves (twice), Manchester United, Norwich, Liverpool - we saw City concede once, panic and then concede again within 10 minutes.
That is not the characteristic of a title winner. Greater resilience is necessary.
Frank Lampard could easily become a victim of his early success. Having inherited a transfer ban and an Eden Hazard-less squad, Lampard oversaw a surprise top-four finish.
But the goalposts have shifted. Chelsea’s first-choice XI next season might not include a single academy graduate and he has spent north of £200m on four new starters with a goalkeeper likely to come next.
How does Lampard react to that?
He can no longer fall back on being a club legend with a title challenge now expected, even if it affords him greater patience, and must eliminate Chelsea’s tendency to push more players forward when frustrated by a low block and get caught on the counter-attack.
In 10 months’ time, we will know an awful lot about Lampard the manager.
There are things we expect from a newly-managed Jose Mourinho team: Siege mentality, togetherness and a solid defensive record. But what about Tottenham, who conceded twice or more in 13 of Mourinho’s first 29 games and have lost Jan Vertonghen?
There are other concerns. Tottenham’s squad is light on depth in central defence and up front, where Harry Kane will again be asked to start every match ahead of the European Championship.
Can Kane really stay fit and account for a defence that made far too many individual errors last season? And does Mourinho stick around at a club that is sitting on the fringes of the top four? Questions, questions, questions.
If you thought that 2019/20 was the oddest season in English football history, this year might run it close.
The schedule demands playing all 38 league games, domestic cup competitions and European fixtures in a period one month shorter than the usual. October’s international break will see countries playing three matches in a week rather than the usual two.
And we’ve got a major tournament at the end of the season, pushing bodies even further.
What does this all mean? The richest clubs with the deepest squads may move even further clear of the rest with their ability to rotate more frequently without a noticeable drop in quality.
There may well be surprise winners of the domestic cup competitions if the Big Six consider them a lesser priority than usual.
One club - think Aston Villa, Southampton or Crystal Palace - could be undone by a muscle injury to their key player. And expect some freak results, particularly in the spring when teams safely ensconced in mid table will be happy to play out their matches at half-pace. That last one could have a real bearing on the relegation fight and title race.
You know the drill by now: First come the leaks about Manchester United seeking a new director of football, then the incessant rumours linking them to players.
Then, just when it matters, everything goes quiet on both fronts and United are left battling against their own off-field incompetence.
Donny van de Beek was a great pickup from Ajax, but United went into the window needing another striker, a central defender, a holding midfielder and probably a left-back too.
This will be a relentless season and, for all their excellence in the starting XI, the outfielders on United’s bench for their final league game last season included Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Daniel James, Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata and Odion Ighalo. Is that good enough for a team looking to mount a title challenge?
The most fascinating story of this Premier League season. You could make a case for Leeds United getting relegated and finishing in the top eight.
Everything is a guessing game as we wait to see how Marcelo Bielsa’s football, so successful in the Championship, copes with Premier League life.
And then there’s the issue of energy. Bielsa’s style demands that his players chase intensely when Leeds don’t have the ball, and that will happen a lot more in the top flight.
Does he compromise on those ideals, or hope that Leeds’ physical fitness holds despite a short break between long seasons? Either way, it will be appointment television. Perhaps the most philosophy-driven manager in modern history takes his bow in the most intense league in the world.
History dictates that you can stay up without being prolific but having the most porous defence gets you relegated. But there must still be grave concerns about Fulham and West Brom’s ability to score enough goals to keep their heads afloat in the top flight.
Fulham have Aleksandar Mitrovic, but he only scored 11 times in Fulham’s last Premier League season and his temperament causes real headaches in a division that uses VAR. At West Brom, Hal Robson-Kanu and Charlie Austin were the joint-top league goalscorers with 10 in the Championship. Surely both teams must take an educated punt on another forward between now and the end of the window?
Everton needed a new midfield, and they have one. Last season it neither protected their defence, pressured opposition teams or provided sufficiently for the front three.
Allan, Abdoulaye Doucoure and James Rodriguez will all be starters. Suddenly the Carlo Ancelotti factor comes into its own.
But this does need to be the start of a sustainable Everton improvement. They are already close to the line on Financial Fair Play and have a new stadium on the way. Target a top-half finish and domestic cup run and supporters will finally be convinced that their unacceptably long slump can end.
It’s an easy pattern to spot: Over the last four seasons, Arsenal have played 36 league games away at teams that finished in the top half. They have taken 21 points from a possible 108. You simply can’t finish in the top four with that kind of blind spot.
But perhaps things are starting to chance. Under Mikel Arteta last season, Arsenal beat each of the top four in all competitions, two away from the Emirates.
They also won away at Wolves and twice came from behind at Stamford Bridge with 10 men. Is there now a hard centre to Arsenal that we haven’t seen in more than half a decade? Or is this yet another false dawn?
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
