What’s new in the Premier League this season?
STANCE: Erling Haaland and Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold taking a knee before the FA Community Shield. pIC: Nick Potts/PA Wire.
In a move that may have a huge effect on the complexion of games throughout the season, Premier League managers will be allowed to use five subs per game. It’s a throwback to Operation Restart and lockdown football with player welfare now cited. Though five subs are allowed, coaches are limited to three replacement opportunities during play and one more at half-time. The number of subs that can be named on the matchday squad list has also increased from seven to nine. Will it accentuate the depth of quality at the bigger clubs? And more importantly, how does this affect my Fantasy team?
You’ll need to familiarise yourself with some new referees if you’re one for shouting abuse at the television. We’ve lost some true heavyweights. Mike Dean is now a full-time VAR while Jonathan Moss and Martin Atkinson have taken up roles with PGMOL, the referees’ body. The trio officiated almost 100 top-flight games last term. 32-year-old Tom Bramall has been promoted from the Championship while John Brooks, Jarred Gillett, Tony Harrington, and Michael Salisbury are expected to pick up a lot more fixtures.
For the past couple of seasons, Premier League games have started with the referee’s whistle and then the two sets of teams taking a knee. The anti-racism stance will be seen in fewer games this season, however, the respective club captains have decided. Players will now kneel only before the opening and closing rounds of games, during specific anti-racism campaigns in October and March, on St Stephen’s Day and at the two cup finals.
Another re-introduction of a Covid-restart era measure; a multi-ball system will now be used in all games. Designed to cut down on time-wasting, 10 match balls will be used. There’s one on the pitch, one with the fourth official, and the rest positioned on cones around the field. Refs have been instructed to monitor how the system is employed and told to issue yellow cards if it’s abused or ignored.
No, please… don’t go. We’ll make this quick; IFAB, football’s law-making body has ‘clarified’ the offside rule. Essentially, an attacking player in an offside position will not automatically become onside when a defender touches the ball. It comes after Kylian Mbappe scored a Nations League final winner when profiting from an opponent attempting to clear the ball and only slightly touching it, while the French striker was lurking behind him. One to bore your friends with.
It’s become a worrying trend over recent seasons seemingly; games coming to a pause because of a medical emergency in the stands. All players have now been told not to stop play and beckon team medics to the scene. The onus instead falls to a doctor responsible for the stadium attendance generally.
We’ve never had a Premier League season which breaks to settle the trifling matter of a Fifa World Cup before. There are 16 rounds of matches scheduled before some of the league’s top stars decamp to the middle-east after November 13th. The tournament kicks off eight days later with the final on December 18. The Premier League will resume on St Stephen’s Day, another eight days after the tournament finale, though there are Carabao Cup games on a couple of nights in the days
before Christmas.
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