City’s charges, Arne Slot and new stars: will this Premier League season surprise us?

Whatever happens in 2024-25, the hearing into 115 charges brought against Manchester City will be a key milestone. 

ROCKY STEPS? New Liverpool boss Arne Slot during a boxing training session at the Front Street Gym in Philadelphia last month. Pic: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images

The Premier League markets itself on its competitiveness. It is, the cliche has it, the league in which on their day anybody can beat anybody. Historically, it has been justifiably proud of the way – far more than equivalent leagues across Europe – it has regulated the distribution of broadcast rights, with the champions getting no more than 1.8 times more than the team finishing bottom.

So when this week the high priests of statistics gathered by the great Opta oracle, performed their incantations and asked the supercomputer to predict the unpredictable and give its forecast for the season to come, what was its gnomic response? What cryptic, back-covering prophecies did it offer for the soothsayers to sift in search of meaning? There is an 82% chance that Manchester City will be champions again.