England<\/p>\n
Granit Xhaka geht in seine zweite Saison mit Sunderland<\/p>\n
Image: Keystone<\/p>\n
The Premier League kicks off the new season with a major title contender and seven Swiss players.<\/p>\n
When does the Premier League start?<\/p>\n
The defending champions kick off the new season on Friday night. Arsenal will host Coventry City, last season\u2019s second-division champion. The other two promoted teams, Ipswich Town and Hull City, will host Sunderland and Manchester United, respectively, on Saturday. There are 38 matchdays scheduled through May 30, 2027, three of which will take place between Christmas and Berchtold Day.<\/p>\n
Who will be the champion?<\/p>\n
Arsenal is the clear favorite to win the title. Experts, fans, and the supercomputers that process data to make predictions all agree on this. The Londoners are a well-oiled machine and brimming with confidence. With Mikel Arteta, they have the longest-serving manager. Bruno Guimar\u00e3es and Christos Tzolis are solid additions to the squad. The Champions League finalists from last spring are missing just one major transfer coup to complete their dream. Their attempt to sign Vinicius Junior fell through. The timing seems ideal for Arsenal\u2019s first successful title defense since the 1930s.<\/p>\n
Who are the first challengers?<\/p>\n
Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester United are best positioned to contend for the title. Unlike Arsenal, however, there are some question marks surrounding this quartet. Manchester City (with Enzo Maresca), Liverpool (with Andoni Iraola), and Chelsea (with Xabi Alonso) are starting the season with a new coach, along with six other Premier League clubs. Manchester United\u2019s Michael Carrick has only been in the job for half a year, but during that time he has led the \u201cRed Devils\u201d to more league points than any other team (39 out of 51).<\/p>\n
Who are the new attractions?<\/p>\n
The Premier League is the most important, richest, and arguably the best soccer league in the world. Players worth over 13 billion Swiss francs put on a spectacular show, and three clubs have squads valued at over one billion Swiss francs. Even Hull City, supposedly the smallest Premier League club, has more than twice as much player value in its roster as Young Boys, the Super League\u2019s wealthiest club in this regard.<\/p>\n
The most expensive transfers this summer took place within the league. Morgen Rogers (from Aston Villa to Chelsea), Elliot Anderson (from Nottingham to Manchester City), and Sandro Tonali (from Newcastle to Tottenham) each transferred for over 100 million Swiss francs. One of the most expensive signings from outside the Premier League was Geneva\u2019s Johan Manzambi, who moved from Fribourg to Aston Villa for 60 million euros.<\/p>\n
Where do the Swiss play?<\/p>\n
In addition to Manzambi, who plays for Europa League champion Aston Villa in Birmingham, Granit Xhaka (Sunderland), Dan Ndoye (Nottingham), Fabian Sch\u00e4r (Newcastle), Aur\u00e8le Amenda (Coventry), as well as Noah Okafor and Nico Elvedi (both Leeds) are under contract with top English clubs. Manzambi in the Champions League and Xhaka in the Europa League will also be playing in European competitions. Zeki Amdouni, the Burnley forward, is a Swiss World Cup participant currently under contract in England\u2019s second division.<\/p>\n
What are the prospects for the Swiss?<\/p>\n
All eyes in England will be on Manzambi in the early rounds. The young midfielder made a strong impression at the World Cup, but he\u2019ll first need to find his rhythm after his injury layoff. He\u2019s also playing for a team that has lost two key players: Rogers and Youri Tielemans (to Manchester United).<\/p>\n
As Sunderland\u2019s captain, Granit Xhaka aims to build on the club\u2019s outstanding performance last season, while Okafor and Ndoye need to score a few more points than they have recently in order to establish themselves more firmly at their respective clubs. Elvedi is likely to quickly take on a key role at his new club, Leeds, following his recent transfer from M\u00f6nchengladbach. Veteran Sch\u00e4r is fighting to return as a starter in central defense after a six-month injury layoff, while newcomer Amenda must prove himself with newly promoted Coventry.<\/p>\n
What else is there to know?<\/p>\n
In the 34 Premier League seasons to date, only three teams and three managers have successfully defended the title: Manchester United under Alex Ferguson, Chelsea under Jos\u00e9 Mourinho, and Manchester City under Pep Guardiola. With Coventry City and Ipswich Town, two founding members of the league\u2014which was established under this name in 1992\u2014are returning to the league this season. The league\u2019s current leading scorer is Erling Haaland, who this season could become the third player\u2014after Mohamed Salah and Thierry Henry\u2014to win the Golden Boot for the fourth time. He still has a long way to go to become the highest-scoring striker in Premier League history: The Norwegian has 112 goals, while record-holder Alain Shearer scored 260 times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England Granit Xhaka geht in seine zweite Saison mit Sunderland Image: Keystone The Premier League kicks off the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[3350,41,17],"class_list":["post-118291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-england","tag-swiss","tag-switzerland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117131685800244880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}