Here we go Again
Another Premier League season gets ready to start
The summer break for the Premier League is never long enough.
I often have plans to try and get some of the bigger projects for data done during this time where there isn’t the weekly trickle of new things coming in and without fail I almost never got close to the amount done that I hope, this year was no exception.
The good news is that a lot of the distractions this summer were due to Arsenal being active early and often in the transfer window, keeping me busy analyzing players lined to and signed. Overall I came away very excited for the business done so far.
At the start of the summer Adam and I did what I thought was a fun exercise trying to put ourselves into the position of director of football and allocating £200 million on different positions.
That has seen my initial what I thought of as a high level of investment blown out of the water and most of my shopping list already accomplished plus a really good goalkeeper that was not on my radar. On top of that the reporting is suggesting that Arsenal might not be done with a chance to be opportunistic as the end of window chaos unfolds.
Arsenal were a very good team that I think overperformed last season, they have not rested on that and have addressed the key weakness of this team and I think have put themselves in a good position to be a better team (even if it might not hit the same high points total) and be ready to pounce should Manchester City stumble or have a treble-winning hangover.
In City, I still default that they are the strongest team in the League. They have the best striker and a ton of World Class talent behind him, on top of that they have arguably the best coach in the World helping to get the most out of them. They have also lost a few key pieces and have a few more players moving into what should be the end of their primes. If there is ever a year where they might slip with Pep at the wheel it could be now but it still feels like just a small chance.
Behind Arsenal and City things get messy.
How you feel about Liverpool depends on how much weight you put into their end-of-season performances where they almost caught 4th place vs the injury-plagued early part of the season. I think they could be a very good team but they still have big question marks in midfield and slowing down teams when they attack.
Manchester United made some good moves but still feel like a solid 4th place team to me rather than a team ready for a title challenge (not that I think that will stop pundits).
Newcastle exceeded expectations looking very good last season but I am not sold they are actually the third-best team in the league. I have also not been that impressed with their transfer window. They also get to navigate the Champions League as a pot 4 team which will make their group stage harder to get through.
Chelsea, I just have no idea what to say about them. They just have a massive spread in my head on what they can be and any outcome between 3rd and 10th wouldn’t be all that surprising to me given the amount of unknowns in this squad at the moment.
Lastly of the big seven teams is Tottenham. They seem like they are in a tough spot with the Harry Kane situation. As a post this it might be resolved but it is a major issue hanging over them and it will really skew how they might perform this year.
It is an exciting season ahead and we have a lot of content planned. Here is the high-level schedule of what we will produce:
Weekly and after matches:
This Friday newsletter (free)
Instant Reaction post-match (premium)
Stats Debrief of the Arsenal matches (free)
Cannon Stats Podcast (free) - these will start coming out Friday afternoons again starting today
Other Items:
Player profiles and analysis (premium)
Film review (mix of both free and premium)
Adam’s Player rankings (premium)
Arsenal Loan reports (premium)
Cannon Stats Podcast - Interviews (premium)
There is a lot of good stuff in store for the next season and we are glad to have you here. To celebrate the new season we will be doing a special new season offer where you can get 20% off. This will unlock a lot of great content for you and it allows Adam and I to dedicate the time we can to the work that we do here.
Matchweek 1 Odds
The Premier League season starts with newly promoted Burnley hosting the treble-winning Manchester City. That doesn’t seem very fair but hey maybe they can do what Brentford did to Arsenal when they had the same situation.
Arsenal kick off their season with a match against Nottingham Forest. Forrest had the biggest splits between home (10th best) and away (the worst) and that points to potentially a good set up for Arsenal to get off on the right foot. They will go into this match as the biggest favorite of the weekend.
The 7am kickoffs don’t really have a matchup that looks like it should demand attention which will be nice for doing post-match work for Arsenal while the goal rush is on in the background.
Saturday ends with an intriguing matchup. I am skeptical of both teams with questions if they will be able to repeat what they did last season but also expect that they will be good to solid teams. There might be some interesting talking points that come out of this match.
The Sunday matches look interesting and I think there will be the potential for some overreactions from both. What will Brentford look like without Toney, the debut of Ange Postecoglou at Spurs, Chelsea’s young squad trying to bounce back, and Liverpool trying to show last season was a fluke.
Storylines galore.
Things end with some MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL in what should be a pretty easy match for Manchester United to see them get hyped up as title challengers.
Yee Haw. Ready or not the season is here to go again.
LET'S GO!!!! COYG!