The highest level of club football in England has officially returned following the conclusion of the Community Shield that had Manchester City lose for the third time in a row and Arsenal win its second under Mikel Arteta.
Following another heavy money-laden transfer window that had several club record transfers simultaneously set and broken, it is time to put all that off-season work into meaningful action for the chance to win the world’s richest league title.
Ahead of the start of a new campaign, the spotlight is firmly fixed on highly-rated players like Declan Rice, Mason Mount and Kai Havertz who switched camps or in the case of Harry Kane (at the time of writing), who stayed put.
After a drama filled curtain raiser, the application of sterner rules by game officials on players and coaches have taken away some of that intense glare to an anticipated rash of yellow cards and red cards especially early on in the upcoming campaign. (Click highlighted text to read full report)
Coaches will get yellow carded when they motion for players to get booked by referees and players who hound referees will also get cautioned for their actions and could easily get sent off if they have been yellow carded prior.
In a three part series, the biggest story lines to look forward to before Man City takes on Burnley in the season’s opener will be highlighted beginning with a special look at the main characters on the sidelines and what the 2023-2024 season holds for them.
Pep Guardiola chasing record extension at Man City
Kicking things off with the defending champions means starting with the man responsible for the fate of England’s Sky Blues, Josep Guardiola. Winning the Community Shield or England’s version of the Spanish Super Cup and Italy’s Supercoppa Italia would have kept Man City in the loop for a possible sextuple.
For Guardiola, winning all six titles would have been the second time he recorded this feat after leading Barcelona to win the UEFA Champions League, Spanish League, Copa Del Rey (Spain’s FA Cup), Spanish Super Cup, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA’s Club World Cup.
However, all isn’t lost for Guardiola who can still guide his team to win a record setting fourth Premier League title triumph in a row. After equaling Sir Alex Ferguson’s three peat run with Manchester United over a decade ago thanks to beating Arsenal to last season’s title, Man City will dive into the record books with a title win this season.
As intense as Guardiola is, any suspicion of complacency has been taken away thanks to Arsenal’s triumph at Wembley on Sunday. In an indirect way, Man City’s biggest rival Arsenal might just have given City the one thing it needed to win it all, all over again and that is motivation.
Mikel Arteta’s man management skills and continuous tactical growth
Arteta has shown consistent growth as a manager year-on-year but after getting taught a very painful lesson last season, rebounding from that to spearhead another title charge and potentially win it would signal Arteta’s ascent into the elite coaching realm.
After all, even the great Sir Alex Ferguson failed several times and was on the verge of getting sacked before turning Man United around into a great dynasty. Despite winning the Community Shield for the second time and beating his former boss in the process, Arteta gave another reason to doubt his tactical nous after starting Kai Havertz as a false nine. (Click highlighted text to read full report)
For a player who struggled in the same position last season at Chelsea and is short on confidence, letting Havertz lead the line against a top tier quality opposition in a high profile game was quite disappointing.
The German has described himself as a “midfielder who likes to go into the box” and playing him behind a striker is the best way to utilize his skill set even if Gabriel Jesus will miss at least five weeks to injury. Beyond figuring out the best way to use Havertz, Arteta needs to show that deft touch to man manage a big quality squad.
At various points in the season, fatigue will set in and the setup needs to be freshened but the replacements will need to be engaged and prepped to be ready to step in and deliver while they are out in the cold. This juggling act is so difficult to pull off as players can easily get disengaged or sidetracked when they don’t get enough playing time or minutes.
Only the elite coaches pull this trick off.
Jose Mourinho did with his 2011-2012 Real Madrid set that lost two, drew two and won 34 league games to collect a record 100 points. Asked about the tactical secret behind the tremendous success, Mourinho shoved tactics aside and pinned the team’s success on preaching discipline and football principles like spacing, movement and staying patient.
Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti’s strongest attributes as managers are their abilities to man manage players with huge egos and get them to deliver. Following the influx of top signings, one of Oleksandr Zinchenko, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben White (all starters for their national teams) will get frustrated over playing time in Arsenal’s back line at some point next season.
Emile Smith-Rowe, Reiss Nelson and Thomas Partey are bound to face a similar situation in midfield just as Leandro Trossard in attack. It’s all on Arteta to know when to use a set group of players, when to rest them and when to plug others who have been out for a while; it’s all on Arteta.
Manchester United’s continued growth under Erik ten Hag
The Red Devils had an encouraging debut campaign under the Dutch coach by finishing third in the league, making it to the FA Cup final and winning the Carabao Cup. While most of his signings hit the mark (Casemiro, Lisandro Martinez, Tyrell Malacia), the marquee signing Antony, underwhelmed in the area Man United struggled the most; in attack.
The jury is out on Ten Hag after getting the very unpopular Glazers to splash the cash on Mason Mount, Rasmus Hojlund and Andre Onana. All three have major questions despite going to Old Trafford with big reputations and their success or otherwise will go a long way to show whether the Red Devils build up to elite status is on the right track or has hit a snag.
Hojlund needs to prove he is worth the hype and the huge $70 million price tag while Onana needs to do more to show Man United was right to let last season’s Golden Glove winner David De Gea go and Mount needs to show what made him one of the most coveted players in the world.
In his first season as Man United manager, his team consistently conceded first and early and was very slow starters in games. It cost them points and the FA Cup title after conceding in the first minute and six minutes after the second half commenced.
In his second season, Ten Hag needs to get his team to close the gap on the winning the league because realistically Man United will not topple Manchester City from their throne. They must do better than they did last season when they finished 14 points behind City.