Watching four games in four days – and what it revealed about the new Premier League season

It’s off and running: Premier League season 33 has kicked into action and should the title race goes the distance, nine months and one week from now we will know if, on the banks of the Thames at Fulham, Manchester City have confirmed a fifth consecutive triumph or, at Southampton, if Arsenal have become champions for the first time in 21 years.

Or will Liverpool be celebrating Arne Slot’s first season on the last day at home to Crystal Palace? Could an outsider flourish?

There are familiar faces — James Milner and Ashley Young made their debuts in Premier League season 11. There is freshness, too, in Ipswich Town’s return after 22 years. Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea, Leicester City and Kloppless Liverpool all have new head coaches. Some clubs have new sporting directors and recruitment heads as well. It’s an evolving league in a developing industry. And in the stands, it remains packed out.

In total, 307 players appeared across the four-day weekend. Young’s sending-off was one of two red cards shown, on top of 38 yellows. There were 20 goals, one from a penalty kick.

Yet City’s long dominance means that, while there was much enthusiasm, there is an underlying tension that will not be eased (depending on the outcome) until those infamous 115 questions are addressed.

That figure hangs in the air, like Mikel Arteta’s joke about 114 points. Then there are questions of club owners, ticket prices and kick-off times, not to mention the video assistant referee (VAR) system and a new handball interpretation. Some of this came up as The Athletic spent Friday to Monday moving from Manchester United to Arsenal to Chelsea and then, finally, finishing in Leicester.

Conversations veered from names such as Joshua Zirkzee to Bukayo Saka to Raheem Sterling. There were unexpected detours into Manchester’s Suffragettes and Henry VIII’s view of St Paul’s cathedral.

But did we get any answers?

Friday night, Old Trafford, and as the Munich clock shows 7.55 a Manchester United fan in an old traditional kit scurries by like so many rushing to make kick-off. It says ‘Edwards’ on the back above the No 6.

As the music booms from inside the stadium — This Is The One by the Stone Roses — outside the East Stand there are still around 200 Fulham fans waiting to get in. They are chanting their version of Country Roads — “Craven Cottage, by the river…”

Despite all the speculation, Erik ten Hag is still the man in the Old Trafford dugout and the opening words of his match programme notes are: “As we kick off the 2024-25 season this evening, I hope you are all as excited as I am.”

Well, Erik.

Ten Hag goes on to list new signings for his squad, such as Zirkzee, and also in administration — Dan Ashworth, Jason Wilcox — and adds: “I am very excited to see where this new energy takes us.”

Yet Friday morning’s newspaper headlines had featured Ten Hag’s phrase from his Thursday press conference — “not ready” was his verdict on United — and as the game starts there is another familiar sight, that of United struggling for rhythm, creativity, cutting edge. After 19 minutes, the Stretford End breaks into a chorus requesting the Glazer family leave the building — it is 19 years since they arrived.

In the directors’ box on a rare visit, majority shareholder Avram Glazer is surrounded by the new faces of Jim Ratcliffe’s takeover (partial). The Glazers have heard these chants many times before. They have not left.

Avram Glazer in Old Trafford’s directors’ box (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

But others have gone. Not far away, across the Trafford Road Bridge, one of them, Matthew Haley, is talking about it. Haley was 23 in 2005 when he decided he could physically support Manchester United no more and he departed with thousands of others to help form the protest club FC United of Manchester.

There were those who said ‘FCUM’ would not last until Christmas but here they are, three games into their 20th season, with their own stadium in north Manchester, an academy, a women’s team, 2,000 members and three full-time staff. They play in England’s seventh tier, the Northern Premier League. They play in red, white and black.

One member, one vote, FC United own themselves, but who in 2024, Haley is asked, owns football?

“Well, where to begin?” he replies. “The very wealthy, don’t they? They control it, they make the decisions.

“But ultimately, it is the people’s game, isn’t it? The reason football is as popular as it is globally is because working-class communities put their passion into it. As the saying goes, ‘football without fans is nothing’, and it’s so true.

“But over the years, big businesses have got a bigger stake and their best interests — and those of TV companies — are placed ahead of the fans.”

Haley is not here to congratulate FC United, but 20 seasons is “significant”. He says the club has endured because of Mancunian spirit: “Partly bloodymindedness, there’s a lot of stubborn people at FC United. And Manchester, it’s a city of protest — the Suffragettes, the trade unions.

FC United of Manchester fans set up their club in protest at the Glazers’ ownership (Tim Markland/PA Images via Getty Images)

“At the time, I don’t think there was a grand scheme to go on for 20 years. But a lot feel they didn’t leave their football club, their football club left them. It was a protest first and foremost and a way of keeping that protest going.”

FC United do not own protest — angry current United fans invaded Old Trafford in May 2021, forcing the fixture with Liverpool to be postponed, for example. At ‘FC’ there is still interest in all this and “cautious optimism” that Ratcliffe could bring positive change.

Endurance, of course, was well-known at United under Sir Alex Ferguson. Back at Old Trafford, one year after Raphael Varane had scored a late winner against Wolverhampton Wanderers — and Andre Onana got away with a clumsy right hook — Ten Hag introduces Zirkzee. And with an 87th-minute left-foot jab, Zirkzee floors U.S.-owned Fulham.

“We’re top of the league,” says a fan walking away, laughing at himself.

Saturday, north London: there is a broad and understandable sense the Premier League’s return has lacked some hype and anticipation. The European Championship and Copa America did not end until mid-July and were followed by the Olympics. There has been almost no time away from football and sport. It follows us everywhere.

But passing through thronged Upper Street, turning onto equally thronged Holloway Road, amid a red tide bound for Arsenal — and on a beautiful summer’s day — the new-season buzz was inescapable. Maybe it was the throwback 3pm Saturday kick-off, maybe it was last season and how close Arsenal came to ending City’s domination. But the Arsenal stadium was a happy place.

Arsenal fans are in positive spirits, and no wonder (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

Can it be more than that?

Seasons sometimes bleed into each other — Ferguson’s United players recall him beginning the charge for the 2013 title on the bus home from Sunderland in 2012 after hearing of City’s Aguero moment. On Friday, Arteta spoke of a post-season dinner and how that near-success can help propel this season. He refers to the players, the club overall — and “how we feel playing at Emirates Stadium is another one”.

Arsenal have not been champions since leaving Highbury for the site at Ashburton Grove and the new stadium has been a drag on finances and, until the club’s recent revival, the subject of hot debates over tepid atmospheres.

If Arsenal are to displace City, then feeling comfortable and superior in their own place is essential. The squad has barely altered and Arteta has it training there more often. It is the sort of marginal gain Arteta calls “huge” and brought back Jurgen Klopp’s phrase when reflecting on Liverpool’s unsuccessful and successful title challenges: “Minutes, millimetres, inches decided things.”

Klopp was correct: in 2021-22, his Liverpool were unbeaten at Anfield and still finished second to City. In 2016-17, Tottenham were unbeaten in their last season at White Hart Lane, racking up 53 points at home, yet came second to Antonio Conte’s Chelsea.

On Saturday evening, after a sometimes convincing 2-0 victory over Wolves, Arteta explains his summer tour reference to “114 points” as a jokey response to the question of what Arsenal require to be champions. It will probably be 90 points or above and that generally means getting around 50 at home (though, in the Covid-19 disrupted season, City got only 41 at home; they still triumphed).

Arsenal’s points tally at home has gone from 41 to 45 to 47 over the past three campaigns. They lost twice last season, to Aston Villa and West Ham United. So there is room for home improvements. Admittedly, there is not much for error.

Therefore, Saturday was a solid start in terms of points. In terms of atmosphere, it was also encouraging. There is a newish, curious demand that grounds should be hostile, teeming with noise for 90 minutes regardless of the state of the game, the home team’s performance or the opposition: hence the recent importation from Europe of numbing drummers. “Un-British” as someone called it on Saturday.

Arsenal fans salute their team (Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)

Arsenal have drums and ‘ultras’ — mocked by Wolves’ fans — but after Arteta’s continuity XI imposed themselves in the visitors’ half from kick-off, their aggression was met with the rising volume set off by the drumbeat and spiralling around the stadium. The first Arsenal corner excited some, then Saka was close with a shot and when Kai Havertz nodded in on 25 minutes, the stadium was already alive with noise. The supporters were feeding off the team and vice versa. It was no library.

It is best not to pretend it was a night match at Galatasaray or Marseille or Rangers, but it was animated and loud. And that’s OK.

After Saka scores a sharp second and the final whistle blows, Wolves manager Gary O’Neil calls this “such a tough place to come” and while he may have been commenting on Arteta’s players’ first-half attitude, he also mentions that “everybody knows these Arsenal fans are smelling another title charge”.

On top of that, all Gunners will be delighted to hear, O’Neil describes this red corner of north London as “an intimidating place”.

Sunday afternoon, west London and one year on from Chelsea displaying their new manager on the front cover of the matchday programme — Mauricio Pochettino — there is a picture of an 11-player huddle minus Pochettino’s successor, Enzo Maresca. But then, as well as managers, Chelsea do like accumulating footballers.

Contrasting matchday programmes, featuring Mauricio Pochettino (left) and the class of 2024 (Michael Walker/The Athletic)

In August 2023, Pochettino was the Chelsea ownership’s third head coach hire (including caretaker managers) in the 15 months since Clearlake Capital acquired the club. Roman Abramovich’s assets had been frozen by the British government in March 2022.

Previously, there was Graham Potter and Frank Lampard for those who, reasonably, may need memories refreshed. Now it’s Maresca trying to maintain order, or the impression of it, and Raheem Sterling’s pre-match statement is an example of the seeming impossibility of that task.

One year ago, before Chelsea faced Liverpool here on the opening day, the CFCUK fanzine called the situation “carnage” and the author of that description, Charles Rose, is in a pub elaborating.

Rose watched his first Chelsea match at Stamford Bridge in April 1968 — against Manchester City — and is a typical, ordinary Chelsea fan, in one sense. In another, as the former chair of the Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC, Rose has a deep knowledge of the club and considered opinions on who owns football in 2024.

“Well, I know who it isn’t,” he replies to the big question, “it’s not the fans. Has it ever been? That’s debatable. But it’s gone further away from the fans than ever before. It used to be owned by patrician local owners, the successful butcher or businessman who wanted to do something for their town. It’s moved to being a geopolitical game, it’s moved to stratospheres beyond what we could ever have imagined.”

The Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO), as the name suggests, understand ownership. Formed in the 1980s when it looked as if Stamford Bridge would be sold to property developers, supporters came together and bought the land. The CPO owns the pitch, the stands and the megastore. To take them over requires a 75 per cent vote in favour from shareholders and the closest anyone has come is 61 per cent — Abramovich.

What did Abramovich own then?

“He owned the club itself, the players, and the valuable thing at Chelsea is the marketing,” Rose says. “Chelsea’s value is in its worldwide marketing, that’s what clubs are striving for.”

It is the same for Clearlake, who cannot redevelop the stadium without consultation with CPO, who know details such as Henry VIII’s 16th-century law on being able to see St Paul’s cathedral from various points around London, one of which is in the sightline of Stamford Bridge.

There is minimal contact with the new owners and Rose says, as a fanbase, Chelsea “had a sense of ownership then (in the past), and I still do, I talk about Chelsea in the first person, as ‘us’. But it’s never been more remote than it is now. They’re stripping the essence of what we think of as the club.”

Blue is indeed the colour.

Rose offers the losses of Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne as examples of Chelsea’s overstocking and misjudgement of squads, so he probably isn’t amused when Mateo Kovacic, who left Chelsea for City in June of last year, curls in City’s second goal to secure, as predicted, the three points.

Manchester City park the bus at Stamford Bridge (Michael Walker/The Athletic)

As jubilant City fans walk along Fulham Road, past their team buses (plural) they are taking photographs of the ‘CHAMPIONS 4-IN-A-ROW’ livery, while taunting their rivals back in Manchester with this season’s terrace favourite climaxing:

All that money you spent
Since Ferguson went
And you’ll never win four in a row.

City stroll on. Chelsea play Servette of Switzerland in a Europa Conference League qualifier here on Thursday night.

Monday night in the East Midlands: it is past 10pm and Steve Cooper, his Leicester City players and mascot Filbert the Fox are still on the pitch. In the stands, supporters are on their feet. The applause is mighty. These are sights and sounds to behold for a stadium that does not reveal the clear belief Leicester can compete.

And after 45 minutes, those who think it’s all over for the three clubs promoted from the Championship, even before the first weekend is done, are having their opinion justified. Tottenham run away with the first half, scoring once, forcing corners every four minutes or so. There is evidence to support the motion.

At least one Leicester fan was fired up before kick-off (Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)

Leicester are losing heavily in lots of ways except the scoreline and the assumption is they, like Ipswich and Southampton on Saturday, will make it three defeats for the promoted trio, possibly without scoring a goal between them.

But football really is that funny old game cliche at times and Jamie Vardy really is that funny old striker. “Not normal” is Cooper’s phrase about Vardy’s fitness at 37.

He is still doing it, leading from the front, cajoling, battling, closing down and then when it matters, putting the ball away. Vardy’s goal here early in the second half, from his first chance, will not go down as one of his classics from his epic Leicester City seasons. But in the context of the night, in the context of the club’s mood and the promoted clubs’ perspective, it really matters.

Leicester fans left in the rain with hope; their fear was it would be with resignation.

“I’ll look at the first half because that’s my job,” Cooper says, late into the night. “But to do what we did in the second half in a really good atmosphere… it’s not a win but we’re up and running. It’s more than just a half-decent result.”

It does feel that way and the result is not just important for Leicester. It will have buoyed Ipswich and Southampton, too. It is premature to deduce too much but, faced with the Premier League clubs who finished third, fifth and seventh last season — Liverpool, Spurs, Newcastle — the promoted three conceded only four goals between them.

In 2024, there is a recency bias to the perception the three teams from the Championship will go straight back down. Last season, Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton Town were relegated having come up in 2022-23. The pessimism around the prospects of Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton are not without foundation.

This weekend 12 months ago, Luton lost 4-1 on their Premier League debut, Burnley conceded three without reply at home to City and did not win in the league until beating Luton in October. Sheffield United lost at Bramall Lane to Crystal Palace and did not win until November.

So when Ipswich’s lunchtime loss to Liverpool on Saturday is followed by Southampton’s at Newcastle, albeit narrowly, optimism dips. Yet Ipswich’s 38 per cent possession at Portman Road tells a story and Southampton’s 78 per cent at St James’ Park tells another.

The focus shifts to Leicester. In the first 15 minutes, Spurs seize almost 70 per cent of possession, win five corners and have one effort cleared off the line. It looks ominous.

But then Vardy strikes, Spurs disappear and maybe some recall that last season was only the second time in the Premier League era that all three promoted clubs went straight back down (1997-98 was the other).

The mood was transformed at Leicester by Jamie Vardy’s goal (Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)

In the past seven seasons, Brighton, Wolves and Brentford have established themselves in the middle class. Bournemouth have rebounded from a relegation and it appears Fulham and Nottingham Forest might be able to cement their status.

Each acts as an example of what Ipswich and other clubs can do. They are also barriers to promoted clubs’ progress. That is the fight. Leicester know its scale more than most.

The weekend stops here, with one last question hanging: what are Tottenham?

(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)