The Ephemeric

It promises to be a year of transition for the Cottagers, with Marco Silva leaving for Benfica after five successful years and former Real Madrid coach Álvaro Arbeloa taking his first job in English football. 

The squad itself still contains a strong established core: Bernd Leno, Joachim Andersen, Calvin Bassey, Antonee Robinson, Sander Berge, Alex Iwobi and Emile Smith Rowe, but Arbeloa is deliberately trying to lower the age profile of what was one of the league’s oldest sides, with Gonzalo García arriving from Real Madrid and Shea Charles from Southampton. 

There have also been meaningful losses, particularly Harry Wilson, Issa Diop and Raúl Jiménez, but replacing Silva’s extremely reliable organisation is probably the greater concern than individual personnel. 

There is enough quality here that relegation would be a major disappointment, but this feels much less predictable than the Silva years. 

HULL CITY
Nickname: The Tigers
Ground: MKM Stadium
Capacity: 24,983
Last season: Promoted (Playoff)
Manager: Sergej Jakirović

If there's one thing that all the pre-season previews have agreed on, it is this: Hull City are an early favourite for relegation, having somehow turned a campaign that began under a transfer embargo into promotion through the Championship playoffs under Sergej Jakirović. Their underlying numbers last season were hardly those of a dominant promoted side. They conceded 66 league goals and finished 22 points behind fellow newcomers Coventry, but Hull have attacked the summer aggressively, bringing in Konstantinos Tzolakis, Hidemasa Morita and club-record signing Nobel Mendy among a large group of recruits intended to make the squad Premier League-ready. 

What makes them particularly intriguing is that the season has already begun spectacularly: a 2–0 win over Manchester United on opening day was followed by yesterday’s 1–0 victory at Coventry, with Tzolakis outstanding and Liam Millar scoring the late winner, leaving Hull with six points, two clean sheets and an improbable place near the top of the table. Jakirović has them defending compactly, competing ferociously and breaking quickly, and that clarity of approach gives them a better chance than their pre-season reputation suggested.

Nevertheless, the squad remains relatively short on proven Premier League quality and a long relegation battle is still the likeliest scenario. But six points banked immediately is enormous for a promoted club, and Hull suddenly look quite capable of becoming this season’s side that everyone confidently tipped for 20th and then spends six months trying to explain away.

Key Signing: Nobel Mendy
Key Man: Oli McBurnie
Verdict: A relegation risk, but with a greater chance of survival than most would assume.

There were tough questions being asked about The Whites on their return to the Premier League. Questiosn which Daniel Farke answered by successfully guiding them to comfortable survival. Even more impressive was the transofrmation in the second half of last season after switching to a 3-5-2, with their form over the final months closer to European level than relegation form. 

Leeds have then strengthened exactly where they needed to, spending heavily on James Trafford from Manchester City and Tarik Muharemovic from Sassuolo, adding the experienced Nico Elvedi in defence and bringing in Harry Wilson to supply more creativity around Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Pascal Struijk has departed, but overall the squad looks considerably deeper and more balanced than a year ago. 

The obvious caveat is attacking firepower. Calvert-Lewin’s availability remains important and Leeds probably lack the individual match-winners possessed by the established European contenders. But the defence, midfield structure and continuity under Farke all look strong. I think this is one where the club could conceivably push into the top half if all goes right, or get sucked into a relegation battle if all goes wrong. Most likely, somewhere in the lower half of mid-table.

The years of optimism and ambition for Newcastle during the Saudi PIF era seems strangely forgotten. They begin the season in the middle of a dramatic rebuild rather than as the Champions League-chasing side that had largely been expected, after a disappointing 12th-place finish was followed by Eddie Howe’s resignation and the departures of Bruno Guimarães, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon

Former Salzburg and Al-Ahli coach Matthias Jaissle has been entrusted with the reset, bringing the high-energy pressing and fast transitions associated with his Red Bull background, while Newcastle have deliberately recruited younger players such as Bazoumana Touré, Aladji Bamba and Sean Steur, before adding the more established Nico González from Manchester City for around £52m to rebuild the midfield. On paper that leaves significantly less proven quality than Newcastle possessed at their peak under Howe, but the very early signs under Jaissle are encouraging

With no European football to stretch a relatively young squad, Jaissle has a decent chance of making the transition smoother than expected, but replacing Guimarães, Tonali and Gordon simultaneously is an enormous loss of creativity and control.

Sunderland will want to prove that last season’s remarkable seventh-place finish was the beginning of something sustainable rather than a one-off, and Régis Le Bris has kept the core of that side together while adding depth for a first Europa League campaign in more than half a century. 

Granit Xhaka, Enzo Le Fée, Noah Sadiki and Brian Brobbey still give them a remarkably strong spine, while summer arrivals Dayann Methalie, Jules Ahoka and experienced full-back Thomas Meunier strengthen the squad. There have been departures, notably Eliezer Mayenda, Anthony Patterson and Dan Neil, but none feels transformational. 

The biggest challenge is workload: Sunderland benefited enormously last year from being able to concentrate on the league, whereas they now have Thursday-night trips across Europe and Le Bris will need substantially more rotation. Sunderland probably overachieved statistically to finish seventh last year, so some regression is likely, but this is now a well-coached, confident Premier League side rather than relegation fodder.