On the day of the curtain raiser the butterflies usually jump all the way up to heart palpitations and even the most wizened of football fans experiences that brief sugar rush of childlike wonder for the game again.
Except this year the dopamine hit of anticipation is dulled, replaced by an uncanny feeling and a strange void at the centre of things. The Premier League is back and, for the first time ever, nobody knows what to think or feel.
The earth is scorched, the battlefield empty save for blood splatters and the lingering smell of something that has been. Pep Guardiola is gone. Arsenal have climbed the mountain. Jurgen Klopp walked a while back and there are no big hitters left. Even the players are shuffling out: Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Mohamed Salah.
Nine Premier League clubs have changed manager and, if you include Michael Carrick and Roberto De Zerbi, five of the Big Six have new faces in the dugout. Nobody is ready to challenge Arsenal for the title and Mikel Arteta’s side aren’t exactly a draw after completing the mission in May. Where are all the stories, all the rivalries? Why doesn’t it feel like it’s supposed to?
Nobody panic. This is a good thing. A cleansing fire, a fresh start. That bubbling void isn’t apathy - it’s just an inability to see in the dark. The Premier League has never been so shrouded in mystery, so utterly unknowable. For that we should be grateful because it wasn’t long ago Manchester City’s dominance had the whiff of a PSG/Bayern style monopoly and the Champions League places looked set in stone before a ball had been kicked.
And if the sacrifice for a season of unprecedented unpredictability is a more painful build-up to the main event then so be it. By the end of the weekend narratives will form, colour will seep back in, and the Premier League will have exploded into life.
What that will look like really is anybody’s guess.
Rarely in football do we get to experience the end of a chapter in real-time, but thanks to Guardiola’s departure and the record-breaking number of managerial changes, this summer is one of those rare occasions when it is abundantly clear an era has ended and a new one is about to begin.
The last time we were in this situation was 2016/17, when world-class coaches were parachuted into England in response to Leicester City’s title. Guardiola and Klopp quickly came to dominate the next decade but it was the third superstar coach, Antonio Conte, who took advantage of the flux at the beginning of the chapter, winning the title in his debut season at Chelsea thanks to a tactical setup alien to the division and thanks to an absence of midweek matches.
There aren’t many comparisons to be made between 2016/17 and 2026/27, but Xabi Alonso coming into a Europe-free Chelsea is one of them. If there is to be a surprise title winner then Stamford Bridge is the most realistic destination.
But trying to draw a line between the two era-opening seasons is of little value. In 2016/17 we could roughly outline the trajectory of the division simply by following the money and the famous managers. This time we are in total darkness.
Andoni Iraola has never managed a club with a stadium capacity above 12,500. His teams always start slowly and his tactical ideas always produce wild results at first. If Liverpool stutter from the outset the pressure will be unbearable, yet in theory Iraola is one of the brightest coaches in the game and a natural heir to Klopp.
Enzo Maresca was disliked at Chelsea and Leicester City for stale chess-inspired possession football that often read like a caricature of Guardiola in its over-discipline. Their Community Shield performance, and the loss of Rodri, points to a downward spiral, and yet City still boast a Galactico-style starting XI while a continuity appointment makes sense.
Manchester United are always on the edge of crisis and their summer has been mixed. Tottenham Hotspur have spent absurdly on players who are either very good or worryingly Spursy and nobody quite knows which.
Aston Villa and Newcastle United have undergone radical shake-ups. Every club who qualified for Europe is now burdened by Europe and every club who didn’t is now blessed with free midweeks. The promoted clubs have spent enormous sums on players most fans have never heard of but enter the division off the back of Sunderland’s huge success doing exactly that.
Pierre Sage was a success in France but Crystal Palace are due a hangover. Marco Rose is a brilliant tactician or a fraud depending on whom you ask. Fulham have gone all Real Madrid. Oliver Glasner is at Nottingham Forest for some reason. Leeds United are buying players that Villa wanted. Villa are buying players that PSG wanted. Everton still exist.
If that wasn’t confusing enough the Premier League, caught in transition, has a quality problem. There are bad (or at least uninspired) signings everywhere you look. Big stars have left and no new ones have arrived. Set-pieces and stodgy football dominated last season, flattening the league table to the extent that relegated West Ham United won just three fewer matches than sixth-placed Bournemouth.
Not since the 1990s has the competition felt so open – or so technically poor. If that doesn’t exactly make for an enticing preview then bear in mind two things. First, a full reset of this magnitude will eventually conjure a new rivalry, new stories, and something as-yet-unknowable to bring the Premier League back to the top of the pile.
Second, it means that 2026/27 is fertile ground for something entirely unexpected. A weakened field, with almost every club in transition, is the foundation for a wildcard winner. Give it the weekend. The familiar warm glow will return.
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