Man City Begin Title Defence As Premier League Returns

Manchester City begin the defence of their Premier League title away to newly-promoted Burnley on Friday as they seek to become the first side to ever win four consecutive English top-flight titles and sixth in seven years.

Pep Guardiola’s treble-winning side travels to Burnley where former City captain Vincent Kompany is in charge. 

The Belgian turned around a club in crisis during his first season at Turf Moor to return Burnley to the Premier League with seven games to spare last season and will be hoping for a fine start to his Premier League campaign against former club tonight. 

Arsenal, which finished as the runner-up last year after leading for much of the campaign, hosts Nottingham Forest on Saturday at lunchtime, while fourth-placed Newcastle United will be at home against Aston Villa in the evening.

Liverpool, fifth last season, face Chelsea on Sunday, while Manchester United, third at the final whistle last May, must wait until Monday for its opening game at home against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

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Manchester City lost the Community Shield on penalties against Arsenal at Wembley last weekend, hardly a bad omen given that it also lost the previous two and still ended the season as champion.

City are still bookmakers favorite to retain the EPL title next year in May, but Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal splashed around 100 million pounds on signing England midfielder Declan Rice from West Ham, as well as 65 million on bringing Kai Havertz from Chelsea and 40 million on defender Jurrien Timber from Ajax Amsterdam and therefore, just like season, remain a big threat to Pep Guardiola-led team. 

Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino now at Stamford Bridge will be making his Chelsea league debut, with Blues fans eager for signs that last season’s nightmare is over despite facing an immediate big challenge against Liverpool.

Juergen Klopp has lost captain Jordan Henderson and Fabinho to Saudi Arabia but the Liverpool boss still has plenty of ammunition as he too seeks to put behind him the failures of the previous year.

Manchester United and Tottenham are all eager to improve on last season, while Newcastle will be keen to flex their newfound financial might.

At the other end of the table, just like Burnley, the Premier League welcomes back Sheffield United following a spell in the Championship, while lowly Luton Town will seek to defy expectations and survive their inaugural Premier League campaign.

Regardless of how the next nine months plays out, it promises plenty of intrigue, plenty of drama and a whole lot of high quality football.