2026-27 Premier League Thread

Clubs are back in training and on their international tours, so let’s get this started. With a bombshell.

Eddie Howe has left Newcastle and has been replaced by Al Ahli coach Matthias Jaissle. He had previously coached Red Bull Salzburg from 2021-23

Something going on there with the ownership group. This is surprising but understandable given, as indicated, the lack of investment this season.

Bad news for Bournemouth: Junior Kroupi ruled out three-to-four months

Ed H in Pasadena said:

Something going on there with the ownership group. This is surprising but understandable given, as indicated, the lack of investment this season.

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The Saudi PIF pulled the plug on the LIV Golf Tour too.

They were looking for outside investors a few months ago.

What a day it has been so far for people who enjoy Schadenfreude!!!!

And underdogs. I don’t think a single betting favorite won today … maybe Everton at home. Still. Wild way to kick it off.

Man U losing to Hull wasn't in my tea leaves. And Spurs losing 3-0 to Brentford? Wow

Ed H in Pasadena said:

Man U losing to Hull wasn't in my tea leaves. And Spurs losing 3-0 to Brentford? Wow

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I listened to that in the car driving through New York and Connecticut. The TalkSport commentators were ruthless describing the Spurs’ performance. I’m so sad…not.

Two of the 3 promoted sides acquitted themselves well. Coventry City…not so much, even after splashing out £100+ million on transfers.

Guess I should have looked at our lineup before enjoying the results of yesterday. Villa down 4-0 at half and down to 10 men on a red card that I will argue is soft as hell.

Yeah, didn’t care for the call on the red but that went about as I expected. No striker, a bajillion changes, nothing looked settled … just an utterly predictable train wreck. At least they hunkered down and defended better in the 2nd half. Otherwise, burn the tapes and find a striker.

Man City won late, 2-1, but Marc Guehi has no business playing midfield.

Liverpool drew 2-2 at St James after drawing a penalty in the 97th minute. Both Newcastle goals exposed our weakness defending the middle of the pitch. And our wing backs didn't acquit themselves well, either. Happy with the kid centre back, Jeremy Jaquet, who acquitted himself well. And the kid Victor Munoz came on and drew the penalty that allowed to us to level the match.

And I was expecting much worse, but a hard fought 1-0 defeat where we were in it the entire match and looked much more cohesive than last week for sure made me pretty happy. Saka dove for a pen and Gillett fell for pretty much every Arsenal dive the entire match, but fortunately VAR decided that the "foul" happened outside of the box.

I thought we really struggled last season not having any real speed in the side, that is absolutely no longer the case. We lost our two slowest players (Digne and Tielemans) so huge upgrades of pace for those two positions and then have just gotten so much quicker across most of the field. I'm already 100% on board for Nicolas Jackson based on one match where he had zero scoring opportunities and excited for Madjo to then come off the bench and battering ram himself through tired defenses. We also finally have legit backups at both fullback positions which has been such an issue for us as Matty Cash cannot stay on the field and we've had zero success trying to convert CBs to play there. This is the most excited I've been to go into a season in a while and it feels so fresh and exciting. Hell, I've even talked myself into Garnacho.

Yeah, I thought Villa played pretty freaking well all things considered. Jackson had maybe 5 workouts with the team, Suzuki about the same. Barkley is Barkley and Lindelof is still Lindelof ... and they both need to be coming off the bench. Hemmings is an apprentice. And yet, they held up pretty well against what's probably the best team in the league. Yeah, they didn't generate any real scoring threat, but they looked competent just the same, unlike last weekend. Encouraging.

Almost forgot about Suzuki. Couple nervous moments, but the upgrade in distribution from Emi to him is unreal. With his long passing and the amount of speed we now have in attack, I have no doubt we are going to see a lot of back to front in two to three passes to go from being pressed to having a player streaking behind the defense seconds later. Probably needs to learn that it's a lot harder in the prem to try to jump out and deal with corners around the edge of the six yard box, but he'll get there.

Results this weekend. Feel free to chime in with your match observations. Only saw Friday's match, so
4.10
Ipswich Town 0-2 Liverpool
Two goals inside ten minutes for Alexander Isak, both courtesy of sharp passes from Cody Gakpo who was arguably MOTM (though Reds supporters voted for Isak). So glad to have a clean sheet, Isak scoring goals and Alexis Macallister doing the dirty work in MF that he wasn't doing enough of last season. Not to mention how happy I am that we kept Cody.

5.10
Newcastle United 2-2 Bournemouth
Brentford 1-1 Sunderland
Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Leeds United
Fulham 2-3 Crystal Palace
Manchester City 1-0 Coventry City
Nottingham Forest 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur
Hull City 0-0 Aston Villa

6.10
Everton 2-2 Manchester United
Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea

I will say that Hull continues to suprise, Villa probably needs a few more games to sort themselves out, and Spurs? Don't know what to make of them. Not a good start for them despite all the signings. Maybe that's part of the problem?

An entertaining match at the Emirates. Arsenal went down 77 seconds in through Morgan Rogers. Kai Havertz equalized in the 25th minute, Martin Odegaard had the winner in the 50th. Arsenal had a goal chalked off earlier in the first after scoring on a scramble in front of the goal. Arsenal center back Gabriel appeared to kick Chelsea keeper Emi Martinez din the head during the scramble but it was ruled accidental and he wasnt penalized. Raya preserved the win with a fingertip save off Estevao in the 89th minute and Arsenal saw it out from there.

Starting with next season, Liverpool’s front of jersey sponsor will be Turkish Airlines. It‘a a 5 year deal, reportedly for more than £300 million. Their contract with Standard Chartered, which began in 2010, expires after this season.

Many Pasadena Reds have mixed feelings on this. Happy for the big deal but with as many Armenian supporters we have at the pub (and indeed nationwide), it feels ... insensitive. Not to mention the club's massive following in Greece.