The 2023-24 Premier League season kicks off this weekend after two and half months break.
The 2022/2023 season was concluded on May 28 with Manchester City claiming their third consecutive title.
Last season's runners-up Arsenal host Nottingham Forest on Saturday while Newcastle face Aston Villa in a contest between two sides making their return to European competition this campaign.
Sunday brings the debut of two new bosses as Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou takes his side to Brentford before Mauricio Pochettino's Chelsea host Liverpool.
Once again, Manchester City head into a Premier League campaign as champions, having claimed their third title in a row in 2022-23.
Pep Guardiola's side were pushed close by Arsenal, but their superiority eventually shone through. The league crown would comprise part of a Treble for the club, who also claimed the FA Cup and its first Champions League crown.
City put up some stunning numbers over the campaign, with the league title their fifth in the past six seasons, becoming the third team to achieve such a feat, along with Liverpool (1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984) and Manchester United (1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001).
They have lost a couple of important players in Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gundogan but have replaced the latter with Mateo Kovacic from Chelsea and strengthened the defence by recruiting the impressive Josko Gvardiol for £77m from RB Leipzig.
Interestingly, City were top of the Premier League for only 42 of last season's 296 days, thanks in large part to the efforts of Mikel Arteta's Arsenal, who will hope they can go one better than their second-place finish in 2022-23, especially after a summer in which they have strengthened heavily (more on that later).
Manchester United were unable to get the better of fierce rivals City in the FA Cup final but will be looking for a year of further progress under Erik Ten Hag following further surgery on a squad that finished third last season. They do not play until Monday when the Wolves visit Old Trafford.
And then there's the other half of the 'big six'—Chelsea, Liverpool, and Tottenham—all of whom fell short of expectations to a differing degree.
It has been another busy close season for the Blues, who will have a much-altered side to the one that limped to 12th in 2022-23 and a new manager in charge in Pochettino, making his return to the Premier League three years and eight months after he was sacked by Spurs.
The Argentine starts his tenure at home, with Liverpool the visitors on Sunday, bringing with them a refreshed midfield and a desire to improve on last season's fifth-place finish.
Pochettino's former club are at Brentford on the same day, looking for a positive start to the reign of Postecoglou, who left Celtic in the summer to take over.
There are more questions than answers around the club at present, most notably the future of record goal-scorer Harry Kane, who has been the subject of transfer interest from Bayern Munich.
City's quest to make it six out of seven begins with an emotional reunion with one of their greatest modern players and captain for the first of their seven Premier League titles in 2011-12.
Kompany excelled as boss of Burnley last season, transforming a side that had just been relegated and lost a sizable chunk of their players into a fluid, attacking force that amassed 101 points to storm the Championship.
Joining the Clarets in the top flight this season are Sheffield United and Premier League debutants Luton Town.
The Blades finished second in the Championship last season under Paul Heckingbottom and return to the big time after two years in the second tier. They host Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Luton came through the play-offs, beating Coventry in the final. The Hatters had the misfortune of being relegated from the top flight in the season before it became the Premier League. They have become the first team to rise from non-league to the top flight during the Premier League era. Their first Premier League game comes at Brighton on Saturday.
The Seagulls' record-high finish of sixth means they will be embarking on the first European campaign in their history this season.
Roberto de Zerbi's men will enter the Europa League—Europe's second-biggest competition—at the group stage phase.
Aston Villa will also be playing in Europe this season, with their impressive form following the appointment of Unai Emery as manager leading them to a seventh-place finish and a place in the Europa Conference League.
It will be the club's first European campaign since 2009-10. Another side making their return to continental competition is Newcastle, who will play in the Champions League after Eddie Howe guided them to a fourth-place finish last season.
Their last European campaign came in the Europa League in 2012-13, with their previous experience of the Champions League proper coming a decade earlier when Bobby Robson led them to the second group stage.
Once again, the Premier League has outspent the other members of the big five European top flights in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
After spending £600m last season, Chelsea continue to evolve their squad at a rapid pace, with six players arriving and 13 departing.
The new Blues signings include strikers Christopher Nkunku (£52m from RB Leipzig) - who is currently injured - and Nicolas Jackson (£32m from Villarreal), as well as defender Axel Disasi (£38m from Monaco).
Along with Liverpool, they have sold three players to clubs in the newest big-money league on the block in Saudi Arabia, with N'Golo Kante, Kalidou Koulibaly and Edouard Mendy all leaving for the Middle East.
With Kai Havertz (£65m to Arsenal), Mason Mount (£55m to Manchester United) and Kovacic (£25m to Man City) also among those exiting, Chelsea have brought in around £220m.
For the third summer running, Arsenal are among the biggest spenders, topping the division with an outlay of just under £200m, half of which went on the record signing of England midfielder Declan Rice from West Ham.
Liverpool's midfield will look very different in the coming season, with Milner (Brighton), Naby Keita (Werder Bremen), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (released) Jordan Henderson and Fabinho (both to Saudi Arabia) departing, to be replaced by Alexis Mac Allister (£35m from Brighton) and Dominik Szoboszlai (£60m from RB Leipzig).
Other notable signings include goalkeeper Andre Onana to Man United from Inter Milan for £47.2m and James Maddison (to Tottenham for £40m) and Harvey Barnes (joining Newcastle for £38m) both leaving relegated Leicester to stay in the Premier League.
Newcastle have also signed midfielder Sandro Tonali from AC Milan for £55m. The big change to the laws of the game this season is around injury time, with English matches set to have more minutes added this season to accurately reflect stoppages in play.
Football's lawmakers - the International Football Association Board (Ifab) - announced its wish to "create fairer conditions for both teams in terms of the amount of time available in a match" at the start of the year.
The effects have already been felt over the first weekend of the EFL, with many games having lengthy amounts of injury time added.
In the Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday, Arsenal equalised against Man City in the 101st minute before going on to win on penalties.
It drew criticism from City boss Pep Guardiola, who said "the big brains" never consulted people in the game with the new rules before their implementation.
Guardiola added: "It's a lot of games and every time you add eight or 10 minutes it's a… but listen, they never consult our opinions, the people in world football, managers or players."
Another new rule this season is that managers and coaches "must not confront, invade the personal space of, or make physical contact with the match officials".
Yellow cards will be issued to players delaying the restart of play or not retreating the necessary distance at a free-kick.
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