The EPL is already the Greatest Show on Turf (hybrid surfaces actually, but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it), but this season is building up to be an absolute classic, with quite possibly the most open title race and league in years. Big money has been spent ,all the Big 6 appear to be going for it, but most also have issues!

 

The City legal action with the EPL over 115 breaches of financial rules still rumbles on , it has apparently cost both sides well over £100m (maybe double that) and I am not sure it will ever be resolved. City have more money than the Premier League and will appeal any sanctions and no side can "win". 

 

I do think that it has had some effect on the players/staff, but it is impossible to know to what extent. After 6 titles in 7 years, City finished outside the top two for the first time since 2017  in 2025/25 placing 3rd with 71 points, a 20 point drop off from the previous campaign and fewest since 2016. They also scored the fewest goals since then and conceded the most in even longer! Last season they bounced back to some degree with improvement on both sides of the ball and an additional 7 points. However, it was still only good enough for 2nd and xGA suggests they should have conceded an additional 12 goals and that took them almost exactly to where their goals against column finished in the previous campaign. They feel easier to score against , or at least get chances against and the loss of Rodri, who has only started 16 games in the last two seasons has been hard felt and it appears that he is on his way to Real Madrid. 

 

Head coach Pep Guardiola has also departed after a decade and 16 major titles at the club. It felt like time for a change, but I think those financial charges did not hang well with him either. Enzo Maresca has taken over, he has worked at City previously, in charge of the Elite Development Squad and later as assistant under Pep. He knows the club and set up, but I have some real issues with him and, given earlier the appointment as an assistant, which is how some of the squad know/remember him, he might not command the respect of his predecessor. The Italian has never stayed anywhere much more than one year ( ten appointments in ten years) and he is too negative for me and his default position is to go too defensive when games are tight. Also 21 of his 28 wins as an EPL head coach ( all with Chelsea) came against bottom half of the table opposition and it remains to be seen if he can step up in the bigger games. I am not a fan, that is obvious and I remain to be convinced, time will tell, but I get a big Emperor's New Clothes vibe from Maresca.