How Are the Premier League Title Contenders Shaping Up? Arsenal to Leicester

In any other season, Pep Guardiola pitching up at Manchester City would probably take all other bets off the table.

A bona fide A-list coach, backed with pockets so deep he has to attach himself to abseiling ropes every time he searches for change, would in normal circumstances reduce the rest of the Premier League to arguing among themselves for the remaining UEFA Champions League spots.

This is a post-Leicester City world, though. A world altered ever so slightly by a sporting miracle that has rendered merely competing for silverware nowhere near good enough. If Leicester can win the Premier League title, all excuses for City, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea are off the table.

When you add into the mix the fact that foreign coaches at the very peak of their powers have been installed at all the top clubs, along with a television deal so lucrative it hasn’t just made the rich even richer, but spawned princes from paupers, it’s hard to remember a time when the Premier League has been as competitive.

The lucre may be filthy, but it’s going to make for an engrossing 2016/17 season. 

For Guardiola at City, read Jose Mourinho at Manchester United. The neighbours may still be noisy, but the most cutting verbals will almost certainly come from the cobbled streets on the red side of the city rather than blue. With Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Alex Ferguson watching his every move, Mourinho has said he will be on his best behaviour. He will be, when he’s winning.

It’s all about double training sessions at Chelsea, as Antonio Conte beds into his new gig while wearing the look of a man who “knows people.” If he can’t improve on the dethroned champions’ abject 10th-place finish last season, expect several star names to go on long drives and never come back.

WATCH: Double sessions? Intense? Here’s what Chelsea’s players make of Antonio Conte in pre-season training.https://t.co/VuOb6GQ2rX

— Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) July 27, 2016

Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino may be a season ahead of Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp in terms of exacting his long-term plan of establishing Tottenham as a major force, but the German’s ebullient energy means Liverpool might come good quicker than many anticipate. At Borussia Dortmund, he needed a sixth- and fifth-place finish, before winning back-to-back Bundesliga titles.

Arsenal are still Arsenal. Arsene Wenger is still Arsene Wenger.

The very essence of competition dictates there will be one winner and the rest losers, but perhaps it is time to reassess what constitutes success and failure, given it would be possible to finish as low as seventh, even eighth next season, and still fundamentally have done a decent job.

It doesn’t take the mind of Stephen Hawking to work out seven into one doesn’t go (West Ham United and Southampton supporters may argue it should be nine into one, given their respective positions last season), while even seven (or nine) into four Champions League places is going to lead to some uncomfortable boardroom chats for at least a few high-profile managers in May.

Last season, the underdog bit the top dog(s) on the arse all campaign. As fun as it was, it’s unlikely to be repeated this term. Complacent big hitters are unlikely to leave their chins exposed this time around, with new corner men Guardiola, Mourinho and Conte among the best in the business.

In just two weeks, the start of the Premier League season means the world can stop trying in vain to learn things from friendlies, as happy summer memories of not playing matches on flooded Beijing pitches become curled at the edges, faded yellowed photographs thrown in a drawer never to be seen again.

Here we look at Arsenal, Chelsea and Leicester City, assessing where they are at, and what they still need to do, while earmarking what would constitute (relative) success for the forthcoming season. 

On Saturday, we will run the rule over Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham. 

   

Arsenal (2nd last season)

Not what Arsenal fans wanted to hear from chief executive Ivan Gazidis ? pic.twitter.com/dtcXqhMr9D

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) July 28, 2016

      

What’s been going on?

To the chagrin of the club’s supporters, not a right lot. If the capture of Granit Xhaka in late May gave the impression Arsenal were going to hit the market hard and early, subsequent dealings, or rather lack thereof, mean they look ill-equipped to go any better than recent seasons in which they’ve made goo-goo eyes at the title, but never been close to consummation.

Gunners manager Wenger’s thwarted pursuit of Jamie Vardy seemed a significant, but not unwelcome change of (transfer) tact on the Frenchman’s behalf. It was as though he had finally accepted the time is now, rather than perpetually living in the future. Wenger has never previously paid more than £10 million for a player 29 or over; here, he was willing to go to £24 million.

Having the option of knocking a ball in behind for Vardy to chase would likely have quelled Arsenal’s perennial predilection to overpass in the centre of the pitch. He would also have been the nasty sod it is blindingly obvious they have needed for years.

Welcome to @Arsenal, Granit Xhaka ??? pic.twitter.com/pxuhhqtesX

— Emiliano Martínez (@emimartinezz1) July 27, 2016

Since then, Wenger has been like a teenager who thinks he’ll never get over being spurned by his first love, having seemingly spent the summer moping and playing Morrissey on a loop. Big-name strikers like Gonzalo Higuain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Edinson Cavani have been linked, as reported by Sky Sports, to no avail.

Everyone else has been throwing around TV money like confetti at a wedding. Rob Holding has arrived as a decent prospect from Bolton Wanderers, but even before a knee injury ruled Per Mertesacker out until Christmas, it was clear Arsenal needed to acquire a first-team-ready centre-half. Now it’s an emergency.

With Olivier Giroud, Laurent Koscielny, Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil all to return to pre-season late, after extended exertions at Euro 2016, Arsenal are in real danger of beginning the new campaign from a standing start. They have less been jogging on the spot, than sleeping on the job.

It seems unlikely chief …

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