This archive report was first published on 30 July 2019.
Published on July 30, 2019, the English Premier League is gearing up for an exciting new season. With domestic football seasons around the world nearly upon us, it's a good time to look ahead to what promises to be an explosive and exciting year.
Heading into the 2019/20 season, it looks like a two-horse race between two-time defending champion Manchester City and last year's runner-up Liverpool. City has retained its championship-winning core, but for the departure of Vincent Kompany, and in all likelihood centre-back Harry Maguire.
Despite releasing nine players over the course of the summer, Liverpool still does not have demonstrable weakness. Dejan Lovren is rumoured to be leaving, and that might weaken Liverpool's defence. However, between Ballon d'Or candidate Mohamed Salah and the prolific Sadio Mané, the team has more than enough firepower to make up for defensive lapses.
The battle for top scorer looks to be wide open, with Mané, Liverpool's Sadio Mané and Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, each having netted 22 goals last season. Manchester City's dynamic duo of Sergio Agüero and Raheem Sterling, along with Leicester's Jamie Vardy and Tottenham's Harry Kane figure to factor in as well.
As for additional things to watch for regarding team placement, the gambling scene has placed a greater emphasis on outcomes like top-three, top-four, and bottom-three finishes. These outcomes factor into which international competitors teams qualify for, or which domestic leagues they'll play in next season.
Ultimately, all of these considerations make it such that it's quite exciting to predict and analyse the entire league table, rather than just which club will top it when all's said and done. Right now, projections of EPL records suggest that Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal will round out the top-four behind the clear league favourites, and Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace, and Sheffield United will finish in the bottom three and wind up relegated to the lower leagues.
