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HERE. WE. GO

A brand new season of the Premier League is already upon us. Yay? It seems like it’s been barely a month since the Geopolitics World Cup final for goodness sake … though that’s because it is barely a month since the GWC final. Are we not allowed summers any more? Well, yes, thanks to good old fossil fuel, come sit by the fire, it’s lovely and warm. But let’s not stray too far off piste, you get the general point. And so tonight the reigning champions Arsenal raise the curtain by welcoming newly promoted Coventry City to the Emirates for what everyone assumes will be a jolly good thrashing, on account of the Gunners going into the season as the cognoscenti’s choice, pretty much every expert’s pick to retain their title, just as Liverpool were tipped across the board to do so this time last year, and Manchester City were overwhelming favourites the year before that. Again, you get the gist.

Arsenal are unlikely to be taking anything for granted, though. For a start, there’s Mikel Arteta, whose dial doesn’t shift any lower than 11. Then there’s their slightly patchy opening-day record in the Premier League, which stretches all the way back to their very first match in the FA’s fancy new competition, a cosmically inept 4-2 home defeat by Mike Walker’s Norwich City, who scored all of their goals in a late 14-minute blast, setting off a chain of events that led to the Canaries beating Bayern Munich and Everton nearly getting relegated. Arsenal’s second attempt to fly out of the blocks, 12 months later, wasn’t much better, and almost seems too on the nose: another shock defeat at Highbury, this time 3-0 against … Coventry City, for whom the comfortably upholstered Micky Quinn scored an insouciant hat-trick. Throw in three more opening-day home defeats, against Aston Villa (2013), West Ham (2015) and Liverpool (2016), and nobody associated with the Gunners a day older than Max Dowman will be counting their chickens.

There’s also the small matter of the Big Crackdown on sharp practice at set pieces. New guidelines aimed at eradicating various nonsenses – holding, making no attempt to play or challenge for the ball, looking at people in a funny way, etc. (and we paraphrase that last one, but not by much) – could loosen one of the most effective strings of the Arsenal bow. So will the new edict condemn the envelope-and-opposition-pushing Gunners to another slow start, and potentially jigger their hopes of retaining the title for the first time since 1935? We’re going to find out soon enough. Though to be honest, it’s unlikely to make too much of a difference over the long haul, if Arsenal’s all-new expansive style, showcased in the Charity Cup last week, is anything to go by. Or indeed if the referees, after a couple of weeks of enacting the diktat, quickly tire of implementing it, and slip back into their old laissez-faire habits. Which you know they’ll do. They always do. Yay!

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Join Scott Murray at 8pm (BST) for live updates on Arsenal 0-0 Coventry City in the Premier Leaague opener.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I’m surprised they were disappointed, though, because there was never a time anybody said to me that I had to make European football. I thought everybody just wanted to make sure we moved into our new stadium safely without a difficult season – and we certainly did that” – David Moyes, there, suggesting that Everton’s owners might want to set him some workplace goals before bemoaning not having qualified for Tin Pot or Bigger Vase.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

Fans of Manchester United are wise enough to know that Carlos ‘Daydream’ Baleba is using the club as a Stepping Stone in his career” – Pål Jørgen Bakke.

Well, that was quick. And quite nasty. The season hasn’t begun, and no Newcastle player has kicked a sitter into Row Z yet. Still, Football Daily decided to link poor Matthias Jaissle to dad-dancing Alan Pardew and the walking posh sweater that is Scott Parker (yesterday’s Quote of the Day) Ouch” – Mike Wilner.

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Mike Wilner. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

Oh yes, there are more Premier League predictions here for Big Website’s top, top scribes.  

NEWS, BITS AND BOBS

Uefa and Concacaf are in talks about setting up a combined Nations League tournament featuring all 96 European and North and Central American and Caribbean countries, in another direct challenge to Fifa and Gianni Infantino. Oof!

Three Argentina players have been banned for their part in a brawl at the end of the GWC final against Spain, but the South American nation have only been fined for displaying a Falkland Islands banner after the semi-final win over England. Midfielder Leandro Paredes was hit hardest and given a 10-match ban and £66,000 fine.

In the Tin Pot playoff first legs, Rangers scraped past … checks notes … Jablonec, Brighton were held to a goalless draw by Tromsø, while James Wilson’s stunning goal was only enough to see Hearts draw 2-2 with Rapid Vienna.

Matthias Jaissle has full confidence in Newcastle’s new crop of “under pressure” young players and wants belief to start spreading through Tyneside despite a difficult summer. “It’s smart from us to avoid the negativity from outside and there is negativity,” he chirped.

Michael Carrick has shrugged off the notion that Manchester United’s opening two games against Hull and Ipswich, the erm, teams predicted to finish bottom and second bottom, equate to a favourable start to the season. “I think it’s a tough start. A promoted team away from home is a tough game,” he grimaced.

In transfer news, Liverpool have had a £50m bid for Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh waved away. The Reds want to bolster Andoni Iraola’s squad with two wide forwards before the transfer deadline, with Bradley Barcola of PSG still a target. Iraola admitted to the media that Liverpool are “quite thin” in some areas.

And Aaron Wan-Bissaka has completed a season-long loan move from to Aston Villa from West Ham, with an option to buy, while Crystal Palace have agreed a deal to loan Chelsea bomb squad’s Axel Disasi, while telling Manchester City that Adam Wharton is going nowhere.

SPURS SPLURGE

Let us rewind to the summer of 2018, when, in peak Daniel Levy fashion, Tottenham Hotspur became the first club in Premier League history since the summer transfer window was created to sign absolutely nobody. That Mauricio Pochettino still guided them to Bigger Cup qualification that season goes some way to explain why the Argentinian remains so beloved among Spurs fans. Eight years later, the club have loosened the Levy era pursestrings, or perhaps cut them altogether, as their summer spending approaches the £400m mark with deals in the works for Savinho for £85m (don’t laugh) and Omar Marmoush for £75m. Add the Manchester City duo to Sandro Tonali (£100m), Matheus Fernandes (£85m) and Jan Paul van Hecke (£52m) – plus Marcos Senesi and Andy Robertson on free transfers – and the Spurs transfer tactic is plain to see: back Roberto De Zerbi with absolutely everything in the hope of returning to European football’s top table. A similar strategy backfired last year – a spend of more than £200m led to a second successive 17th-placed finish.

STILL WANT MORE?

“I like to set my roots at places. I don’t like to jump about.” Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly gets her chat on with Tom Garry.

With so many of their rivals in flux, Arsenal will sense a major opportunity to retain their Premier League crown, writes David Hytner.

New rules, new managers and new pundits: there’s lots of change in this season’s Premier League, as Sarah Rendell reveals. And here are 10 more things to look for in the opening weekend of the campaign.

Sergej Jakirovic and Hull City are determined to prove their many doubters wrong, starting this weekend at home to Man United. Ross Heppenstall reports.

Paris Saint-Germain are the best team in Europe, while everyone else in France is just trying to survive. Here’s Luke Entwhistle on the lopsided Ligue 1.

Today’s edition of the Rumour Mill links Real Madrid youngster Endrick with Liverpool.

The last couple of Premier League previews have dropped. Here’s the skinny on Sunderland and some intelligence on Tottenham.

It may have escaped your attention, but Ronaldinho has rocked up at Serie A club Ravenna. The Brazilian legend chatted to Emanuele Giulianelli about making a comeback at the age of 46.

The new series of Ted Lasso shows women’s football shouldn’t have to copy a men’s game that isn’t working, according to Karen Dobres.

And Carlos Baleba would be Manchester United’s third midfield signing of the summer, leaving Michael Carrick with little room to make excuses, says Jamie Jackson.

MEMORY LANE

13 May 1984: No, it doesn’t look quite right, does it? But here’s Ajax legend Johan Cruyff celebrating winning the Dutch league with Feyenoord in 1983. He’d been refused a contract extension for one last year with the Amsterdam club, so joined their arch rivals in a wonderfully characteristic fit of pique. Early in the season, Ajax humiliated Feyenoord 8-2, but Cruyff announced that his new club would win the league anyway … which they did, paying Ajax back with a 4-1 win along the way.

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