EPL: Inside Arsenal’s bid to retain EPL crown and their main challengers
By Luke Oluoch, August 14, 2026Arsenal begin the defence of their Premier League title as one of the few clubs untouched by a close season of managerial upheaval that has transformed the landscape of English football.
While Mikel Arteta’s methods are tested and trusted at Arsenal after nearly seven years at the helm, it is all change elsewhere with chief rivals Manchester City, Liverpool, and Chelsea all entering new eras with a new man in charge.
In total, a record nine Premier League clubs will begin the season with a new permanent manager.
Whether the managerial merry-go-round eases the way for Arsenal to win back-to-back titles or sparks one of the most unpredictable seasons in years may prove the defining question.
Something bigger
For Arsenal, it is a case of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” as they seek to prove last season’s first league title in 22 years was the start of something bigger.
Unless your name is Pep Guardiola, however, building a dynasty has proved difficult in the Premier League recently.
He made winning titles look routine with six in nine seasons, but the last manager to retain the Premier League crown before him was Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in 2009.
There was a sense that opponents had begun to suss out Arteta’s tactics towards the end of last season and the Spaniard is only too aware that standing still is not an option.
Rather than sprint across the line in a blaze of glory, Arsenal ground through last season’s title run-in.
It wasn’t pretty, with their reliance on set-pieces and hard graft taking a toll on the likes of Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka who looked physically and mentally spent at the World Cup.
Staying ahead of Manchester City was all that mattered last season, though, for the tens of thousands of fans who celebrated on the streets of north London as Arsenal finally shed the nearly-men tag.
“Now we have to show that we belong to this level and we want to increase and take this football club to a different dimension,” Arteta said.
There was surprise that Leandro Trossard, a key part of Arsenal’s title side, was sold to Besiktas, although there are high hopes that Greece winger Christos Tzolis, signed from Club Brugge, will bring goals and creativity.
Main rivals
Arteta also predicted that the arrival of midfield warrior Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle United can help take his team to the next level.
It is hard to look beyond Manchester City as Arsenal’s chief rivals once again, although much depends on how quickly Enzo Maresca can put his stamp on a squad built by Guardiola but now deprived of several familiar faces.
Guardiola had begun building a new model with the attacking flair of Rayan Cherki, Antoine Semenyo and Jeremy Doku supplying Erling Haaland but it was prone to misfiring and the hope is that England midfielder Elliot Anderson, signed for a club record, will link it all together.