Premier League 2023: Life After Pep and Arsenal's Champion Scrutiny
Manchester City without Pep. Arsenal with a target on their backs. Chelsea trying to turn chaos into opportunity.
The new Premier League season is coming, and the questions are already circling.
Joe Hart, who lived the sharp end of title races with Manchester City and England, has seen this film before. On BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club, he cut through the noise around three of the division's biggest storylines.
Life after Pep: Maresca walks into the storm
Ten years of Pep Guardiola. A stack of trophies. A defined identity. And now, Manchester City have to work out who they are without him.
Enzo Maresca steps into one of the most demanding jobs in world football, but Hart does not believe the real weight will come from inside the Etihad.
"I think the club isn't heaping massive expectation on this season," Hart said. "I think they still believe that they've got the team and they've got the quality to challenge."
City have already moved aggressively in the market. They briefly broke the transfer record for an English player to sign Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for £116m, a bold move for a midfielder still proving himself at the very top level.
At the same time, one of the pillars of their recent dominance could be on his way out. Spain's World Cup Golden Ball winner Rodri looks likely to join Barcelona, tearing a huge piece out of the spine Guardiola built his team around.
City are not standing still. Talks are under way for 18-year-old Morocco midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille in an £85.6m deal, and the club remain keen on Chelsea's Argentina international Enzo Fernandez.
But all that business played out against an uncomfortable early warning. Arsenal swept City aside 3-0 in the Community Shield in Cardiff on Sunday, a result that sharpened the questions around how quickly Maresca can impose his ideas.
Hart expects the noise around the Italian to be deafening if results dip.
"Externally, there's always going to be the noise," he said. "Maresca will come immediately under fire in terms of how people want to jump all over Man City if they do struggle.
"Internally, I think they're intelligent enough as a business to understand that what's going on right now is going to be difficult."
The message is clear: City still expect to compete on all fronts, but this season feels more like a transition than a crusade.
Arsenal and the brutal reality of staying on top
Arsenal finally climbed the mountain last season. Now comes the hard part.
After four straight titles from 2020-21 to 2023-24, City have been knocked off their perch for two years running. Hart knows exactly what Arsenal are about to walk into as defending champions.
Recalling his own title wins with City in 2011-12 and 2013-14, he admitted the first taste of glory can warp your perspective.
"I was walking on water at that time. I actually thought I was 'that guy'," he said.
Football, of course, does not let that feeling last.
"And football finds a way, really quickly, of showing you that you're not. And when things started to unravel, which they will in any season, [they] seemed to really unravel because all of a sudden [you're under] that kind of champion scrutiny."
That phrase – "champion scrutiny" – is where Arsenal now live. Every dropped point is a crisis. Every wobble is a narrative.
"And it's really important how Arsenal are going to handle that," Hart continued. "But Mikel Arteta has done a brilliant job, and he makes really big decisions and bold decisions. And it's about how you handle that first hurt. It's ironic that getting to the top is the easy thing, it really is."
The challenge for Arsenal is no longer proving they can win a title. It is proving they can live with the suffocating pressure of being the team everyone wants to beat.
Chelsea and Xabi Alonso: no Europe, big chance
Across London, Chelsea start from a very different place.
Last season was a mess. Another manager gone in Liam Rosenior, who lasted barely more than three months in the job. A 10th-place finish. No European football at Stamford Bridge for only the third time this century.
But history offers a twist. The last time Chelsea had a year without Europe, in 2016-17, Antonio Conte used the clear weeks to drill his side relentlessly. They stormed to the title.
Hart remembers exactly how that felt from inside the dressing room.
"I do remember Gary Cahill talking about Conte coming in to a Premier League team like Chelsea who [weren't] in Europe," Hart said. "He said they were so well drilled, he was so intense in what they needed. They almost had NFL playbooks and it allowed them the time to build into the season."
Xabi Alonso now inherits that same advantage: time on the training pitch, no midweek flights, no Thursday-Sunday grind.
"So that's a massive advantage for someone like Xabi Alonso, who's obviously got his way of playing and he'll have his time on the grass with his players," Hart said.
Their ambitions, in his view, should be high.
"Their ceiling is, of course, to be in amongst it. I think it is. And they've got a really great opportunity."
No Pep at City. Arsenal about to feel what it really means to be champions. Chelsea lurking with a clean schedule and a manager with clear ideas.
The questions are obvious. The answers will define the season.
