Premier League Preseason: Winners and Losers Revealed
Predicting a Premier League season is a mug’s game. Last year Arsenal edged out Manchester City, Tottenham flirted with disaster at the wrong end of the table, and this summer nine clubs changed managers. Whatever you think you know tends to last about three weeks.
Preseason, though, always tempts people into drawing conclusions. The games are friendlies in name only: they decide nothing, but they reveal plenty. Fitness levels, tactical tweaks, kids kicking the door down, veterans breaking down. The clues are scattered everywhere.
This summer’s warm‑up schedule has already thrown up a few clear winners – and some worrying early losers.
WINNERS
Wonderkids: Dowman, Ngumoha, Madjo
Preseason lives on hype, and nothing feeds it like a teenager with no fear.
Max Dowman is still revising for exams but already has a PFA Young Player of the Season nomination and a fanbase demanding more. The 16-year-old started only once in the league for Arsenal last term, yet he has again turned July and August into his own personal stage.
Against Girona, Dowman lit up a 4-1 win with a goal and an assist, drifting in from the wing with the kind of swagger that makes supporters dream and coaches slightly nervous. They remember last summer, when he dazzled in friendlies against AC Milan and Newcastle United and then barely saw the pitch in competitive games. The talent is obvious. The pathway is not.
At Liverpool, Rio Ngumoha is in a similar place: loudly backed by fans, quietly assessed by the staff. The 17-year-old has started three of four preseason games under Andoni Iraola, helped by Cody Gakpo’s late return from the World Cup, but he has not wasted the opportunity. Sharp, direct, always demanding the ball, he grabbed the only goal in a 1-0 win over Wrexham on the club’s U.S. tour and looked like he belonged.
Then there is Brian Madjo, who has treated preseason like a personal scoring competition. Aston Villa paid £10 million to Metz for him on his 17th birthday in January, then had to watch him sit out due to FIFA rules that blocked international transfers of under‑18s. That ruling has now been overturned after Villa’s successful appeal, and Madjo is making up for lost time.
Four goals in the warm‑ups – two against Walsall, one against Real Sociedad, another against an Indonesia league All Stars side – set the tone. The real statement came in the UEFA Super Cup in Salzburg, where he scored Villa’s only goal in a 2-1 defeat to PSG and could easily have had more. All this while Ollie Watkins has been on an extended World Cup break. Madjo is now eligible for the Premier League. Unai Emery suddenly has a decision to make.
Igor Jesus finds his range
Nottingham Forest changed managers four times last season. Igor Jesus stayed on the team sheet.
The Brazilian forward slogged through 37 league appearances and finished with just six goals. On paper, that is ordinary. Look closer and there is a flicker of something more: four of those goals came in the final eight games, as Forest clawed their way to safety.
He has carried that late surge into preseason. Jesus has scored in four consecutive matches, including in a 2-1 defeat to Sporting CP, and looks far more ruthless in the box. For a club desperate for stability after a chaotic year on the touchline, a striker growing in confidence is no small thing.
Antoine Semenyo, City’s creative engine
While many of Manchester City’s stars have been easing back from the World Cup, Antoine Semenyo has barely paused for breath.
He played in all four of Ghana’s games on their run to the round of 32, then jumped straight into City’s preseason schedule. The winger has simply kept going. Six City goals in preseason, five of them assisted by Semenyo.
Inter Milan, K-League All-Stars, Atlético Madrid – different opponents, same story. He picks the ball up wide, drives, and finds the final pass. Last season he was already a revelation, scoring 17 league goals across his time at Bournemouth and City and adding four assists. Now he looks like the man who will knit together Enzo Maresca’s new attack.
If this is how he looks in July, Premier League full-backs know what is coming in August.
Xabi Alonso’s head start at Chelsea
Most new managers arrive late, inherit a half-fit squad and spend preseason learning names as much as systems. Xabi Alonso has been granted a rare luxury at Chelsea: time.
Appointed in May and officially starting on July 9, he has enjoyed weeks on the grass with a largely intact senior group while rivals scrambled to get World Cup returnees back up to speed. João Pedro, Cole Palmer, Estêvão – all heavily involved. Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana, Jorrel Hato, Robert Sánchez – available and working through the new ideas.
Pedro, in particular, has exploded. Five goals already, including a hat trick against Western Sydney Wanderers and a brace versus AC Milan, have underlined why Chelsea moved for him. His movement has knitted nicely with Palmer’s craft and Estêvão’s flair, giving Alonso a clear attacking core to build around.
It has not all been a smooth prelude. A 2-1 defeat to Tottenham in Sydney and a 1-0 loss to Juventus in Hong Kong were reminders that this is a team still under construction. But in a summer defined by disruption elsewhere, Alonso at least knows what he has – and who he can trust – before the real stuff begins.
LOSERS
Liverpool’s creaking back line
Andoni Iraola has built his reputation on intensity, front‑foot pressing and brave defending. Right now, he is short of defenders.
Conor Bradley, the first-choice right-back, has yet to return from a knee injury. Joe Gomez picked up a muscle problem in preseason. Jérémy Jacquet, the €60 million signing meant to be a cornerstone of the new era, has not kicked a ball since coming back from a long-term shoulder issue.
Liverpool have moved to plug the gap by bringing in Ronald Araújo on loan from Barcelona, a significant reinforcement, but the anchor of the defence remains Virgil van Dijk. The Dutchman is 35 and coming off a staggering 6,051 minutes last season for club and country, including the World Cup. He started all 68 of those games. Asking him to be indestructible again is a huge gamble.
Iraola’s system demands aggressive, high-line defending and rapid recovery runs. At the moment, he has an ageing leader, a new loanee and a treatment room full of options. That is not the platform any manager wants on the eve of a season.
The cruelty of preseason injuries
Preseason is supposed to be a tune‑up. For some, it becomes a derailment.
Few players have been hit harder than Bournemouth’s Junior Kroupi. Last season he burst onto the scene, linked with major clubs across Europe and seemingly on the verge of a big move. Now he faces four months out.
A foot injury on a preseason tour of Austria led to surgery and a timeline that could push his Premier League return to January. The momentum that had carried him into the gossip columns has stalled in an instant.
Aston Villa have their own issues. Amadou Onana suffered a ruptured ACL in July, the kind of knee injury that can shape a career. John McGinn also landed awkwardly on his knee in a friendly, sparking immediate concern, though he is expected to be fit for the start of the season. New signing Johan Manzambi, meanwhile, is still recovering from a knee problem picked up at the World Cup with Switzerland and could miss the opening weeks.
Not every scare has ended badly. Newcastle watched Anthony Elanga stretchered off after a horror challenge from Valencia’s José Gayà, who was sent off on the spot. Early fears of a serious injury eased when scans showed only a bruised shin. Elanga should make the Premier League opener. Others will not be so lucky.
Enzo Maresca’s slow reunion with his stars
Succeeding Pep Guardiola at Manchester City is hard enough with a full preseason. Enzo Maresca has barely seen half of his dressing room.
City’s players collectively racked up just under 5,000 minutes at the World Cup. Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku, Rodri, Marc Guéhi, Nico O’Reilly and new signing Elliot Anderson all went deep into the tournament, stretching their seasons and delaying their holidays.
Many of them only reported back this week. Their first meaningful minutes under Maresca may come in the Community Shield against Arsenal. For a coach tasked with refreshing a treble-winning machine while keeping standards sky‑high, that is a serious handicap.
To his credit, Maresca has still overseen two wins from three preseason games. The disruption is not of his making. But in a league where rivals are already bedding in new patterns and partnerships, City’s new era is starting with a sprint just to catch up.
Jack Grealish and James Maddison stuck in neutral
In another timeline, Jack Grealish and James Maddison would be strolling back into preseason, medals from a deep World Cup run with England still glinting in the sun. Reality has been far less kind.
Grealish missed the World Cup and the final four months of last season with a foot injury that cut short his loan from Manchester City to Everton. He returned to training last month but stayed behind in Manchester while City toured Asia, focusing solely on fitness work. His club future remains unresolved. As of July 29, no decision had been made on where he will play next season, and his contract at the Etihad runs to 2027. Time is ticking, but his body is dictating the pace.
Maddison’s story is just as frustrating. An anterior cruciate ligament injury wiped out almost all of his last campaign. This summer was supposed to be the reset. Instead, a minor hip issue has kept him off the pitch entirely in preseason. No minutes, no rhythm, just more waiting.
For two players who should be at the peak of their creative powers, this stop‑start reality is brutal. The Premier League does not pause for reputations. When the season kicks off, the question is simple: who will still be catching up, and who will be ready to seize it?
