Premier League Preseason Insights: Winners and Losers

The new Premier League season is close enough to taste, but trying to predict it still feels like guessing in the dark. Arsenal toppled Manchester City last year, Tottenham flirted with disaster at the wrong end of the table, and nine clubs have changed managers. Any pattern you thought you saw has already been ripped up.

Preseason, then, becomes the next best clue. It lies, often. It flatters, regularly. Yet it also reveals who is sharp, who is rusty, and who is suddenly knocking on the door.

This summer’s friendlies have already drawn a rough line between those riding a wave into 2026-27 and those stumbling towards opening day.

WINNERS

Wonderkids light it up: Dowman, Ngumoha, Madjo

Preseason always needs a new obsession. This year, the kids have delivered.

Max Dowman is still sitting school exams, yet he is already on the PFA Young Player of the Season shortlist and carrying a chunk of Arsenal’s hype. He has started just one Premier League game, but he used this summer to remind everyone why the club is so excited.

Against Girona, the 16-year-old winger took over. One goal, one assist, a 4-1 win and a performance that crackled with intent. It wasn’t his first preseason buzz, either: he turned heads last summer in friendlies against AC Milan and Newcastle United. The question now is the same as it was then. Will any of this translate into regular minutes once the real thing starts?

At Liverpool, the clamour is just as loud for Rio Ngumoha. Fans were already demanding to see more of him at the end of last season. The 17-year-old has started three of Liverpool’s four friendlies, helped by Cody Gakpo’s late return from World Cup duty, but he has not wasted the chance. He scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Wrexham on the club’s U.S. tour and has looked like he belongs.

Then there is Brian Madjo, who has turned Aston Villa’s preseason into his own personal showcase. Villa paid £10 million to sign him from Metz on his 17th birthday in January, a bold move for a player they couldn’t even use at first because of FIFA rules on under-18 international transfers. That obstacle is gone now after a successful appeal, and so, apparently, are the brakes.

Madjo has four goals in preseason: a brace against Walsall, one against Real Sociedad, another versus an Indonesia league All Stars side. The warm-up act ended with the UEFA Super Cup in Salzburg, where he scored Villa’s only goal in a 2-1 defeat to PSG and looked like he could have had more.

All of this has come while Ollie Watkins has been on an extended post-World Cup break. The door is open. Unai Emery now has a decision to make: is this just a hot streak, or the start of a genuine first-team role?

Igor Jesus finds his range

Nottingham Forest spent last season changing managers like light bulbs. Through Nuno Espírito Santo, Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche and Vítor Pereira, one thing stayed the same: Igor Jesus played.

The Brazilian forward’s numbers did not jump off the page: six goals in 37 Premier League appearances. Yet the story of his season was in the timing. Four of those goals came in the final eight games, hinting at a player finally adjusting to the league.

This summer, that late surge has turned into something more convincing. Jesus has scored four times in consecutive matches, including in a 2-1 defeat to Sporting CP. The finishing looks sharper, the movement more confident. Forest have needed a reliable focal point for a long time. If this version of Jesus carries into August, they might finally have one.

Antoine Semenyo, City’s relentless creator

Antoine Semenyo barely had time to breathe. He played in all four of Ghana’s World Cup games as they reached the round of 32, bowed out to Colombia, and then came straight back into Manchester City’s preseason.

No easing in. No rust.

Semenyo assisted five of City’s six preseason goals, stretching defences against Inter Milan (1-1), the K-League All-Stars (3-1) and Atlético Madrid (3-1). He simply picked up where he left off.

Last season, the winger was one of the league’s revelations: 17 goals and four assists across his time with Bournemouth and City. Now he looks even more integrated into City’s attack, not just a finisher but a creator driving their tempo.

If this is his starting point, City’s opponents have a serious new problem to solve.

Xabi Alonso settles quickly at Chelsea

New managers often arrive complaining of time. Not enough of it, not enough players, not enough clarity. Xabi Alonso cannot make that case.

Chelsea appointed him in May and he officially took charge on July 9, giving him a rare luxury: a proper runway. While rivals scrambled to get World Cup returnees back up to speed, Alonso had a strong core of senior players in place.

João Pedro, Cole Palmer and Estêvão have all been heavily involved. So have Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana, Jorrel Hato and Robert Sánchez. That continuity has allowed Alonso to drill his ideas early, rather than patching together lineups on the fly.

Pedro has been the standout. Five goals in preseason, including a hat trick against Western Sydney Wanderers and a brace against AC Milan, underline his importance in the new setup. Chelsea have not had it all their own way — a 2-1 defeat to Tottenham in Sydney and a 1-0 loss to Juventus in Hong Kong were reminders that this is still a work in progress — but the framework is there.

Alonso looks like a manager who knows what he wants. Now he has to prove it works when the points count.

LOSERS

Liverpool’s creaking back line

Andoni Iraola walks into Liverpool with a bold, front-foot reputation. Right now, he might just be wondering who he is going to put behind that press.

The back line is a puzzle with missing pieces. First-choice right-back Conor Bradley has yet to return from a knee injury. Joe Gomez picked up a muscle problem in preseason. Jérémy Jacquet, the €60 million defensive signing, still has not played after a long-term shoulder issue.

Liverpool have moved to plug the gap with Ronald Araújo on loan from Barcelona, a significant addition. Yet the foundation of the defence remains Virgil van Dijk, now 35, coming off a staggering 6,051 minutes last season for club and country across 68 games, including the World Cup. Asking him to do that again is a huge gamble.

Iraola’s system demands aggression and intensity from his defenders. Right now, he is heading into the season with questions at full-back, a marquee centre-back yet to kick a ball, and a leader who has already carried an extraordinary load. Something will have to give.

The cruel side of preseason: injuries bite

Preseason is supposed to be a gentle ramp. Too often, it becomes a trapdoor.

Few players have been hit harder this summer than Bournemouth’s Junior Kroupi. Last season, the 20-year-old striker broke through and quickly found himself linked with some of Europe’s biggest clubs. This was meant to be the window where he chose his next step.

Instead, a foot injury on a preseason tour in Austria has changed everything. Surgery followed. The timeline is brutal: up to four months out. His second Premier League season might not really begin until January.

Aston Villa have their own problems. Midfielder Amadou Onana suffered a ruptured ACL in July, a serious blow that will keep him out long term. John McGinn gave them another scare when he landed awkwardly on his knee in a friendly. He is expected to be fit for the start of the season, but it was a reminder of how fragile these weeks can be. New signing Johan Manzambi is also sidelined with a knee injury picked up at the World Cup with Switzerland and could miss the opening stretch.

Not all the news has been grim. Newcastle’s Anthony Elanga was stretchered off after a nasty tackle from Valencia’s José Gayà, who was shown a red card. It looked awful in the moment. Later scans brought relief: just a bruised shin. Elanga should be ready for Newcastle’s opener.

Preseason giveth rhythm and sharpness. It also takes away careers in a single misstep.

Enzo Maresca’s awkward start at City

Replacing Pep Guardiola is football’s ultimate impossible job. Enzo Maresca has not even taken charge of a competitive game yet and already understands the scale of the task.

One of his first problems is simple: his best players have barely been around. City’s squad racked up just under 5,000 minutes at the World Cup, with Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku, Rodri, Marc Guéhi, Nico O’Reilly and new signing Elliot Anderson all going deep into the tournament.

Many of them only reported back this week. Their first real minutes under Maresca could come in the Community Shield against Arsenal. That is a tough place to be learning on the job, for manager and players alike.

To his credit, Maresca still found a way to win two of City’s three preseason games. None of this is his fault. But it is a reminder of how little time he has had to imprint his style on the very players who will define his tenure.

The Guardiola comparison will hang over every result. The margins for error will be tiny. And the clock, already, is ticking.

Grealish and Maddison, still waiting

In another version of this summer, Jack Grealish and James Maddison are returning late, basking in the glow of a deep World Cup run with England.

Reality is harsher.

Both missed the tournament through injury. Grealish sat out the final four months of last season with a foot problem, a setback serious enough that his loan from Manchester City to Everton was cut short. He is back in training now, but City left him out of their preseason tour of Asia so he could work on his fitness in Manchester.

His future remains unresolved. As of July 29, no decision has been made on where he will play next season. His contract at the Etihad runs until 2027, but his role is anything but clear.

Maddison’s road has been even more stop-start. An ACL injury wiped out almost all of last season. This summer was supposed to be about rhythm, touch, confidence. Instead, a minor hip issue has kept him from playing a single preseason minute.

While others are building form, they are still rebuilding themselves. For two players who should be in their prime, the season ahead feels less like a platform and more like a test: can they still bend the narrative back in their favour before the Premier League moves on without them?