Ones To Watch: Premier League

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Written By Kieran Crook

The Premier League season begins on Friday with Liverpool Vs Bournemouth so just before that we have made a list of a few things to keep an eye on during the 2025/26 season.

Sunderland AFC

First on our list is one of the new boys on the block the black cats haven’t played in the top flight since their relegation in 2017 & have more recently had gruelling campaigns in England’s third tier, Despite this however Sunderland enjoyed an unexpected surge into the playoffs during last season & though they finished the season slowly, A win at Wembley sealed their Premier League status for the 2025/26 season.

Sunderland’s recruitment has been intense with the club having to catch up a quality gap of 24 points to the other promoted clubs Leeds United & Burnley, This began with the club making loan deals for Roma’s Enzo Le Fee and Zenit’s Wilson Isidor permanent for a combined £24m.

Their recruitment did not stop there adding young talent Habib Diarra from Strasbourg for £26m, Noah Sadiki for £14m from Union St.Gilloise and Chemsdine Talbi from Club Brugge for £17m. Shifting their focus from potential to proven the club also recruited former Arsenal captain Granit Xhaka, Former Atletico Madrid player Reinildo and AFCON winner Simon Adingra.

Rounding out a window that is still yet to close the club brought in Goalkeeper Robin Roefs, Chelsea youngster Marc Guiu (Loan), Former West Ham fullback Arthur Masuaku and Centre Back Omar Alderete the base of the team is incredibly strong in comparison to the team that finished last season and £132m later the Black Cats don’t look done.

History does tell fans not to get too excited about the chances of the club staying up but they appear to be giving it the best possible chance, Sunderland’s midfield is likely the area that will give them the best platform for success and I would expect some high level performances from Diarra, Le Fee and Xhaka as the season goes on.

If a couple more defensive reinforcements come through the door before the transfer window slams shut then I would give Sunderland every chance at stunning the settled crowd of teams from the last couple of seasons.

Florian Wirtz

Liverpool’s recruitment this season has been the most activity the club has made in recent memory in a summer window with six incomings to Anfield during the window so far, one of these is ofcourse Florian Wirtz.

Should Alexander Isak not join the club Wirtz will be the statement signing of the summer from the Premier League’s reigning champions for a player of his quality to join a team that has already won the league the season prior is a tremendous show of intent and also a move that will strike fear into the other 19 clubs around them.

As for the player himself, Liverpool are getting a player who took the most touches in the Bundesliga last season alongside boasting an incredible 1,309 passes completed, pair his 10 goals scored and 12 assists in his 31 matches played in the league then it’s fairly clear the player that Liverpool will be unleashing come Friday night and onwards.

Wirtz will more than likely find himself in the number 10 role in a midfield made up of Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch, Curtis Jones and Alexis Macallister over the course of the season, his attacking flair will add to an already lethal front line with Ballon D’or contender Mo Salah, Fellow summer signing Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo rounding it out.

Expect Florian to flourish in his new team potentially bettering his output from last season with more games and a better supporting cast working in his favour anyone waiting to see the results for themselves could be in for a rude awakening when the season kicks off.

Thomas Frank

Tottenham Hotspur ended the 2025/26 season in 17th a single league position away from the relegation zone and yet they will play Champions League football in the coming season, understandably the club moved to sack former boss Ange Postecoglou early in the summer window which then left a gap to fill.

Filling that gap is Thomas Frank the now former Brentford boss left the Bees after a second successive season leading the team to a top 10 finish, Frank who had managed Brentford since October 2018 brought four members of his backroom staff to Tottenham to take on his new role.

Frank has been one of the most impressive managers in the English leagues over the last few years guiding Brentford to not only the Premier League but back to back top 10 finishes transforming the careers of some players such as Aston Villa star Ollie Watkins and Al-Ahli Striker Ivan Toney who both received their first England call-ups during their time under Frank, Other players such as Goalkeeper David Raya and £75m Winger Bryan Mbuemo both benefitted from their time under the Dane making huge steps in their careers joining Arsenal and Manchester United respectively.

Spurs fans will inevitably be expecting an improvement on the poor 17th place performance from last season and it is more than likely they will return to their regularly scheduled battle for Champions League places, Frank has been able to get the most out of his players during his time at Brentford and he has an abundance of projects in his squad at Tottenham.

The identity of this Spurs team will start at the top and Dominic Solanke fits the perfect mold for a player Frank will make strides with expect the 27 year old to make strides under the tutoring of Frank, across the front line summer signing Mohammed Kudus will be an important asset to Frank’s system Kudus ranked in the top percentile for both Pass accuracy and expected assists which will be crucial in the mission to surge up the table.

Youngsters Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray should also see ample playing time under Frank’s leadership due to their ability to play multiple positions on the pitch, Frank will take advantage of this in his 4-2-3-1 system as the youngsters are both impressive ball carriers and passers even integrating into the backline at times.

His CV is impressive and the players he has at his disposal at Spurs should make anyone lean towards the club making a step forward to the positions these fans are more used to, one potential downside could be Frank’s inexperience of managing in a continental competition with the club seeing success in European competition last season it could be a hard element to win the fanbase over in but we back Frank to perform well and be one of the stories of the season by it’s conclusion.

AFC Bournemouth

Last but not least we have Bournemouth the club finished above Thomas Frank’s Brentford last season and the club looked poised to make a step up once again, after falling into the Championship after 5 seasons at this level the Cherries have worked incredibly hard to gain not only Premier League status but since coming back up haven’t dropped below 15th over the last three seasons.

This unfortunately is where the positivity’s may come to an end with the departure of Illia Zabarnyi being confirmed to PSG the club have lost practically everyone from the strong defence of last season, Milos Kerkez departure to the League winners Liverpool and Dean Huijsen’s departure to Real Madrid left the club scrambling to fix a huge hole just days away from the start of the season.

A return to Premier League action for former Chelsea man Djorde Petrovic replaces the 8 clean sheets and high level performances they got from Kepa over the course of last season which means the defence that starts the season will be missing 4 out of the 5 players that started most of last season’s campaign with only RB Julian Araujo being retained by the club.

This issue, currently 3 days away from their first game is unaddressed and will lead to the club struggling to compete anywhere near the level they were at last season even with replacements that many changes to a defence can have huge implications for the team’s results over the course of the season.

The Cherries are going to have to rely on an attacking output significantly better than last season’s from Evanilson his ten goals over the course of the season will likely not cut it with the defensive fragilities whilst retaining Antoine Semenyo will be a big victory for the club he will have to perform to a similar level as last season to keep the club from floating into a relegation scrap with Sunderland, Burnley and Leeds United who will be chomping at the bit to push these teams all the way