Premier League: Five things to watch out for this season
The Premier League returns on Friday night when newcomers Brentford welcome Arsenal to west London.
It is only 33 days since the Euros finished but, for many, the wait has still been too long.
There is, naturally, plenty of intrigue around the campaign, so here are five things to watch out for in the 2021-22 campaign.
The effect of fan-filled stadiums
After a 17-month wait, domestic football can get back to full capacity.The final home games of last season saw reduced crowds permitted to attend. But now the likes of Old Trafford can welcome 76,000 people in and the Emirates over 60,000.
Players have admitted it was a struggle to get the same adrenaline rush without the inspiration of a home crowd behind them.
As Jock Stein once said “football without fans is nothing|", a mantra that has been repeated across advertising boards and on social media throughout the pandemic.
Research carried out in Germany during the pandemic showed home teams retained their advantage despite the lack of vocal home support to cheer them on.
Prof Matthias Weigelt of Paderborn University said: “I was always convinced that me being at the games and supporting the team, at least changed something, sometimes. But what can you do?
"It is science and the large data set of more than 40,000 games, which were considered for the study, cannot be ignored. Social support does not seem to be a key factor for the home field advantage.”
It will mean an end to the fake crowd noise on TV, which split opinion for viewers at home.
Some quickly became irked by the sound engineer’s use of recording chants, celebrations and booing. Others thought they needed it to keep focus on the match and avoid the echo of an empty stadium reverberating throughout the 90 minutes.
Public address announcers will be back in business, too. Clubs kept them on the payroll to clarify substitutions to the handful of people in attendance.
Amid all the positivity around fans coming back, there will be some concerns about the response to players taking the knee. England games saw some booing of the action to raise awareness of inequality in society, but overall the response of the minority was drowned out by others.
"The question should no longer be why are we doing it, it should be why wouldn’t we? This is a necessary response to a problem that we know exists and which we also know should not be happening," Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson said.
“So I’m proud of my teammates when we take the knee and I also couldn’t have been prouder to be captain of this club when our supporters applauded us as we did so."
What will be the potential impact of Covid passports?
The return of fans could see some restrictions on those wishing to attend, as the government considers plans to enforce the use of Covid passports at mass events.
Premier League clubs will need to trial the use of passports to prove attendees have received two jabs, a negative test will no longer suffice to be permitted entrance. No official word has been given on making them mandatory going forward.
Stadia that hold more than 20,000 will, for now, be part of the testing but it is likely this will be part of longer term plans.
Chairman of the Football Supporters’ Association Malcolm Clarke warned the proposal will need to be managed carefully.
“I think if they’re going to do this with big football crowds then they need to have the resources to do the checks. I’m not convinced that all football clubs will be able to manage that in a way that doesn’t cause some chaos,” Clarke told Times Radio.“There will certainly be some football supporters for whom this will be an incentive, who are desperate to get back in the ground and watch their teams.“There may be others who will say ‘you know what, I’ve got used to being without going to the games and this is the last straw, I’m not coming back’. How it breaks down between those two groups and everything in between, I wouldn’t like to predict.”
As with nightclubs, it looks like football will need to fall in line, whether certain factions like it or not.
Will VAR changes make a difference?
The introduction of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) was supposed to end any debate surrounding controversial decisions but often only amplified it instead.
In order to improve the performance, the new season will see a number of tweaks to avoid feeling the ire of fans and players alike during matches.
One key aim for match officials will be to stop the awarding of penalties to players who are seen to “buy” them by attracting contact in the box.
“Referees will look for contact and establish clear contact, then ask themselves the question: does that contact have a consequence?” the Premier League’s head of refereeing, Mike Riley, said.
Riley added: “They will then ask themselves a question: has the player used that contact to actually try and win a foul penalty? So it’s not sufficient just to say: ‘Yes, there’s contact.’“I think that the feedback we’ve had from players, both attackers and defenders, [is that] you want it to be a proper foul that has a consequence, not something [slight] that somebody has used ... to go over, and we’ve given the penalty to reward it.”
There's a change too to offsides.
There was wide criticism of the multi-coloured thin lines that were used to decipher if a player was on or offside by a millimetre, often resulting in groans from fans of both sides.
Now, the decisions will no longer be made by one-pixel-wide lines available to officials. Instead they will utilise a thicker broadcast line.
It is hoped this will make the matter clearer but it could be merely a case of moving the metaphorical goalposts.
“We’ve now reintroduced the benefit of the doubt to the attacking player,” Riley said. “Effectively what we have given back to the game is 20 goals that were disallowed last season by using quite forensic scrutiny. It’s the toenails, the noses of the players that last season were offside – this season they will be onside.”
VAR received praise for how it operated during Euro 2020. However, as with all things related to the topic, it is never going to garner universal popularity.
Can anyone catch Manchester City?
It was all a bit of a procession last season for Manchester City as they breezed to the Premier League crown and the recent addition of England star Jack Grealish has only boosted their enviable attacking options.There are no shortage of teams looking to make sure that 2021-22 is a far harder campaign for the title holders.
Manchester United finished second and have since invested in England winger Jadon Sancho and France defender Raphael Varane. They are two signings that will make their rivals sit up and take note, as United look to win the title for the first time since 2013.
"I think the team will improve more this season and we are going up better and better, day by day, and now this is a new season, a new chance to win something and to do something different," midfielder Bruno Fernandes said.
Since Thomas Tuchel’s arrival last season, only City have a better record than Chelsea.
City boss Pep Guardiola will also be well aware that the Blues got the better of his team in their league games, the FA Cup and, most importantly, the Champions League final under Tuchel.
So the Spaniard knows the Blues will be a huge threat in the German’s first full season in charge. Chelsea’s main flaw in 2020-21 was the lack of a consistent striker but the return of Romelu Lukaku is aimed at alleviating the lack of goalscoring prowess, which resulted in penalty-taking midfielder Jorginho being their top scorer in the league with seven goals.
Injuries and a loss of form put pay to Liverpool’s attempts to retain the title last season.
The 2020 champions scraped into fourth in May, so will be desperate to better their performance this time around.
Jurgen Klopp has central defender and talisman Virgil van Dijk back after missing most of last season, which will be a huge boost to the squad.
The only new addition comes in the form of Ibrahima Konate to bring greater depth to an area which was stretched throughout last season. Klopp will mainly be hoping lightning does not strike twice.
Will the European Super League be brought back up?
Apart from Covid, the big off the pitch talking point last season was the quickly doomed attempt to create the breakaway European Super League.
Six English clubs signed up for the plan which collapsed quicker than Sheffield United’s 2020-21 title bid.
The vast majority of fans showed their disgust to every single one of the clubs who agreed to the proposal. Manchester United supporters stormed the stadium, Chelsea mobbed their hierarchy and the whole thing was shut down very quickly.
Punishments have been handed out to the Premier League clubs for their disobedience and the idea is very much on ice.
There are, however, fears it could be reheated at some point.
Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus all still seem to think it is a viable concept, despite having few co-conspirators anymore.
It could provide an intriguing sideshow as La Liga giants Barcelona’s finances are being shown to be in a desperate state, as proved by Lionel Messi’s costly departure from the club.
If English clubs start to suffer a similar downturn in financial prospects, then they too could be forced to reconsider their values and put money above fan happiness.
Real Madrid have launched legal action again La Liga president Javier Tebas over the competition’s new deal with private equity firm CVC.
The Spanish league will receive £2.3bn but Real are not happy with the amount received and could show their further disgust by resuscitating the poo-pooed concept.As ever, money talks, and you never know who among the Premier League hierarchy might be happy to listen.