The second edition of the Premier League Summer Series gets under way on 26 July, providing us with a first glimpse of the four teams facing each other in a round-robin format in the United States: Manchester United, AFC Bournemouth, Everton and West Ham United.
First and foremost it’s an opportunity to see all-Premier League encounters prior to the 2025/26 campaign’s beginning in mid-August, but more than that, if the 2023 version won by Chelsea is anything to go by, it’s also the chance to see some high-scoring games, new signings and breakout stars.
Here, football writer Alex Keble picks out eight things to look out for in the 2025 Summer Series.
A high-scoring repeat of the inaugural 2023 Series
The main reason to watch is that the 2023 Summer Series, the first and most recent tournament, was very entertaining.
Four of the nine matches saw at least five goals scored. There were 35 goals in total, or 3.9 per match, an average significantly above most pre-season tournaments – and certainly more than you’d usually find across a Premier League campaign.
Watch the best moments from the 2023 Summer Series
That trend should continue. There are plenty of exciting attacking players on display, as we’ll come on to, and probably a few shaky defences as well.
West Ham and Man Utd struggled at the back last season, while Bournemouth have arguably already lost two of their most important defenders this summer, in Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez.
But regardless of whether or not we see end-to-end games, the Summer Series should prove insightful.
Chelsea won the 2023 tournament after winning two and drawing one of their three matches, and of all the things to come out of the 2023 Summer Series, it was Mauricio Pochettino’s strong start that sticks out.
Pochettino’s Chelsea were entertainingly open thanks to a focus on youth, something that was carried into the 2023/24 season.
That suggests this year's tournament will help inform us about the campaign ahead.
Someone will follow Adingra, Joao Pedro and Anderson in becoming Summer Series breakout star
We learned a lot about a few new players in 2023, too.
Joao Pedro, just signed from Watford, was hugely impressive for Brighton & Hove Albion, scoring one and assisting another in a 4-3 defeat to Chelsea in Philadelphia.
It’s fairly likely that Joao Pedro’s performance in that game first put him on Chelsea’s radar. Two years later, Pedro is set to play as Chelsea’s No 9 this season.
Simon Adingra also stood out, making his name with a brace against Brentford prior to a strong debut campaign in England, while Elliot Anderson’s goals against Brighton first got Newcastle United supporters excited about their academy star.
It’s safe to assume something similar will happen this year in New Jersey, Chicago and Atlanta.
Everton are excited about young No 10 Harrison Armstrong, who impressed on loan at Derby County last season and has already played a part in their pre-season.
United’s young wing-back Diego Leon is also getting some attention after his strong start to the summer, while West Ham’s new signing El Hadji Malick Diouf similarly put in a good performance last weekend.
Romain Favre, the forgotten man at Bournemouth, scored in their opening friendly of the summer against Hibernian.
An important tournament for Amorim as he looks to re-lay the groundwork
All eyes are on Ruben Amorim and Man Utd.
It’s difficult to imagine a scenario in which a manager and a club could be under more scrutiny before a ball has even been kicked; fans will be pouring over United’s pre-season friendlies for evidence of progress.
Clearly, Man Utd need to hit the ground running this season. That doesn’t mean they have to get good pre-season results, and it certainly doesn’t they have to win the Summer Series.
But it feels psychologically important – for everyone inside and outside the club – that United look coherent.
Amorim’s record of 27 points from 27 league games is the worst points-per-game average in the club’s Premier League history, while his win percentage in all competitions - 38.1 per cent - is the lowest of any permanent Man Utd manager since Frank O'Farrell, who was in charge between 1971 and 1972.
For those numbers to improve, Amorim needs to find a tactical system that his players are able to follow closely, and he needs to make sure his first summer at Old Trafford is a boot camp from which the team emerges sculpted in his image.
From that perspective, Man Utd’s Summer Series is unusually significant.
Mbeumo and Cunha making their Man Utd debuts will reveal club’s new direction
That task is made somewhat easier by the arrival of two big-money signings in the forward line, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo.
Perhaps the single biggest reason to tune in this summer is watching Cunha and Mbeumo together. How will Amorim fit them into the same team? How will they dovetail and interact with one another?
And, most pressingly, what does their relationship mean for the future of Man Utd?
Mbeumo and Cunha are Man Utd’s sixth and ninth most expensive signings in their history, reportedly costing a combined £135million. Amorim is relying on these two transforming a side that scored just 44 goals in 38 Premier League games last season.
Inevitably how they perform and where they play will have a huge impact on the shape of the rest of the side. In other words, the club’s tactical direction, the formation Amorim implements long term and the entire flavour of the Amorim era will be defined by Mbeumo and Cunha.
At the Summer Series, they will get three matches together against Premier League opposition. It will be hugely revealing.
A chance to see whether summer training has helped Potter imprint ideas
Six months into his tenure and it’s fair to say we still don’t know what Graham Potter’s West Ham will look like.
West Ham won 20 points from 18 games under Potter, compared with 23 points from 20 games before he arrived. Their possession share rose slightly (from 46.7 per cent to 50.4 per cent), but there wasn’t much sign of a tactical identity coming to the fore.
Like Amorim, Potter will be grateful for a full pre-season to get his ideas across.
At Brighton and Chelsea that meant highly-structured possession football that focused on slow and steady control, although we should not presume Potter hasn’t moved with the times.
Those principles were in vogue during his spell at Brighton, whereas in 2025 the Premier League has bounced back towards fast transitions.
Has Potter adapted, finding new ways to coach during the two years he spent without a job, or will he plough on with a style no longer suited to the top level of English football?
A few matches against Premier League opposition this summer will start to give us an answer.
A test of how Bournemouth respond to big summer losses
So far it’s been a disappointing summer for Bournemouth supporters. Kerkez has gone to Liverpool, Huijsen has gone to Real Madrid, and centre-back Illia Zabarnyi is reportedly a target for several clubs.
But they have importantly kept hold of Antoine Semenyo, who scored 11 Premier League goals last season.
The outgoings would be enough to worry any set of fans, but particularly Bournemouth’s when considering Andoni Iraola’s side made a poor start in both of his previous two seasons in charge, winning three points from the first nine games of 2023/24 and 15 points from the opening 12 games of 2024/25.
Another disappointing start could be on the cards unless Iraola can find a way to maintain Bournemouth’s defensive shape despite heavy losses. How they get on against Man Utd, West Ham and Everton will give us a decent idea.
Iraola will need his new left-back Adrien Truffert to adapt quickly, so facing Premier League opposition in the Summer Series should be hugely beneficial for the Frenchman.
A first look at Thierno Barry, Everton’s new No 9
David Moyes made an instant impact on his mid-season return to Everton in 2024/25 and will be expecting even better after a summer on the training ground.
A new No 9 should help. Thierno Barry, arriving for a reported £27million from Villarreal, scored 11 goals in LaLiga last season, playing a crucial role in their qualification for the UEFA Champions League.
He comes in to replace the departing Dominic Calvert-Lewin, although Barry is closer in style to Beto. At 6ft 5in, Barry is unsurprisingly very good in the air, ranking second for aerial duel success in 2024/25 among all forwards in Europe’s "Big Five" leagues with 66.7 per cent (minimum 100 duels).
Everton’s luck with strikers has been mixed at best, although rarely do they sign a No 9 with a proven track record in one of Europe’s top leagues.
Fast adaptation will be needed if he is to dislodge Beto, however. How Barry gets on at the Summer Series – and indeed how often he plays – will tell us a lot about Moyes’s plans for his frontline.
From Wayne Rooney to Duncan Ferguson to Yakubu, Moyes’s Everton always had a star striker. The hope is that Barry will be the next in line.
The first opportunity to get your 2025/26 Premier League fix
Finally, we come on to the most obvious reason to watch the Summer Series. Until 15 August, nowhere else can you find football that quite so closely resembles watching the Premier League.
Everton and Bournemouth open this year's Summer Series on Saturday 27 July.
From new kits to new signings, the Summer Series is the unofficial start of the 2025/26 campaign – for Man Utd, West Ham, Bournemouth and Everton, at least.
There will be plenty of goals, plenty of tactical ideas trialled and plenty of reasons for optimism or pessimism.
For those supporters itching for the new campaign to get under way, nine all-Premier League matches in a league-table format is a decent fix until the real thing begins.
See the Summer Series schedule and how to watch