A busy summer transfer window for last season's top four clubs suggests we could see one of the best Premier League title races ever, as football writer Alex Keble explains here.
The Premier League is in the middle of a game-changing summer window.
Between them, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, and Chelsea have already spent close to £800 million, enough to legitimately wonder whether we may be about to witness the first-ever four-horse title race – and, therefore, the best title race in Premier League history.
If that sounds like hyperbole, then consider the confluence of factors that take us to this point.
Consider that Chelsea - the FIFA Club World Cup champions who thrashed heavy-favourites Paris Saint-Germain in the final, and are the most expensively assembled team in Premier League history – are only fourth favourites to win the title.
Consider that Arsenal have spent nine figures on two superstars that look to have completed Mikel Arteta’s squad.
Consider that Pep Guardiola has finished a major restructuring of serial winners Manchester City.
And consider that champions Liverpool have added two of the best young attackers in the world to their ranks.
There could be even more than four teams in the race, at least according to Mikel Arteta.
"The thing is there are another six, seven, eight clubs in the league that have the right ingredients to win [the title]," Arteta told ESPN recently.
Newcastle United and Aston Villa are both hoping to go to the next level despite frustrating summers, while Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United look set to bounce back.
However many teams last the distance, a new generation of superstars in the Premier League might just make this the highest-quality season on record, and that’s before we get to the prospect of four clubs vying for the crown.
Here’s why we could see four – and perhaps even more - clubs challenge for the trophy, and why this could be the greatest title race in Premier League history.
Liverpool’s Bundesliga buys point to the Slot era accelerating
First of all, the champions are going nowhere – although change is afoot.
What makes Liverpool’s 2025/26 so intriguing is it will ultimately decide how history remembers Arne Slot’s 2024/25 triumph: will it prove to have been the beginning of a bold new project, or just the tail end - the after burn - of the more celebrated Jurgen Klopp era?
A phenomenal summer in the transfer market suggests the former. Milos Kerkez is a massive upgrade at left-back, the champions' only weak spot last season, and although Trent Alexander-Arnold is a huge loss, Liverpool supporters should be excited by the trio of Bundesliga stars arriving at Anfield.
Jeremie Frimpong is an ultra-attacking right-back who will support Mohamed Salah and ease the pressure on him to perform.
Florian Wirtz is one of the best players in the world, and a surprising signing as an out-and-out No 10, while Hugo Ekitike could soon become the best striker in Europe.
Together, these three form a new Bundesliga-based foundation that hints at Slot moving Liverpool back towards fast transitions and the wilder instincts of the Klopp years.
There is no doubt it makes Liverpool stronger.
The control and order of Slot’s football, infused with the pure creativity of two new elite attackers, tells us Liverpool have a good chance of retaining the title for the first time since 1983/84.
Slot’s team will play their part in an exciting title race.
Arsenal’s new signings should ensure Arteta’s side last the distance
This year Liverpool ought to be closely tracked by Arsenal who, after a small step backwards in 2024/25, have strengthened in exactly the right areas.
That’s excellent news for everyone connected with the club – and yet, inevitably, it also puts them under extra pressure. There can be no excuses this season. Arsenal are experienced, mature, and boast strength in depth.
It makes them one of the most enticing stories of the 2025/26 campaign, because anything less than the title this year will risk Arteta being labelled as a nearly-man.
It certainly feels like a now-or-never moment for his tenure at Arsenal, thanks almost entirely to their signing of Viktor Gyokeres, the elite goalscorer fans have been craving for years.
Arsenal haven’t signed a proper goalscoring No 9 since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang seven-and-a-half years ago.
The stats suggest it was worth the wait. Gyokeres scored 54 goals in 52 matches for Sporting last season, including 39 in the Portuguese league, as he finished second in the European Golden Shoe race behind Kylian Mbappe.
If that prowess can survive the jump from Primeira Liga to Premier League, then all of a sudden Arsenal can turn most of those frustrating draws against low-block opponents – 14 in total last season – into narrow wins.
Add to that the signing of Martin Zubimendi, a game-changing No 6 in the Rodri mould, and Noni Madueke for depth, and Arsenal truly look like the finished article.
They, like Liverpool, will now expect to collect 90+ points.
Amazingly, they aren’t the only ones.
Man City’s rebuild is complete – and Guardiola looks primed for a new chapter
After their title bid collapsed last season, and after a summer of curious but unspectacular signings that follow Kevin De Bruyne’s departure, there are a lot of unknowns surrounding Man City… or at least there would be if they had any other manager in charge.
Pep Guardiola has never gone consecutive seasons without winning the league. He has adapted to new tactical trends (or invented them himself) arguably more than any coach in history.
Those are two very good reasons to assume Man City will explode back into life this season.
Guardiola has been talking a lot lately about English football becoming faster and more transitional, telling TNT Sports in a recent interview that the fashion is no longer "positional", arguing that successful teams must "ride the rhythm."
That explains why he has signed such an attacking left-back in Rayan Ait-Nouri, and why De Bruyne has been replaced by a player of such flair and verticality in Rayan Cherki.
Tijjani Reijnders, too, is more forward thinking than the prosaic, tiki-taka-style central midfielders we have previously associated with Guardiola football.
Man City will be hungry to return to the top, they are bolstered by some excellent new signings, and they have a manager ready to start another revolution.
City are just as likely to hit 90+ points as Liverpool and Arsenal.
Chelsea believe they’re ready after Club World Cup title
That makes for a formidable field, and yet there’s a fourth club – albeit an outsider – who thinks they’re up to challenge.
"Winning this trophy against such good opposition sends a big statement," captain Reece James said, after Chelsea beat PSG in the Club World Cup final.
"I hope next season we’re competing in the Premier League to win the title."
Sometimes winning silverware gives teams the psychological strength and self-belief required to go to that next level. It helps Chelsea’s cause that James now thinks his team-mates are ready.
They’ve certainly spent enough money to be in the conversation.
Joao Pedro adds guile and flexibility to the front line and Liam Delap can further reduce Chelsea’s reliance on Nicolas Jackson, whose wayward finishing may have cost them a few points in 2024/25.
Watch all of Delap's Premier League goals
Chelsea also ended last season strong, while Cole Palmer’s performances this summer suggest he is back to his best.
It will be difficult for Chelsea to rise to the level of Liverpool, Arsenal, and Man City, and yet they have the record – in trophies and money spent – to suggest they ought to be right up there.
A four-way title challenge has never happened before. But never before have the conditions for one been in place.
Newcastle, Villa, Spurs and Man Utd all hoping to break through
There’s no doubt last season's top four clubs are the most likely champions, but we must take Arteta’s suggestion about even more title contenders seriously.
Newcastle are expected to strengthen late in this window, despite missing out on their top targets up to this point, and if Alexander Isak ends up staying then Eddie Howe will be hopeful of closing the gap.
Similarly, Villa should be stronger than 12 months ago, given that Boubacar Kamara is fully fit from the outset and big things are expected of Ian Maatsen and Amadou Onana after a season bedding in.
Man Utd would be well ahead of schedule to even be in the conversation but are at least moving in the right direction with the additions of Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, while Thomas Frank will surely prove that Spurs’ level is much higher than it appeared in 2024/25.
There is a real possibility that one of these four will enter the title race at some point in the season, applying further pressure to what is already a congested battle.