Premier League 2023-24: City without Guardiola, Arsenal's Title Defense, and Chelsea's Fresh Start
Manchester City without Pep. Arsenal as defending champions. Chelsea with Xabi Alonso and no Europe. The Premier League is about to find out who can live with the weight of expectation – and who can’t.
Joe Hart has been in the middle of that storm before. Two titles with Manchester City, neither successfully defended, and now a front‑row seat as a pundit on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club. His verdict on the new landscape is clear: the noise will be deafening, but not everyone will hear it the same way.
City after Guardiola: big shoes, different pressure
Pep Guardiola has gone, leaving behind a decade of trophies and a standard that has warped what “success” even looks like at Etihad Stadium. Into that vacuum steps Enzo Maresca, the former assistant now tasked with following a generational act.
City have already flexed their financial muscle, briefly breaking the English transfer record to prise Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for £116m. At the same time, they are braced to lose Rodri, Spain’s World Cup Golden Ball winner, with Barcelona circling. Talks are under way to bring in 18‑year‑old Morocco midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille for £85.6m, and the club still want Chelsea’s Argentina international Enzo Fernandez.
This rebuild has started against a jolt of reality: a flat 3-0 defeat by Arsenal in the Community Shield in Cardiff. For most clubs, that would trigger alarms. Hart doesn’t see it that way inside City.
“I think the club isn't heaping massive expectation on this season,” he said. “I think they still believe that they've got the team and they've got the quality to challenge.
“I still feel they'll want to be pushing on all fronts. But the same sort of pressure, as an organisation, I don't think will be on this season… I don't think they're going to be put under that pressure internally.”
The outside world will be less forgiving. “Externally, there's always going to be the noise,” Hart added. “Maresca will come immediately under fire in terms of how people want to jump all over Man City if they do struggle.
“Internally, I think they're intelligent enough as a business to understand that what's going on right now is going to be difficult.”
For four straight seasons from 2020-21 to 2023-24, City turned the league into their private property. Two campaigns without the title now feel like a drought by their standards. Hart’s point is simple: Guardiola’s era was not normal, and expecting Maresca to copy‑paste it would be madness.
Arsenal and the brutal reality of staying on top
If City are adjusting to life after Pep, Arsenal are walking into a different kind of storm. They’ve climbed the mountain. Now they have to stay there.
Hart knows exactly how hard that is. He lived it.
Recalling City’s 2011-12 and 2013-14 title wins, he said: “I was walking on water at that time. I actually thought I was 'that guy’.”
Then came the comedown.
“And football finds a way, really quickly, of showing you that you're not. And when things started to unravel, which they will in any season, [they] seemed to really unravel because all of a sudden [you're under] that kind of champion scrutiny.”
That phrase – “champion scrutiny” – is what now awaits Mikel Arteta’s side. Every dip in form, every dropped point, every selection call will be framed not as a blip, but as a failure to live up to champions’ standards.
“And it's really important how Arsenal are going to handle that,” Hart said. “But Mikel Arteta has done a brilliant job, and he makes really big decisions and bold decisions. And it's about how you handle that first hurt. It's ironic that getting to the top is the easy thing, it really is.”
City’s own history underlines the warning. Those two titles Hart helped win were followed by stumbles, not dynasties. Arsenal have just watched Guardiola’s team dominate for four consecutive seasons; now they’re about to discover how rare and ruthless that level really is.
Chelsea, Alonso and the advantage of a clear calendar
Across London, Chelsea arrive from the opposite angle: no title to defend, no European distractions, and a fanbase desperate for a reset.
Last season was grim. Liam Rosenior, brought in to replace Maresca, lasted barely more than three months. The club limped to 10th place, missing out on Europe for only the third time this century.
History, though, offers a twist. The last time Chelsea had a free midweek schedule of this kind, in 2016-17, Antonio Conte used it as a weapon. His side trained relentlessly, drilled patterns of play, and stormed to the title.
Hart remembers the stories from inside that dressing room. “I do remember Gary Cahill talking about Conte coming in to a Premier League team like Chelsea who [weren't] in Europe,” he said. “He said they were so well drilled, he was so intense in what they needed. They almost had NFL playbooks and it allowed them the time to build into the season.”
Xabi Alonso now inherits that same advantage: time on the grass, time to teach, time to shape a squad without the churn of Thursday nights and long flights.
“So that's a massive advantage for someone like Xabi Alonso, who's obviously got his way of playing and he'll have his time on the grass with his players,” Hart said. “Their ceiling is, of course, to be in amongst it. I think it is. And they've got a really great opportunity.”
City learning to live without Pep. Arsenal about to feel the heat of being hunted. Chelsea lurking with a clear schedule and a new idea.
The questions are obvious. The answers will define the season.
