Premier League Preseason Insights: Rising Stars and Challenges

The Premier League never does straight lines.

Last season Arsenal surged past Manchester City, Tottenham flirted with disaster and nine clubs decided they needed a new man on the touchline. Now, with half the league rebooting their dugouts and squads reshaped by a chaotic summer market, any attempt to forecast 2026-27 feels like guesswork dressed up as science.

Preseason, then, becomes the only real clue. It lies. It misleads. It turns Andreas Pereira into the “Preseason Pirlo.” But it also reveals who is sharp, who is struggling and which teenagers are about to have an entire fanbase refreshing team sheets on their phones.

This summer has already drawn a few clear winners – and exposed some early problems.

Wonderkids light the fuse

Preseason lives on hype, and this year the kids have supplied plenty.

Max Dowman is still technically a schoolboy, yet he already has a PFA Young Player of the Season nomination and a growing cult around him at Arsenal. At 16, he has barely finished his exams, but in a 4-1 win over Girona he played like the most relaxed man on the pitch: one goal, one assist, all swagger.

Arsenal fans have seen this movie before. Dowman dazzled in friendlies last summer against AC Milan and Newcastle United, only to spend the season largely watching from the bench. The noise around him now is even louder, but it guarantees nothing once the real stuff starts.

On Merseyside, Liverpool supporters have their own obsession. Rio Ngumoha, 17, finished last season with fans practically begging to see more of him. Andoni Iraola has listened. Ngumoha has started three of four preseason games, helped by Cody Gakpo’s delayed return from the World Cup, and he has not wasted the chance. His sharp finish against Wrexham in the United States – the only goal in a 1-0 win – underlined why Anfield is so excited.

Then there is Brian Madjo at Aston Villa, who has turned preseason into his personal highlight reel. Signed from Metz for £10 million on his 17th birthday in January, he wasn’t even allowed to play for Villa at any level until this summer because of FIFA rules on under-18 international transfers. Villa appealed, won, and unleashed him.

The impact has been immediate. Two goals against Walsall. Another against Real Sociedad. One more against an Indonesia league All Stars side. Four goals before most teenagers have sorted their boots. Then came Salzburg and the UEFA Super Cup, where Madjo stepped onto the big stage against PSG, scored Villa’s only goal in a 2-1 defeat and might easily have added to it.

Ollie Watkins’ extended post-World Cup break has opened the door, but Madjo has sprinted through it. Unai Emery now has a decision to make: is this just a summer fling, or is a 17-year-old genuinely ready for Premier League minutes?

Igor Jesus finds his range

Nottingham Forest leaned heavily on Igor Jesus last season. Four managers – Nuno Espírito Santo, Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche and Vítor Pereira – came and went, but the Brazilian stayed in the XI. The problem was the output: six goals in 37 Premier League games is honest work, not headline stuff.

The mood has shifted. Jesus ended last season with four goals in his final eight league matches, hinting at a striker finally settling into the pace and punishment of English football. He has carried that streak straight into preseason, scoring four times in consecutive games, including in a 2-1 defeat to Sporting CP.

For a player who has often been praised more for his pressing than his finishing, this run matters. Forest do not need him to be Erling Haaland. They just need a reliable focal point. For the first time, Jesus looks like he might be ready to become exactly that.

Semenyo keeps City ticking

Manchester City’s summer has been messy around the edges, with players returning late from the World Cup and a new manager trying to impose his ideas. One thing has stayed gloriously simple: give the ball to Antoine Semenyo and watch the attack come to life.

Fresh from playing all four of Ghana’s World Cup matches before their round-of-32 exit to Colombia, Semenyo barely paused for breath. He reported back and ripped through City’s four preseason games, assisting five of their six goals.

Inter Milan? He set one up in a 1-1 draw. K-League All-Stars? He helped carve them open in a 3-1 win. Atlético Madrid? Again, he was the creative engine in another 3-1 victory.

Last season he was a revelation, splitting his time between Bournemouth and City to rack up 17 Premier League goals and four assists in 37 games. This summer suggests that was no one-off. If anything, he looks even more central to City’s attack now.

Alonso hits the ground running at Chelsea

New job. New club. Same pressure. Xabi Alonso walked into Chelsea knowing that the margin for error is tiny, but his preparation has been as close to ideal as any new manager could hope for.

Appointed in May and officially starting on July 9, he has had weeks, not days, to assess his squad. Crucially, he has actually had his senior players to work with while rivals scrambled to get World Cup returnees back up to speed. João Pedro, Cole Palmer, Estêvão, Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana, Jorrel Hato, Robert Sánchez – they have all been in the building, on the grass, learning what Alonso wants.

Pedro has stolen the show. Five goals in preseason, including a hat trick against Western Sydney Wanderers and a brace versus AC Milan, have underlined why Chelsea pushed so hard to get him. He looks like the sharpest forward in blue.

Not everything has clicked. A 2-1 defeat to Tottenham in Sydney stung, and a flat 1-0 loss to Juventus in Hong Kong reminded Alonso how quickly Chelsea can drift if the tempo drops. Even so, compared with the chaos of recent years at Stamford Bridge, this feels like a manager starting the season with clarity, not confusion.

Liverpool’s back line creaks

While Liverpool fans buzz about Ngumoha, the mood darkens when the conversation turns to the back four.

Andoni Iraola walks into a defensive jigsaw with several missing pieces. Conor Bradley, first-choice at right-back, is still sidelined with a knee injury. Joe Gomez, one of the few versatile options in the squad, picked up a muscle problem during preseason. Jérémy Jacquet, the €60 million signing intended to reinforce the defence, has yet to feature as he continues his recovery from a long-term shoulder issue.

Liverpool have moved to plug the gaps, bringing in Ronald Araújo from Barcelona on a season-long loan. He adds presence and aggression, but the anchor of the entire structure remains Virgil van Dijk – now 35, and coming off a staggering 6,051 minutes last season for club and country, including the World Cup.

He started all 68 of those games. Asking him to carry that load again feels like a gamble. If he creaks, Liverpool’s entire season could tilt.

When preseason bites back

For some, preseason is about rhythm and sharpness. For others, it is a trap.

No one knows that better right now than Junior Kroupi. The Bournemouth forward broke out last season and was being linked with a big-money move to Europe’s elite. Then, on a preseason tour of Austria, it all stopped. A foot injury, surgery, and a recovery timeline of up to four months. His second Premier League season might not truly start until January.

Aston Villa have their own list of concerns, almost all of them involving knees. Amadou Onana’s ruptured ACL in July is a brutal blow for a midfielder who was expected to be central to Emery’s plans. John McGinn gave Villa a scare when he landed awkwardly on his knee in a friendly; he is expected to be fit for the start of the season, but the sight of their captain in distress will not be easily forgotten. New signing Johan Manzambi, injured at the World Cup with Switzerland, is also nursing a knee problem and could miss the opening stretch.

Not every scare ends in disaster. Newcastle watched in horror as Anthony Elanga was stretchered off after a reckless challenge from Valencia’s José Gayà, who was sent off immediately. The diagnosis, though, was far kinder than the incident looked: just a bruised shin. Elanga should be ready for Newcastle’s opener, a rare piece of good news in a period where many clubs have seen their plans shredded before a competitive ball has been kicked.

Maresca’s awkward start at City

Enzo Maresca has inherited a dynasty and a dilemma. Replacing Pep Guardiola at Manchester City is daunting enough; trying to do it with half your stars only just back from World Cup duty is something else entirely.

City players collectively racked up just under 5,000 minutes at the tournament. Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku, Rodri, Marc Guéhi, Nico O’Reilly and new signing Elliot Anderson all went deep. Many have only rejoined the squad this week, with their first taste of action likely to come in the Community Shield against Arsenal.

Maresca has still managed to win two of City’s three preseason games, leaning heavily on those who were available and on Semenyo’s creativity. The disruption is not his fault, but it is real. For a manager trying to stamp his identity on a group conditioned by Guardiola’s methods, every lost training session counts.

The season will not wait for him to catch up.

Grealish and Maddison stuck in neutral

In another timeline, Jack Grealish and James Maddison are returning from a glorious World Cup campaign with England, easing back into club life after a summer of celebration.

Reality is harsher. Both missed the tournament through injury. Both have spent this preseason chasing fitness rather than form.

Grealish’s problems began long before the summer. A foot injury wiped out the final four months of last season, cutting short his loan from Manchester City to Everton. He returned to training last month but did not travel on City’s preseason tour of Asia, instead staying in Manchester for individual work. His future remains unresolved, with no decision yet on where he will play next season despite being under contract at the Etihad Stadium until 2027.

Maddison’s road has been even longer. An anterior cruciate ligament injury ruled him out for almost the entire of last season. Just as he approached a return, a minor hip issue halted his progress again. He has not played a single minute this preseason.

Both remain high-level talents. Both are stuck on the runway while the rest of the league is already accelerating.

Preseason does not decide titles, and it does not condemn anyone to relegation. It does, however, reveal the fault lines and the flashes of brilliance that will shape the months ahead. Dowman, Ngumoha and Madjo have kicked the door open. Semenyo looks ready to torment defences again. Liverpool’s back line creaks, City’s new era starts with a juggling act, and some of England’s brightest playmakers are still waiting just to feel like footballers again.

The chaos has already started. The only question now is who turns this early noise into something lasting when the real pressure arrives.