English Premier League

English Premier League

It was the day that Uefa confirmed, as kick-off approached in Barcelona's Champions League season, that La Liga's champions would begin their home campaign in the competition against Paris Saint-Germain next month where they ended the last one, at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys. With their supporters getting ready to renew their journey up the slopes of Montjuic that few of them care for, their climb to potential glory mirrors the hopes of one of their new arrivals.

A record-breaking nine English sides will play European football in 2025-26 - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Newcastle and Tottenham in the Champions League; Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest in the Europa League; and Crystal Palace in the Conference League. But will those clubs who are not in Europe be able to capitalise on having a less hectic fixture schedule and more rest between matches? When Leicester City shocked the footballing world to win the Premier League in 2015-16, they only played 43 games in all competitions, with no European distractions.

Any thoughts on why a club in need of a striker would fork out 66 million quid for one (Sesko) but choose not to play him? Is he injured? They need goals. To be completely honest, my guess is as good as yours! I don't think he's injured. At least, nothing has been said about any kind of injury. He should be fully match fit considering he had a full pre-season with RB Leipzig before moving to Manchester.

Share Marco Silva's pre-match thoughts We are ready for a very, very tough game. We had a good performance last Sunday and we did the job with eight changes in midweek. We have our plan it's not for us to talk about that now, I'd prefer for us to express that on the field. We know what we want from the game.

The Championship, League One, and League Two fixtures for the upcoming English Football League season will be released on Thursday, heralding the start of an exciting new campaign.