Nine Premier League clubs start with a new manager, and the last time it was this many was 1946-47

The Premier League returns on Friday when Arsenal host Coventry City at the Emirates, 00:30 IST on Saturday morning in India. By the time the weekend is done, nine managers will have taken charge of their first league game for their club. Opta count that as the most in an English top-flight season since 1946-47, the first campaign after the Second World War. The Premier League’s own high on an opening weekend was six, in 1995-96 and again in 2016-17.

Who is new, and where

Enzo Maresca has Manchester City after Pep Guardiola. Andoni Iraola has Liverpool after Arne Slot. Xabi Alonso is at Chelsea, Alvaro Arbeloa at Fulham, Pierre Sage at Crystal Palace, Marco Rose at Bournemouth, Oliver Glasner at Nottingham Forest, Matthias Jaissle at Newcastle and Gary O’Neil at Ipswich Town.

It includes the reigning champions’ closest challenger and a promoted club whose manager walked away from the job he had just earned. Kieran McKenna took Ipswich back to the Premier League and then resigned in mid-June, saying he wanted a break from football. O’Neil, previously at Bournemouth, Wolves and Strasbourg, signed a three-year deal at Portman Road.

Most of it is one long chain

Pull on any of these and another comes loose. Slot won the title at Liverpool in 2024-25, finished fifth in 2025-26 and left in May. Liverpool went to Bournemouth for Iraola, who had just taken them to sixth and into Europe for the first time in the club’s history. Bournemouth had seen that coming and announced Rose in April, on a three-year deal starting once the season ended.

Glasner left Crystal Palace at the end of the season and was announced at Forest on 6 July, replacing Vitor Pereira. Palace went to France and hired Sage, who had just won Lens their first Coupe de France and taken them into the Champions League, an 18-point improvement in a single Ligue 1 season.

The neatest strand runs through Madrid. Alonso left Real in January. Arbeloa, a youth coach at the club, took the last 28 games of the season, finished second in La Liga and went out of the Champions League to Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals. Alonso was named at Chelsea on 17 May and started on 1 July, replacing Liam Rosenior. Arbeloa was announced at Fulham on 7 July, replacing Marco Silva, who had gone to Benfica. Both men now work in London, and they meet on Monday night.

The fixtures put them straight into each other

The schedule has not been kind about easing anyone in. Rose’s first match in charge of Bournemouth is away at Manchester City on Sunday, 18:30 IST, against Maresca in his first league game as City manager. Iraola takes Liverpool to Newcastle on Sunday evening, 21:00 IST, where Jaissle is starting his own first league game after Eddie Howe. Then on Monday, Fulham host Chelsea at 00:30 IST on Tuesday, which is Arbeloa against Alonso, the interim against the man he replaced.

Forest open at home to Leeds, Palace go to Everton, and Ipswich have Sunderland at Portman Road. Those three are the closest anyone gets to a soft landing, and none of them are gimmes.

What it probably means

A number like nine invites a tidy conclusion about a league that has lost patience, and I am not sure that is what happened here. Slot won a title and was gone two seasons later, which fits the theory. Almost nothing else does. Guardiola’s exit had been coming for years. Iraola and Glasner left for bigger jobs rather than being pushed out of smaller ones. Silva chose Benfica, McKenna chose to stop. Some of this is churn. Most of it is a lot of coaches who wanted to move, moving in the same summer.

What it does guarantee is a strange first month. Nine squads are learning a new voice, and early results in that situation tell you less than usual. Arsenal, who kept Mikel Arteta and won the thing last season, may find that the most useful advantage they have is simply knowing what Monday morning looks like.

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