The new Premier League managers taking charge in 2026/27 make this the most dramatically reshaped top flight in living memory. With the season opener now less than two weeks away, roughly half the division will start the campaign under a boss who wasn’t in the job this time last year — including at Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle.
Sunday’s round of friendlies — Arsenal hosting Borussia Dortmund in the Emirates Cup, Liverpool welcoming Monaco to Anfield, Manchester City facing Atletico Madrid in Seoul and Chelsea closing out their Asia tour — is among the last chances for these squads to bed in before it all becomes real.
The end of the Guardiola era at Manchester City
The headline change is at the Etihad. Pep Guardiola resigned at the end of last season after a decade in charge, a spell that brought 17 major trophies but ended without a league title in back-to-back seasons for the first time in his managerial career, with Arsenal taking the crown.
City moved for Enzo Maresca, appointing the Italian on a three-year deal in late June after agreeing a compensation package with Chelsea reported at around £17m. It’s a homecoming of sorts — Maresca is on his third spell at the club, having coached the Elite Development Squad in 2020/21 and served as Guardiola’s assistant during the treble-winning campaign. In between he won promotion with Leicester and then took Chelsea to the Conference League and Club World Cup titles before an abrupt departure on New Year’s Day.
New Premier League managers at the top of the table
Maresca is far from alone. Xabi Alonso took over at Chelsea on 1 July, inheriting a squad he has already begun to reshape aggressively. Andoni Iraola was appointed at Liverpool in early June and will take charge of his first competitive game away at Newcastle. Roberto De Zerbi arrived at Tottenham back in March, while Michael Carrick has been permanent Manchester United boss since January.
Newcastle’s change came latest and most unexpectedly of all. Eddie Howe stepped down just weeks before the season after nearly five years, with Matthias Jaissle lined up to replace him — a story we covered in full in our piece on Jaissle taking over at St James’ Park. The timing could hardly be worse for a club also losing its captain, with the Bruno Guimaraes move to Arsenal all but complete.
Elsewhere, Marco Rose took over at Bournemouth in June, Frank Lampard leads newly promoted Coventry back into the top flight for the first time in 25 years, and Sergej Jakirovic brings Hull up as a Premier League manager for the first time. Ipswich, meanwhile, were left searching for a replacement after Kieran McKenna stepped down shortly after securing promotion, and Fulham were still without a permanent successor to Marco Silva when the fixture list was published in June.
Arteta is now the elder statesman
The scale of the turnover is best illustrated by who’s left. Mikel Arteta, appointed at Arsenal in December 2019, is now comfortably the longest-serving manager in the division — and he’s only six and a half years in. Unai Emery at Aston Villa (November 2022) and Daniel Farke at Leeds (July 2023) are next on the list, which tells you how ruthlessly clubs have churned through coaches.
For a league that has always prized continuity in theory and punished it in practice, this is an extreme swing. Nine of the twenty clubs will begin the season with a manager appointed in 2026 alone.
What it means for the season ahead
Wholesale managerial change usually means volatility, and there are good reasons to expect a scrappier, less predictable opening than usual. New systems take time to embed, and several of these appointments involve genuine stylistic departures — Jaissle’s Red Bull-influenced pressing at Newcastle is a world away from Howe’s approach, and Maresca’s more controlled, positional game differs from Guardiola’s even if the broad principles overlap.
The compressed pre-season makes it harder still. The 2026/27 campaign starts a week later than usual to give World Cup players extra recovery time, but that also means several managers have had key internationals available for only a fraction of their preparation. Arsenal, for instance, have been without a chunk of their first-choice starters for much of the summer.
Arteta’s continuity may well prove the single biggest advantage in the title race. Arsenal not only kept their manager, they’ve strengthened aggressively, and they face the least disruption of any of the traditional top six.
Key dates coming up
The FA Community Shield on 16 August pits champions Arsenal against Manchester City at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff — the first time the venue has hosted the fixture since 2006, and Maresca’s first competitive outing in charge. The league then kicks off on Friday 21 August, when Arsenal host Coventry at the Emirates in an 8pm start.
The rest of the opening round runs across the weekend, with Hull v Manchester United on the Saturday, Manchester City v Bournemouth and Newcastle v Liverpool on the Sunday, and Fulham v Chelsea closing things out on the Monday night. If you’re building a fantasy squad around it, our FPL Gameweek 1 captain picks guide breaks down the armband options.
The transfer window stays open until 31 August, so several of these managers will still be assembling their squads well into the season. For the full picture on the City appointment, Sky Sports has the details, while ESPN’s reporting covers how the deal came together.
