The 2026-27 Premier League season kicks off on Friday and while the familiar rivalries return, the English top flight has some alterations this campaign. From evolved rules to new faces and broadcast changes, there is plenty to catch up on before a ball is kicked.
Law changes
The Premier League has some law and rule changes this season and the first will lead to a crackdown on time wasting.
Referees will be able to start a countdown of five seconds if they believe players are ticking down the clock during throw-ins and goal-kicks. If players take more than five seconds once the countdown has been enforced, the goal-kick becomes a corner and the throw-in is reversed.
That is not all that is being done to cut time-wasting. Last season, if a player was injured and play stopped as a result, they had to leave the pitch for 30 seconds. In this campaign, it will be increased to a minute and the only exceptions will be if a foul that received a card led to the injury, or other unusual circumstances.
There will also be a change to limit tactical timeouts by goalkeepers going down injured. If they do, a manager must choose another player to leave the pitch for one minute. Substitutions will also need to take just 10 seconds; if a player takes longer than that to leave the pitch, his replacement will not be able to come on for a further minute.
There will also be changes to video assistant referee interventions. VARs will now be able to intervene on second yellow cards if they have been shown in error. They cannot, however, tell a referee to issue a second yellow if one is not shown.
VARs will also be able to get involved where an attacking foul happens before a set piece is taken which leads to a penalty, a goal or a disciplinary sanction. They will be able to intervene to have the set piece retaken.
Despite players being given red cards for speaking to opposition players with their mouths covered at the World Cup this past summer, this is not a rule that will be adopted by the Premier League.
Managerial appointments
This season the defending champions, Arsenal, will have the longest-serving manager in the Premier League. Mikel Arteta has been in charge since 2019 and delivered his first title last season; Aston Villa’s Unai Emery is second on the list, with Leeds’ Daniel Farke third.
The upcoming campaign will set a record for the most new managers at the start of a Premier League season. The nine new names in the dugout are:
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Marco Rose – Bournemouth
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Xabi Alonso – Chelsea
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Pierre Sage – Crystal Palace
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Álvaro Arbeloa – Fulham
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Gary O’Neil – Ipswich Town
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Andoni Iraola – Liverpool
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Enzo Maresca- Manchester City
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Matthias Jaissle – Newcastle
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Oliver Glasner – Nottingham Forest
Biggest signings
There have been hundreds of signings in this summer’s transfer window and many have caught fans’ attention. Here are five to keep an eye on for this upcoming season:
Elliot Anderson: Nottingham Forest to Manchester City For a short time this summer, Anderson’s £116m move to Manchester City was a record transfer for a British player. The signing comes as part of City’s renovated midfield, with Rodri, Bernardo Silva and Tijjani Reijnders leaving the club.
Morgan Rogers: Aston Villa to Chelsea The versatile forward was the player to eclipse Anderson’s record. Chelsea paid £117m for the Aston Villa star, who alongside Anderson helped England finish third at the World Cup. The 24-year-old is a huge loss for Villa; Rogers scored 10 goals and made seven assists in the Premier League last season.
Bruno Guimarães: Newcastle to Arsenal This move was an astute one for the Premier League holders. Guimarães is an experienced and reliable midfielder who will add depth to Arsenal’s engine room. Arsenal’s sporting director, Andrea Berta, said: “With Bruno joining us, we are further strengthening the heart of our team. Bruno can play as a defensive midfielder and as a box-to-box player. He combines quality with quantity, and has provided goals and assists for his team every year.”
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Gonzalo García: Real Madrid to Fulham García became a regular first-team presence for Real Madrid last season, and he has followed his manager for the second half of that campaign, Álvaro Arbeloa, to Fulham. Leaving Madrid for the first time, the highly rated striker needs to adapt quickly to the Premier League.
Thomas Meunier: Lille to Sunderland Sunderland have signed an experienced international in Meunier. The former PSG and Dortmund defender has amassed 83 caps for Belgium and won 14 trophies across his club career.
New kids on the block (or are they?)
The three promoted clubs all have plenty of Premier League history: Hull City, Coventry City and Ipswich Town.
The Tractor Boys won promotion in 2024 but were relegated the following season. Kieran McKenna managed to regain the club’s Premier League status after finishing second in the Championship. He will not be joining them in the top flight, though, as he stepped down to take a break from management. That means Gary O’Neil is back in the Premier League after last taking charge of Wolves.
Hull were last in the top flight in 2016-17 and their first season there in a decade will be overseen by Sergej Jakirovic, who steered them to an unexpected promotion.
Coventry have spent 25 years out of the top flight and even dropped down to League Two. They have fought their way back up the pyramid with Frank Lampard engineering their Championship-winning campaign. The former Chelsea player and manager will lead the team this season, his first managerial position in the Premier League since his caretaking stint at the Blues in 2023.
Television and radio
Sky Sports and TNT Sports will remain the live TV broadcasters for the Premier League in the UK, with the BBC showing highlights on Match of the Day, but there are some slight changes this season.
The Premier League will allow on-field discussions between players and referees to be aired during live broadcasts. This will be trialled first and will not be present during the opening weekend.
Match of the Day will feature new pundits in the former Brentford and Spurs manager Thomas Frank, plus former players Toby Alderweireld, Robbie Keane and Ashley Young.
The BBC will no longer be airing its fantasy Premier League podcast Fantasy 606. The broadcaster Alistair Bruce-Ball confirmed the news in July, saying: “It’s our amazing listeners’ contributions who really made it. Thank you for listening, for sending your emails, your poems, your songs and for managing the listeners’ teams – we are really going to miss it!”
