Your season's guide to all 20 clubs

The London Stadium, the showpiece arena for the 2012 Olympics, is now the new home ground for West Ham United this Premier League season.
The London Stadium, the showpiece arena for the 2012 Olympics, is now the new home ground for West Ham United this Premier League season. PHOTO: REUTERS

ARSENAL

Manager: Arsene Wenger

Last season: 2nd

Key player: Mesut Ozil

Rising star: Hector Bellerin

Key signing: Granit Xhaka (£35m from Borussia Monchengladbach)

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Wenger absolutely trusts his men and gives them the freedom to express themselves. On their day, the Gunners play some of the prettiest football in the EPL. But it is also shown that when midfield enforcer Francis Coquelin is out of the team, Arsenal concede 50 per cent more shots.


BOURNEMOUTH

Manager: Eddie Howe

Last season: 16th

Key player: Callum Wilson

Rising star: Jordon Ibe

Key signing: Jordon Ibe (£15m from Liverpool)

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Howe has built a hungry team, signing young players like Lewis Cook (19), Lys Mousset (20), Brad Smith (22) and Ibe (20) and the team will buzz with energy in attack. But the manager will want to tighten up the EPL's second-worst defence, which conceded 67 goals last season.


BURNLEY

Manager: Sean Dyche

Last season: Promoted as Championship winners

Key player: George Boyd

Rising star: Andre Gray

Key signing: Johann Berg Gudmunsson (£2.5m from Charlton)

Formation: 4-4-1-1

The Clarets have not been very active in the market and have a dangerously thin squad to compete against the cream of the EPL, although they make up for it with a lot of heart. Still, there are fears that they will be relegated, although they will go down heroically.


CHELSEA

Manager: Antonio Conte

Last season: 10th

Key player: Willian

Rising star: Kenedy

Key signing: N'Golo Kante (£30m from Leicester)

Formation: 4-2-4, 4-3-3, 3-5-2

Conte is tactically astute and is flexible enough to deploy various formations to neutralise different opponents. And the no-nonsense Italian will not tolerate the player-power issues that dominated last season.


CRYSTAL PALACE

Manager: Alan Pardew

Last season: 15th

Key player: Scott Dann

Rising star: Wilfried Zaha

Key signing: Andros Townsend (£13m from Newcastle)

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Exciting wing play from Zaha and Yannick Bolasie (if the Eagles can hang on to him) gives Palace real penetration. But as their FA Cup exertions last season showed (they lost to Manchester United in the final and slumped from fifth to 15th), they can be distracted.


EVERTON

Manager: Ronald Koeman

Last season: 11th

Key player: Romelu Lukaku

Rising star: Brendan Galloway

Key signing: Ashley Williams (£12m from Swansea)

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Koeman over-achieved at a Southampton side with a limited budget but he has yet to splash the cash despite new Toffees owner Farhad Moshiri's wealth and the record sale of John Stones. It will be interesting to see how the Dutchman rebuilds the ailing squad.


HULL CITY

Manager: Vacant

Last season: 4th in Championship (promoted via play-offs)

Key player: Abel Hernandez

Rising star: Will Mannion

Key signing: Will Mannion (Wimbledon, tribunal)

Formation: 4-4-2

After winning the play-offs to reach the EPL, Steve Bruce resigned as manager, as frustration over a lack of investment reached a boiling point. The Tigers have yet to appoint a replacement and it all spells doom and gloom.


LEICESTER CITY

Manager: Claudio Ranieri

Last season: 1st

Key player: Riyad Mahrez

Rising star: Ben Chilwell

Key signing: Ahmed Musa (£18m from CSKA Moscow)

Formation: 4-4-2

Ranieri has already won one battle as he has repelled most of the vultures circling around his squad, losing only N'Golo Kante but the big clubs will continue to seduce Mahrez. Another factor is whether the Foxes are still as motivated now that the largest clubs have spent big to dethrone them.


LIVERPOOL

Manager: Jurgen Klopp

Last season: 8th

Key player: Philippe Coutinho

Rising star: Marko Grujic

Key signing: Sadio Mane (£30m from Southampton)

Formation: 4-2-3-1, 4-1-4-1

For a change, the Reds have not sold a key player and Klopp has a full pre-season to boost his men's fitness to execute his intensive pressing style. Liverpool have showed they can beat anyone on their day, but they can slip up against the likes of West Ham and Crystal Palace as well.


MANCHESTER CITY

Manager: Pep Guardiola

Last season: 4th

Key player: Sergio Aguero

Rising star: Kelechi Iheanacho

Key signing: John Stones (£47.5m from Everton)

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Guardiola wants his teams to play with style and his signing of Stones, Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan are men who typify his purist ideals. But this is the kick and rush world of EPL, so even the best coach in the world must adapt.


MANCHESTER UNITED

Manager: Jose Mourinho

Last season: 5th

Key player: Paul Pogba

Rising star: Marcus Rashford

Key signing: Paul Pogba (£89m from Juventus)

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Since his appointment on May 27, Mourinho has quickly built a team in his image - tough, lots of character, talented but pragmatic. The Red Devils have made great signings in Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan and are potential champions.


MIDDLESBROUGH

Manager: Aitor Karanka

Last season: 2nd in Championship (promoted automatically)

Key player: Jordan Rhodes

Rising star: Daniel Ayala

Key signing: Alvaro Negredo (on loan from Valencia)

Formation: 4-1-2-3

Karanka has picked up some great bargains in former Barcelona goalie Victor Valdes and burly hit-man Negredo to give Boro a better chance to stay up. But the Spaniard has a strained relationship with his senior players and that could spell disaster.


SOUTHAMPTON

Manager: Claude Puel

Last season: 6th

Key player: Fraser Forster

Rising star: James Ward-Prowse

Key signing: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (£12m from Bayern Munich)

Formation: 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3

The Saints continue to be organ donors to the rich but they can defy the odds again, especially as Puel is known to be a master at team-building and grooming youngsters. It will be a season of transition but Southampton should be safe.

STOKE

Manager: Mark Hughes

Last season: 9th

Key player: Ryan Shawcross

Rising star: Xherdan Shaqiri

Key signing: Joe Allen (£13m from Liverpool)

Formation: 4-2-1-3

Hughes' transformation of the Potters from direct-ball bruisers to a bruising tiki-taka team continues with the acquisition of passing-machine Allen. And the manager is unlikely to switch from an attack-minded system featuring nimble and mobile forwards.


SUNDERLAND

Manager: David Moyes

Last season: 17th

Key player: Jermain Defoe

Rising star: Wahbi Khazri

Key signing: Papy Djilobodji (£8m from Chelsea)

Formation: 4-1-3-2

Staying up was a big success but Sam Allardyce has gone on to manage England. Moyes has not thrilled the fans with his low-key signings, the thrills will come later if they beat relegation on the final day.


SWANSEA

Manager: Francesco Guidolin

Last season: 12th

Key player: Gylfi Sigurdsson

Rising star: Jordi Amat

Key signing: Fernando Llorente (Sevilla, undisclosed)

Formation: 4-2-3-1

After finishing last season strongly, the Swans had been gutted with captain Ashley Williams and key forward Andre Ayew both sold. Both players typified the club's ethos of teamwork sprinkled with some flair and without them, they look set to struggle.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

Manager: Mauricio Pochettino

Last season: 3rd

Key player: Harry Kane

Rising star: Dele Alli

Key signing: Vincent Janssen (£18.5m from AZ Alkmaar)

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Last season was a massive opportunity lost, as Spurs slipped to third after a two-horse title race. With rival clubs appointing top managers and signing world-class players, Tottenham might be crowded out of the top four this time.


WATFORD

Manager: Walter Mazzarri

Last season: 13th

Key player: Odion Ighalo

Rising star: Sean Murray

Key signing: Isaac Success (£12m from Granada)

Formation: 4-4-2

Life continues to be unpredictable at Vicarage Road. Even a decent 13th-place finish could not save Quique Sanches Flores' job and Mazzarri, the man credited for reviving Napoli, will need to do better than that with a less-stellar cast.


WEST BROMWICH ALBION

Manager: Tony Pulis

Last season: 14th

Key player: Saido Berahino

Rising star: Matt Phillips

Key signing: Matt Phillips (£5.5m from Queens Park Rangers)

Formation: 4-4-2

Rock-solid and no-nonsense under Tony Pulis, who has a proud record of never getting relegated, the Baggies' Achilles' heel is an impotent strike force that yielded just 34 goals last season, the second lowest in the league.


WEST HAM UNITED

Manager: Slaven Bilic

Last season: 7th

Key player: Dimitri Payet

Rising star: Reece Oxford

Key signing: Andre Ayew (£20m from Swansea)

Formation: 4-3-1-2

With the big move to London's Olympic Stadium, the Hammers are under pressure to deliver to keep the crowds coming. But Bilic has assembled an entertaining side starring Payet, Sofiane Feghouli and Ayew. When all else fails, there's always Andy Carroll.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 13, 2016, with the headline Your season's guide to all 20 clubs. Subscribe