Winners and Losers of Premier League Preseason 2026-27
Predicting the 2026-27 Premier League season is a fool’s game. The sport’s pull lies in its chaos, its refusal to obey logic. Arsenal snatched the title from Manchester City last season, Tottenham flirted with relegation, and now nine clubs have changed managers, including City and Spurs. Any attempt to lean on last year’s table already feels out of date.
So attention drifts, as it always does in July and August, to preseason. Those scattered friendlies from the U.S. to Asia, from Austria to Australia. They mislead as often as they illuminate — Andreas Pereira didn’t get dubbed the “Preseason Pirlo” for nothing — but they do offer hints. Who looks sharp. Who looks lost. Who might explode. Who might break.
This summer’s winners and losers are already emerging.
WINNERS
Wonderkids Dowman, Ngumoha, Madjo
Preseason thrives on promise. It feeds on teenagers.
Max Dowman has become the latest obsession. The Arsenal winger, who somehow ended up on the PFA Young Player of the Season shortlist despite starting just one Premier League game, has backed up the hype again. He is 16, fresh out of school exams, and already carrying a weight of expectation that would crush older players.
Against Girona earlier this month, he sparkled. A goal, an assist, and the kind of direct, fearless running that instantly wakes up a sleepy friendly. It was a reminder of last summer, when he dazzled against AC Milan and Newcastle United in Asia, only to see his minutes evaporate once the real stuff began. That remains the question: is this the year he breaks through, or another chapter in the cult of the preseason prodigy?
Liverpool’s Rio Ngumoha is chasing the same dream. The 17-year-old winger ended last season with fans practically begging to see more of him. They’ve got their wish, at least for now. He has started three of Liverpool’s four preseason games, helped by Cody Gakpo’s late return from the World Cup.
Ngumoha has not wasted the opportunity. He scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Wrexham on the club’s U.S. tour and has looked at ease in senior company. Whether that translates into Premier League starts once everyone is back is another matter, but he has shoved his name higher up Andoni Iraola’s list.
Then there is Brian Madjo at Aston Villa, who has gone beyond cameos and into full-blown breakout territory. Signed from Metz for £10 million on his 17th birthday in January, he spent months in limbo, unable to play for Villa at any level because of FIFA rules restricting international transfers of under-18s. This summer, that changed. Villa appealed, won, and unleashed him.
He has responded with goals. Two against Walsall. One against Real Sociedad. Another versus an Indonesia league All Stars side. Four in preseason before Villa even reached the UEFA Super Cup in Salzburg. There, against PSG, he scored again in a 2-1 defeat and might easily have had more.
Context matters: Ollie Watkins has been on an extended break after the World Cup, so Madjo has had room to breathe. But he has kicked the door open. Unai Emery can now pick him in the Premier League. After this summer, it will be hard to ignore him.
Nottingham Forest’s Igor Jesus finds his touch
Igor Jesus never disappeared last season; he just never truly erupted. Across four different managers — Nuno Espírito Santo, Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche and Vítor Pereira — the Brazilian kept his place in the Nottingham Forest side. He worked, he pressed, he linked. He scored just six times in 37 league games.
The shift came late. Four of those goals arrived in the final eight matches of the campaign, a flicker of what Forest thought they were buying. That flicker has turned into a proper flame this summer.
Jesus has scored in four straight preseason games, including in a 2-1 defeat to Sporting CP. The opposition will harden, the intensity will rise, but the pattern matters. Strikers live on rhythm and repetition, and he is finally playing like a man who expects to score, not just hopes to.
Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo keeps flying
While some World Cup veterans eased their way back, Antoine Semenyo did the opposite. The Ghana forward played in all four of his country’s games before their exit to Colombia in the round of 32, then returned to Manchester City and simply carried on.
Across City’s four preseason friendlies, he assisted five of their six goals. Inter Milan, K-League All-Stars, Atlético Madrid — different opponents, same outcome. He created.
Semenyo was already one of last season’s success stories, scoring 17 goals in 37 Premier League appearances split between Bournemouth and City and adding four assists. Now he looks like a fully integrated part of City’s attack, not a fringe option. For Enzo Maresca, who needs someone to carry some of the creative burden while key players build fitness, Semenyo has become indispensable.
Xabi Alonso settles in at Chelsea
Some new managers arrive late, inherit chaos and spend the first month just learning names. Xabi Alonso has had a different start at Chelsea.
Appointed in May and officially beginning work on July 9, he has enjoyed something rare: time. Time to assess. Time to drill. Time with senior players who have not been flogged deep into the summer.
While rivals scramble to reintegrate their World Cup stars, Alonso has been working with João Pedro, Cole Palmer and Estêvão almost from day one. Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana, Jorrel Hato and Robert Sánchez have all been available, giving him a proper core to build around.
Pedro has led the way. Five goals in preseason, including a hat trick against Western Sydney Wanderers and a brace versus AC Milan, have underlined his importance to Chelsea’s new era.
It has not all been smooth. A 2-1 defeat to Tottenham in Sydney and a 1-0 loss to Juventus in Hong Kong were reminders that this is still a team in transition, still vulnerable. But Alonso walks into the Premier League with a clear picture of his squad. That alone puts him ahead of the curve.
LOSERS
Liverpool’s patched-up back line
Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool will be fast, aggressive and front-footed. That is the plan. The problem, right now, is what sits behind all that energy.
The defensive picture is messy. First-choice right-back Conor Bradley has yet to return from a knee injury. Joe Gomez picked up a muscle problem in preseason. Jérémy Jacquet, the €60 million summer signing, has not played since coming back from a long-term shoulder issue.
The club has moved to ease the strain by bringing in Ronald Araújo from Barcelona on a season-long loan. His presence will help. But the anchor of the back line remains Virgil van Dijk, now 35, who played an astonishing 6,051 minutes for club and country last season, including the World Cup. He started all 68 of those games. At some point, the question stops being “can he?” and becomes “for how much longer?”
For Iraola, the early weeks of the season may be defined as much by who is missing at the back as by the attacking patterns he is trying to install.
Preseason’s cruel injury list
Every summer, the same argument: is preseason worth the risk? For some players, this year, the answer feels brutally clear.
Junior Kroupi might be the unluckiest of the lot. The Bournemouth striker broke out last season and was being linked with a big-money move to Europe’s elite. Instead of a transfer saga, he got surgery. A foot injury on a preseason tour in Austria has ruled the 20-year-old out for up to four months. His second Premier League season may not properly start until January.
Aston Villa have their own problems. Midfielder Amadou Onana suffered a ruptured ACL in July, a major blow for both player and club. John McGinn gave them a scare when he landed awkwardly on his knee in a friendly; scans brought relief, and he is expected to be fit for the start of the season. New signing Johan Manzambi is also sidelined with a knee injury picked up at the World Cup with Switzerland and could miss the opening weeks.
Not every scare ends in disaster. Newcastle’s Anthony Elanga was stretchered off after a horror tackle from Valencia defender José Gayà, who was immediately sent off. It looked awful. It turned out to be a bruised shin. Elanga should be available for Newcastle’s Premier League opener. But the images, and the collective intake of breath, told their own story about the risks of these “meaningless” games.
Enzo Maresca’s disrupted City start
Enzo Maresca knew the scale of the job when he accepted it. Replacing Pep Guardiola at Manchester City is as daunting as it gets. What he could not control was the calendar.
City’s squad was stretched deep into the World Cup, with stars such as Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku, Rodri, Marc Guéhi, Nico O’Reilly and new signing Elliot Anderson all making long runs in the tournament. Collectively, City players racked up just under 5,000 minutes there.
The result? Many of Maresca’s key men only reported back this week. Their first taste of anything resembling competitive football under him will be the Community Shield against Arsenal.
To his credit, Maresca still managed to win two of City’s three preseason games. The lack of time with his full-strength XI is nobody’s fault. But for a coach trying to imprint new ideas on a squad that has known only Guardiola’s voice for years, every lost session matters. The margin for error at City is tiny. He starts with a handicap.
Jack Grealish and James Maddison still chasing fitness
In a different timeline, Jack Grealish and James Maddison would be returning to their clubs as England heroes, basking in the glow of a deep World Cup run. Instead, both watched the tournament from the treatment room and are still fighting their way back.
Grealish missed the final four months of last season with a foot injury, which led to his loan at Everton being cut short. He returned to training last month, but Manchester City left him out of their preseason tour of Asia so he could continue working on his fitness in Manchester.
His future remains unresolved. As of July 29, no decision had been made on where he will play this season. His contract at the Etihad runs until 2027, yet he feels caught between eras — no longer central, not yet gone, and still not fully fit.
Maddison’s road has been even longer. An ACL injury wiped out almost his entire campaign last year. A minor hip issue has now robbed him of any preseason minutes. For a player who relies so heavily on rhythm, sharpness and timing, that is a worrying place to be on the eve of a new season.
Preseason is not destiny. It lies, it flatters, it misleads. But it also reveals. Youngsters staking claims. Established stars stuck in limbo. Managers racing the clock. In a league that defies prediction, these are the early fault lines. The only real question now is who turns summer form into something that actually lasts beyond the opening whistle in August.
