The Premier League in 2023: Global, local, looming, booming, threatened… and back

The Premier League is back. Over a four-day weekend, the world’s most-watched league, the richest on Planet Football, returned with its mix of skill, goals, controversy, competitiveness and hype. It started at Burnley on Friday night and ended at Old Trafford last night. Ten games featuring 28 goals, 42 bookings, one red card and 302 players, were bookended by victories for Manchester’s giants, City and United.

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The Athletic has spent those four days roving from Burnley to Everton to Chelsea to Manchester United to soak up the sights and sounds of the first weekend. It was as it is — colourful, noisy and intense. It was fresh, it was traditional.

And sold out. There may be new rivals in Saudi Arabia, there may be growing interest in MLS football in the United States, but a new Premier League office was opened in New York this summer, to add to the one in Singapore, and this weekend these matches were broadcast to 189 different countries. The national and international fascination with England’s Premier League is not stopping.

Five o’clock, Friday evening, platform 6 of Manchester Victoria station: gathered early for their 50-minute shuttle north to Burnley, Manchester City fans are already in good voice. As the old train jolts its way through the Lancashire countryside, a long-time City anthem is belted out: “We’re not really here.”

But, of course, they are. Everybody’s here, everybody’s happy, the Premier League is back and no one has lost, no goalkeeper has looked forlorn, no manager has moaned.

What’s new? Some rules, some faces — Luton Town — and as City’s supporters are delighted to reveal, some songs. What’s new is that when City visit each ground in the league, they do so as champions of Europe, possibly