Premier League Preseason Winners and Losers: Who Shines and Who Struggles?

The Premier League never stands still. It lurches, twists and tears up every script you try to write for it. Last season Arsenal finally edged out Manchester City, Tottenham flirted with disaster at the wrong end of the table, and now nine clubs have changed managers. Good luck predicting what comes next.

Preseason is the closest thing anyone gets to a clue. It lies, often. It flatters. It misleads. But it also reveals who is sharp, who is struggling and which stories might define 2026-27.

This summer has already thrown up its winners and losers.

WINNERS

Wonderkids light up the warm-up

Preseason exists, in part, to launch the next obsession. This year, the kids have delivered.

Max Dowman is 16, fresh out of school exams and already on a PFA Young Player of the Season shortlist after just one Premier League start for Arsenal. The hype felt premature. His football is starting to catch up.

Against Girona in a 4-1 win earlier this month, the winger finally looked like the player the noise promised: one goal, one assist, a constant menace. It was the kind of performance that makes supporters start rewriting their depth charts in their heads. Yet Arsenal fans have been here before. Dowman dazzled on last summer’s tour in Asia against AC Milan and Newcastle United, then barely saw the pitch when it mattered. His talent is obvious; his minutes still aren’t guaranteed.

At Liverpool, Rio Ngumoha is pushing the door as well. The 17-year-old ended last season with fans pleading to see more of him. Andoni Iraola has listened, at least for now. Ngumoha has started three of Liverpool’s four preseason games, helped by Cody Gakpo’s delayed return from World Cup duty, and he has used the stage well. His sharpest moment came in the United States, where he scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Wrexham, a neat finish that underlined his composure.

Then there is Brian Madjo at Aston Villa, who has turned preseason into his personal highlight reel. Signed from Metz for £10 million on his 17th birthday in January, he spent months unable to play a competitive minute for Villa because of FIFA rules on international transfers of under-18s. That restriction is gone after a successful appeal, and so is any sense of hesitation.

Madjo has four goals in preseason: a brace against Walsall, then strikes against Real Sociedad and an Indonesia league All Stars side. The real statement came in Salzburg in the UEFA Super Cup, where he scored Villa’s only goal in a 2-1 defeat to PSG and looked capable of more. All this while Ollie Watkins has been on an extended post-World Cup break. Unai Emery can now throw Madjo into the Premier League if he chooses. The teenager has made that decision harder to resist.

Igor Jesus finds his range

Nottingham Forest leaned heavily on Igor Jesus last season. Managers came and went — Nuno Espírito Santo, Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche, Vítor Pereira — but the Brazilian striker stayed in the XI.

Six goals in 37 Premier League appearances was a modest return, yet the finish hinted at something better. Four of those goals arrived in the final eight league games. The momentum has carried into the summer.

Jesus has scored in four consecutive preseason matches, including in a 2-1 defeat to Sporting CP. For a player whose work rate and movement have never been in doubt, the added edge in front of goal is exactly what Forest needed to see. If this version of Jesus shows up in August, Forest’s season looks very different.

Antoine Semenyo keeps City ticking

Most players come back from a World Cup needing a breather. Antoine Semenyo came back and went straight to work.

The Ghana forward played in all four of his country’s matches before their round-of-32 exit to Colombia. He then returned to Manchester City and simply carried on creating chances. Across City’s four preseason friendlies, Semenyo assisted five of their six goals, spreading them across games against Inter Milan (1-1), K-League All-Stars (3-1) and Atlético Madrid (3-1).

He was already one of last season’s standout stories, scoring 17 Premier League goals across spells with Bournemouth and City and adding four assists. Now he looks even more embedded in City’s attack. With a new manager arriving and key players late back from the World Cup, Semenyo’s sharpness has been a gift City badly needed.

Xabi Alonso’s head start at Chelsea

Most new managers arrive at chaos. Xabi Alonso has walked into Chelsea with something rare: time and bodies on the training pitch.

Appointed in May and officially starting on July 9, the Spaniard has enjoyed a longer runway than most of his peers. While rivals scramble to reintegrate World Cup-weary stars, Alonso has been working with a strong core of senior players. João Pedro, Cole Palmer and Estêvão have all featured prominently. Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana, Jorrel Hato and Robert Sánchez have also been available.

The results have been mixed, but some performances have been emphatic. Pedro has been the standout, scoring five goals in preseason, including a hat trick against Western Sydney Wanderers and a brace versus AC Milan. Those are the kind of numbers that settle any early doubts about his role.

Chelsea’s vulnerabilities have not disappeared. A 2-1 defeat to Tottenham in Sydney and a 1-0 loss to Juventus in Hong Kong showed there is work to do. Yet Alonso, unlike many of his counterparts, has had the time and continuity to start building something coherent. That already feels like an advantage.

LOSERS

Liverpool’s defence on thin ice

If Iraola wanted a gentle introduction to life at Liverpool, he has not received it. His back line is a puzzle with several missing pieces.

First-choice right-back Conor Bradley is still sidelined with a knee injury. Joe Gomez has joined him on the treatment table after picking up a muscle problem in preseason. Jérémy Jacquet, the €60 million signing meant to bolster the defence, has yet to play after a long-term shoulder injury.

The club have moved to ease the pressure by bringing in Ronald Araújo on loan from Barcelona, but the anchor remains Virgil van Dijk. The problem is the mileage. Van Dijk is 35 and coming off a season in which he started all 68 games for club and country, including the World Cup, amassing 6,051 minutes. That workload would be punishing for a player five years younger.

Liverpool need him to be the same unshakeable presence again. The early signs from preseason suggest they might be asking for too much.

When preseason bites back

Every summer, managers talk about fitness, rhythm and tactical work. Then a key player goes down in a friendly and the mood changes instantly.

Few have been hit harder than Bournemouth’s Junior Kroupi. The 20-year-old striker broke out last season and drew admiring glances from some of Europe’s biggest clubs. A big move felt close. Now it is on hold.

Kroupi suffered a foot injury during Bournemouth’s tour of Austria and has already undergone surgery. He faces up to four months out, which likely pushes his return to around January. For a young forward riding a surge of momentum, the timing could hardly be worse.

Aston Villa have their own injury crisis to manage, particularly around the knee. Midfielder Amadou Onana ruptured his ACL in July and faces a long rehabilitation. John McGinn gave Villa a scare when he landed awkwardly on his knee in a friendly, though he is expected to be fit for the start of the season. New signing Johan Manzambi, injured while playing for Switzerland at the World Cup, is also nursing a knee problem and could miss the opening stretch.

Not every scare has ended badly. Newcastle’s Anthony Elanga was stretchered off after a brutal tackle from Valencia defender José Gayà, who was sent off. The images looked grim. The diagnosis was kinder: a bruised shin and a clear path to be ready for Newcastle’s Premier League opener. Preseason can take, but sometimes it gives a reprieve.

Enzo Maresca’s awkward beginning

Replacing Pep Guardiola at Manchester City is not a job; it is a burden with a whistle attached. Enzo Maresca steps into that role knowing he needs his stars from day one. He has barely seen them.

City players racked up just under 5,000 minutes at the World Cup. Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku, Rodri, Marc Guéhi, Nico O’Reilly and new signing Elliot Anderson all went deep into the tournament. Many of them only reported back this week. Their first serious run-out will be the Community Shield against Arsenal.

Maresca has still managed to win two of City’s three preseason games, a reminder of the squad’s depth and the club’s ingrained habits. Yet the reality is clear: his tactical ideas have not yet been stress-tested with the full-strength XI. For a manager following Guardiola, every dropped point will be examined through that lens. The margin for error is thin, and his preparation time with the key men has been thinner.

Grealish and Maddison chase lost fitness

In another timeline, Jack Grealish and James Maddison are returning from a triumphant World Cup with England, easing back into club duty after a summer of glory. Instead, both have spent the past year fighting their own bodies.

Grealish missed the final four months of last season with a foot injury, a setback serious enough that his loan from Manchester City to Everton was cut short. He returned to training last month but did not travel on City’s preseason tour of Asia, staying in Manchester to work on his conditioning. His future remains unresolved. As of July 29, no decision has been made on where he will play next season, though he is under contract at the Etihad Stadium until 2027.

Maddison’s road has been even longer. An ACL injury wiped out almost his entire campaign last season. A minor hip issue has now denied him any preseason minutes so far. For a player whose game relies on sharp turns, quick feet and rhythm on the ball, that absence matters.

Both are too talented to be written off. Yet as the new season looms, they are watching others seize the spotlight in friendlies they cannot play. The Premier League does not wait for anyone. The question is whether, once the real games begin, they can catch it again.