Football championships of England and Spain start

Two of the strongest European football championships start today. The main intrigue in both, most likely, is connected with the struggle for the gold of two clubs that stand out too much against the general background: in England – Manchester City and Arsenal, in Spain – Barcelona and Real Madrid. And it adds pepper to the fact that all participants in the “golden race” in the offseason have undergone changes – either minor or major.

English Championship

In the previous season, Manchester City finally made a breakthrough, which was very long and very dramatic, winning the Champions League for the first time. In the current one, another achievement is at stake for him, in a sense no less noticeable. The English football championship has always been an extremely competitive competition, and the appearance of dominant clubs in it is a rare phenomenon. The Football League, that is, in fact, a full-fledged professional championship of the country, was born in 1888, and none of its participants over the past 135 years has managed to issue a series of four consecutive victories in the tournament. A series of three at different times were at Huddersfield, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United. Last spring, Manchester City joined the company. Consequently, next spring he can turn into a sole record holder.

To understand how the English football community assesses the possibility of such a transformation, it was enough to carefully study the poll that appeared before the start of the championship in the BBC about expectations from the upcoming season, which was attended by a solid group of experts, once famous players. The range of opinions about what Chelsea and Liverpool with Tottenham, who failed in the last championship and seemed to have made efforts to overcome the crisis, expressed, in particular, in inviting new coaches and new interesting players, are capable of whether Manchester United, who took the bronze, can add to the fortress was colossal. But what these experts, with their experience and time-tested instincts, absolutely agreed on was the fact that the “golden race” will certainly again come down to the rivalry of just two teams, Manchester City and Arsenal. None of the 26 analysts named anyone else as the future champion.

In the last championship, this race turned out to be exciting. Arsenal led it for 248 days, but in the end, Manchester City still took their toll. And there seems to be a great temptation to assume that this time the London club is ready to resist the Manchester club even more stubbornly. After all, Arsenal’s signings – Kai Havertz, Declan Rice, Jurrien Timber – look terribly curious and fit perfectly into the idea of ​​​​ideal football, which honors versatile and varied, coach Mikel Arteta. And the Londoners just defeated Manchester City in the Community Shield match – well, yes, in a penalty shootout, miraculously getting out in regular time, but still a rather painful and toothy grin of the hegemon’s competitor. But no, these factors did not make any impression on the survey participants, and almost all – 25 out of 26 – preferred the Manchesters. The one exception was former England international Ellen White, who believed in Arsenal despite playing for Manchester City herself.

But her much more famous colleagues – Mika Richards, Danny Murphy, Marin Keown, Chris Sutton, Shay Given, Chris Waddle, Pat Nevin – did not hesitate to bet on Manchester, explaining the forecast with similar arguments. The composition of Manchester City, no matter how amusing the purchases of Arsenal may seem, is still deeper. Erling Haaland, “silent” in the Super Bowl, is still a sniper of divine talent. Mateo Kovacic and Joshko Guardiol, who moved to the club as part of the summer transfer campaign, in theory, will add reliability in ball control and in the rear – reference point gains for an already functioning mechanism without failures. And the Manchester mentor Pep Guardiola has so much wisdom and knowledge that he will definitely have answers to all the attempts of Mikel Arteta.

Spanish Championship

The most delicious component of the Spanish championship is, in theory, also a confrontation between two giants, in which, however, it is harder to determine the favorite. There are questions for both – both Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​which convincingly defeated him in the championship that ended in the spring.

The Catalans have struggled to meet financial regulations and are entering the season with a sparse listing. But if they dissolve safely, then in any case, there will be some nuances that make Barcelona doubt. Suppose she has to get used to playing without veterans Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, who went to the United States to Lionel Messi, as well as Ousmane Dembele, who is leaving for PSG, characters important for maintaining style, but with Ilkay Gundogan, who was lured from Manchester City. And coach Xavi must, apparently, figure out how he and Pedri will share duties in the middle of the field.

However, the restructuring of Real Madrid is even more interesting. For the first time in nearly a decade and a half, he will not be ahead of Karim Benzema, who flew to Saudi Arabia. Moreover, judging by the friendly matches, the Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti decided that since Benzema is gone, then, in principle, God bless him, with the classic center forward, transforming the almost unshakable 4-3-3 scheme into 4-4-2, into which how to build in the 100 millionth Jude Bellingham, Real’s main newcomer this offseason. Plus, Madrid seem to have lost the goalkeeper for a long time: on Thursday, the club reported that Thibaut Courtois had torn his cruciate ligaments in training and would undergo surgery. And his significance for Real Madrid was no less than Benzema.

For those who want to complicate the Spanish alignment a little more, it is advisable to pay attention to Atlético. Last season, he was only a point behind Real Madrid. And this despite the fact that at some point the second Madrid club found itself in a real hole, and the dismissal of Diego Simeone from the coaching post seemed to be a matter of a couple of weeks. However, when Atletico got out of the hole, he played no worse than not only Real Madrid, but also Barcelona. According to the results of a single second half of the championship, the Madrid club, which got rid of problems and accelerated, was five points ahead of it, and the summer, by the way, did not weaken it at all.

Alexey Dospekhov