Two Familiar Opponents & One Debutant – The Three Promoted Sides
The new season will begin on 14 August, 2021 with Leicester City and the other 19 teams set to find out their fixture list on Wednesday 16 June, 2021 (9am BST).
Three new teams are replacing relegated clubs Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield United. Among those are two familiar faces re-joining the top flight in Norwich City and Watford, while Brentford will be making their Premier League debut in this upcoming campaign...
Norwich City – second tier champions
Promoted as Sky Bet Championship champions, the Canaries have responded in the best possible way to their relegation a season prior.
Opting to stay with German manager Daniel Farke, now four years into the job at Carrow Road, they were able to reach a mammoth 97 points on their way to the title, winning more matches than any other second tier team in 2020/21, with 29 victories from 46 games.
Free-scoring Norwich also lost the joint-least games in the division (seven), combining the experience of several seasoned internationals with young and upcoming talents.
Able to keep hold of the likes of attacking midfielder Todd Cantwell and full-back Max Aarons - both influential throughout the campaign - they will now re-enter the Premier League with another season under their belts.
The goals of Finnish international forward Teemu Pukki, meanwhile, currently participating in UEFA EURO 2020, were also crucial, as he followed up his excellent 2019/20 with another club top goalscorer award thanks to a further 26 strikes in 42 Championship games, averaging a goal every 133 minutes.
At the back, the experience of captain and Scotland centre-back Grant Hanley and Dutch international goalkeeper Tim Krul proved vital to maintaining the promotion push, with both now taking part in UEFA EURO 2020 for their respective countries.
They will have to cope without creative midfielder Emi Buendía, however, after the Argentine, who contributed 15 goals and 16 assists across all competitions last season, made the move to Aston Villa earlier this month for a reported club record fee.
Another outgoing is full-back Philip Heise, who has joined Karlsruher SC after spending last season on loan at the German 2. Bundesliga outfit.
Norwich also waved goodbye to a number of players as part of their release list, including midfielders Mario Vrancic and Alex Tettey, as well as several youngsters. Loanees Xavi Quintillà (Villarreal CF) and Oliver Skipp (Tottenham Hotspur) returned to their parent clubs.
With some more additions to the squad before the start of the campaign possible, Farke’s men will be hoping they can go one better than their two most recent appearances and survive longer than a single season in the Premier League.
Watford – also back at the first attempt
The Hornets are also making an immediate return to the Premier League, bouncing back from suffering relegation in 2019/20.
Now led by former Spanish winger Xisco, who replaced Vladimir Ivíc in December 2020, Watford stormed to a second-place finish, six points behind the champions and four ahead of third-place Brentford.
Many exciting attacking players such as Ismalïa Sarr helped light up Vicarage Road, and the Senegalese winger led the way for goals, with 13 to his name in all competitions, as well as four assists – only Ken Sema and Philip Zinckernagel created more (five assists each).
Sarr and Sema both scored a brace in Watford’s biggest win of the season – a 6-0 triumph over Bristol City at Vicarage Road in February, and Zinckernagel was also on the scoresheet that day.
Brazilian forward João Pedro (9) and experienced marksman Troy Deeney (7) complete Watford’s top three goalscorers, while Tom Cleverley, Nathaniel Chalobah and Dan Gosling also contributed goals from midfield.
However, it was defensively where the Hertfordshire-based club really excelled last season, conceding just 30 goals across the campaign, fewer than any other side in the Championship, with former England goalkeeper Ben Foster between the sticks for the majority of 2020/21.
That solid base proved to be a winning formula and the mid-season managerial change appeared to galvanise the Hornets, who beat Norwich 1-0 just five days after Xisco’s appointment. He went on to be named Championship Manager of the Month in March after winning five consecutive games.
Watford have already made moves in the transfer market, completing the signing of 25-year-old forward Ashley Fletcher following his exit from Middlesbrough, while goalkeeper Rob Elliot has signed a new two-year deal at the club.
Earlier in June, meanwhile, central midfielder Imrân Louza also joined the Hornets from Ligue 1 side Nantes on a five-year deal. The France Under-21s international became Watford’s second signing of the summer after defender Mattie Pollock.
The 19-year-old centre-back arrived from Grimsby Town in May and is regarded as a young player with plenty of potential.
A quartet of departures were also announced by the club, including Achraf Lazaar, Carlos Sanchez, Jerome Sinclair and Mamadou M’Baye.
Brentford - Premier League debutants
Previously defeated in nine play-off campaigns, Brentford finally ended that curse, making it 10th time lucky by beating Swansea City 2-0 in the 2020/21 final at Wembley in May, to reach the Premier League for the first time in the club’s history.
A familiar story appeared to be repeating itself when Bournemouth held a 1-0 aggregate lead going into the play-off semi-final second leg, but Brentford emerged 3-1 victors at their impressive new home ground, Brentford Community Stadium, to progress into the final.
The Bees have been on an upward curve over the last decade and manager Thomas Frank finally guided the west Londoners to the promised land after missing out several times over the preceding years.
Brentford managed to cope admirably to recover from play-off final defeat to Fulham 12 months ago, despite losing the goals and creativity of Ollie Watkins (to Aston Villa) and Saïd Benrahma (to West Ham United), and were arguably unfortunate to miss out on automatic promotion for the second successive year, finishing third on 87 points.
Former Peterborough United forward Ivan Toney emerged as the leading marksman in the division plundering 31 goals on his way to winning the Championship’s Golden Boot award, setting a new league record for his impressive tally, a year on from winning the same award in League 1.
The 25-year-old also picked up a host of other awards including EFL Player of the Year at the London Football Awards, as well as joining team-mates Ethan Pinnock and Rico Henry in the PFA Championship Team of the Year.
Toney was Brentford’s second highest assist maker, setting up 10 goals in all competitions with only Bryan Mbeumo creating more (11). Winger Mbeumo netted a further eight times, two fewer than second top scorer Marcus Forss.
Midfield pair Sergi Canós (9) and Mathias Jensen (8) also boasted impressive numbers, contributing 17 assists in total across all formats, with Spaniard Canós adding nine goals.
Meanwhile, Danish full-back Henrik Dalsgaard was one of three players to depart at the end of his contract following four years at Brentford, as did Luke Daniels and Emiliano Marcondes – who scored the second goal in the play-off final.
Centre-back Winston Reid returned to West Ham United following the conclusion of his loan spell with the Bees.
Brentford will be hoping to call upon the experience of players such as Sweden defender Pontus Jansson, but for many of their current squad, including Jansson himself, this will be their first foray into English top flight football.