BBC pundit Danny Murphy expects this season’s title race to be a repeat of last campaign’s head-to-head tussle between Manchester City and Liverpool.

Clubs like Tottenham and Arsenal have been recruiting well, while Chelsea and Manchester United will also hope to be in the mix, but Murphy can’t see there being much of a change at the top of the table:

“I think it’s going to be a little deja vu. I think we’re going to see them go toe-to-toe, I think we’re going to see more tremendous football, more on the front foot, creative, attacking football that we love to see these two teams play. I would think that people would automatically assume that City are now better because of (Erling) Haaland. I think he does give them more firepower and more options, but it also changes the dynamic of how they play and how they have been used to playing.”

“I think Liverpool will probably need a little bit of time to find the right way to play for (Darwin) Nunez because he is a young guy and he is adapting to a new league and he hasn’t quite got the goal record that Haaland has got, so there is a few more question marks over him maybe but I don’t see it affecting the end game, which is points and wins because of Liverpool’s confidence, the strength and depth they have got now, especially defensively which was a problem, of course, two seasons ago. I think it will be tight again.”

As Murphy mentions, both City and Liverpool have made significant changes in personnel so the season could well be defined by which teams’ player recruitment proves to be more successful.

Haaland is undoubtedly more proven at the highest level than Nunez so you would expect the Norwegian to score more goals, but both players will change the dynamics of their respective teams.

It is just as much about their teammates adapting to them as it will be about their ability to hit the ground running at their new clubs.