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The World Cup fever is well and truly over and all football fans over the world are switching their attention towards the 2018-2019 season of the English Premier League.
The highly anticipated Premier League is finally here as Jose Mourinho's Manchester United side picked up the first three points of the campaign with a narrow 2-1 victory against a spirited Leicester team.
Most teams have heavily invested in their squads in a bid to improve upon their last season's performances where Manchester City dominated the division. The Citizens themselves have added 2016 PFA player of the year in Riyad Mahrez, in their quest to continue the domination of the Premier League under Spanish coach, Pep Guardiola.
Arsenal welcome reigning champions Manchester City to the Emirates on Sunday, 12th August and this definitely is the most high profile match of the weekend. It will be a Premier League debut for new Arsenal manager Unai Emery as he looks to begin his career on a decent note.
Here we look at 6 summer signings that are highly anticipated by the fans:
#6 Max Meyer (Crystal Palace)
Max Meyer emerged as an exciting young talent at German side Schalke 04 as he made his senior debut at the age of 18, straightaway making an impact on proceedings with an assist.
The German youngster was scouted by top European clubs and had been linked to several top European sides since leaving his parent club at the end of last season after his contract expiry. Since making his debut, he has gone on to become one of the key figures for the German club, having already amassed 192 senior appearances.
After months of speculation, the German International finally signed for Crystal Palace on a free transfer. The Eagles were extremely lucky to have captured the services of a highly rated midfielder without paying a single penny.
Despite starting his career as an attacking midfielder, Meyer has switched to a more deeper role in recent seasons; a move that has allowed him to affect matches both with and without the ball.
Meyer will bring a degree of calmness to the Palace midfield, injecting the much-needed speed of thought that could help them in creating more goal scoring opportunities for the likes of Christian Benteke.
#5 Fred (Manchester United)
Manchester United have had a pretty quiet summer with only three signings to their name. One of them is Brazilian World cup squad member: Fred. The Brazilian joined the Red Devils in a £ 52.5 Million deal from Ukranian side Shakhtar Donetsk as Jose Mourinho looked to add more steel at the middle of the park.
Fred had an impressive outing last season for the Ukraine giants, pulling strings from deep as he racked up 37 appearances, scoring 7 and notching up 7 assists. With a decent passing accuracy of 85.9%, Shakhtar were crowned as the Ukrainian Champions for the third consecutive season.
The Brazilian also had an impressive outing in the Champions League, most notably against Manchester City, helping them to progress to the round of 16 where they narrowly lost to eventual semifinalists AS Roma on the away goal rule.
Fred's exploits for Shakhtar Donetsk earned him a place in Tite's Brazil 23-man World Cup squad, exiting the competition in the quarter-final stage without having played a single minute.
Fred is a technically gifted midfielder who can play both as a destroyer as well as a playmaker with an excellent passing range. The Brazilian will add a lot to Manchester United midfield engine and will look to follow into the footsteps of Fernandinho and Willian who have taken the Premier League by storm after joining from Shakhtar Donetsk.
#4 Naby Keita (Liverpool)
Liverpool agreed in principle to sign Guinea midfielder Naby Keita in August 2017 from German side RB Leipzig for a fee believed to be around £48 Million after his impressive performances in the Bundesliga.
The Guinean box to box midfielder had an impressive 2017/18 campaign, averaging 81.8% passing accuracy with 2.6 interceptions per game. Along with this, the Gunian international scored 8 times and assisted another 7 from midfield.
Keita will add more depth to this exciting Liverpool side by dictating the tempo of the game from deep. His amazing distribution and passing accuracy will suit Liverpool's pacy counter-attacks as he has got the ability to be able to spot the runs of Mo Salah and Sadio Mane.
If the hype is anything to go with, then the former Leipzig man could well be a contender for the PFA player of the year, cometh the end of the season.
#3 Jorginho (Chelsea)
Chelsea pipped Manchester City to the signing of Jorginho in a £57 Million deal from Italian side Napoli. The Italian joined the London side, as he got a chance to reunite with his former Napoli manager, Maurizio Sarri. Tipped by most to make a move to the Etihad, the Italian playmaker was, in the end, attracted to the brighter lights of London.
The Brazilian born midfielder was instrumental in Napoli's push for Scudetto last season as the Partenopei almost managed to break Juventus' dominance but just fell short in their quest as Maurizio Sarri's men finished second, four points behind the Old Lady.
Jorginho commanded the midfield for Napoli, averaging an impressive 89% passing accuracy and completing an astonishing 2860 passes in Serie A last season; the most of any player within the top 5 European leagues. He also managed to chip in with 2 goals and 4 assists from deep midfield.
The Italian will be key to Maurizio Sarri's implementation of his playing style- the 'Sarri Ball' at Chelsea and his adaptation will determine Chelsea's successes this season.
#2 Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)
Riyad Mahrez joined Manchester City in a £60 Million record deal, becoming City's most expensive acquisition ever. In the process, he also became the most expensive African in the Premier League. The Algerian finally links up with Pep Guardiola after a failed move to the Etihad during the winter transfer window.
The Algerian has been a revelation since joining Leicester City in 2013 from French Ligue 2 side Le Havre. In his time with the Foxes, he has helped Leicester earn Premier League promotion and two years later starred in an amazing title win, contributing an astonishing 17 goals and 11 assists.
Mahrez reached double figures for both goals and assists last season for a rejuvenated Leicester side under the stewardship of Claude Puel scoring 12 and laying on another 10 for his teammates.
He has defied all odds to shine in his career and clearly won't be fazed by the hefty price tag that Manchester City paid for his services. It will be interesting to see how the Algerian blends in with Guardiola's playing style.
#1 Alisson Becker (Liverpool)
Another summer, another signing from Roma; last year it was Mohamed Salah, this year it is Alisson Becker. The Reds splashed out a whopping £67 Million to acquire the services of Brazilian goalkeeper from Rome. Liverpool fans will hope that the goalkeeper follows in the footsteps of Mo Salah and help the team mount a serious Premier League challenge.
The Brazilian goalkeeper was impressive last season as AS Roma mounted a surprise Champions League challenge only to be knocked out in the Semi-Finals by a fierce Liverpool side.
Alisson was impressive between the sticks for the capital side, keeping 17 clean sheets in the league thereby conceding only 27 goals in the process. Alisson made 97 saves and had 83% distribution accuracy, thus perfectly fitting into the Jurgen Klopp philosophy of playing out from the defence.
The Brazilian was the number 1 during the world cup, showing how highly he was rated. The goalkeeper has shown his pedigree both at club level as well as in the international arena and his signing could prove to be a great coup for Liverpool this season.
