EPL: Liverpool, Man City Begin New Era Without Salah, Guardiola
Liverpool and Manchester City face a new chapter in their Premier League history as the 2026/27 season gets underway without two of the figures who played defining roles in their recent success, Mohamed Salah and Pep Guardiola.
For the first time since 2016, Liverpool will begin a Premier League campaign without Salah, who brought his remarkable Anfield career to an end earlier this month by joining Turkish club Trabzonspor.
Manchester City, meanwhile, will have to navigate life after Guardiola, who stepped down at the end of last season after a highly successful decade in charge of the club.
City will host Bournemouth on Sunday in Enzo Maresca’s first Premier League match as Guardiola’s successor, while Liverpool travel to Newcastle later in the day with new manager Andoni Iraola preparing to lead the Reds into the post Salah era.
The departures come after contrasting final seasons for both men. Guardiola won six Premier League titles and Manchester City’s first Champions League trophy, among 20 major honours during his reign.
Although City won the FA Cup and League Cup in Guardiola’s final season, they surrendered their Premier League crown to Arsenal, who finished seven points ahead of them.
Guardiola had previously acknowledged the difficulty of maintaining the energy required to oversee another rebuilding process, particularly after the departures of several long serving players, including Kevin De Bruyne, Ederson and Kyle Walker.
The departure of former director of football Txiki Begiristain in 2025 also affected Guardiola, who admitted that his exit felt like “a part of me is leaving”.
Maresca now faces the difficult task of maintaining City’s high standards. Although he knows the club well from his time as Guardiola’s assistant during their treble winning 2022/23 campaign, his managerial experience remains limited compared with his predecessor.
At Liverpool, the challenge is equally significant following Salah’s departure. The Egyptian forward joined the club from Roma for £36m in 2017 and went on to establish himself as one of the greatest players in Liverpool’s history.
Salah scored 257 goals in 442 appearances for Liverpool in all competitions, ranking third on the club’s all time goalscoring list. He also helped the Reds win two Premier League titles, the Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup.
His final season at Anfield, however, was overshadowed by tensions with then manager Arne Slot. Salah was dropped on several occasions and publicly expressed his frustration with the club before Slot was eventually dismissed after Liverpool finished fifth.
Replacing a player of Salah’s calibre will be a major challenge for Iraola, who will look to Alexander Isak, Victor Munoz and teenage winger Rio Ngumoha to help fill the attacking void.
As both clubs begin the new campaign, the pressure will be on their new managers and squads to prove that Liverpool and Manchester City can remain competitive even after the departure of two era defining figures.