With the new Premier League season days away, we look at each club competing in the 2016/17 campaign.
Manchester City
Having appointed in Pep Guardiola a head coach with 21 trophies across the past eight seasons, Manchester City head into 2016/17 as one of the favourites for the Premier League title.
Highest finishing position
City have been crowned champions on two occasions, in 2011/12 and 2013/14.
They have been relegated from the PL twice, but the coming season will be their 15th consecutive campaign at the highest level.
Signings
Seven summer signings have joined the Guardiola revolution, all of whom play in midfield or more forward.
Ilkay Gundogan, Nolito and Oleksandr Zinchenko were the first to come in, before promising winger Leroy Sane joined from Schalke this month.
Gabriel Jesus quickly followed but the 19-year-old will not link up with City until January, while Aaron Mooy, from Melbourne City, and Marlos Moreno, from Atletico Nacional, have been loaned to Huddersfield Town and Deportivo La Coruna respectively.
Expected formation
Guardiola has used an array of different formations during his time as a coach, tinkering his tactics dependent on personnel.
The Spaniard used a 4-2-3-1 in pre-season against Bayern Munich, and an experimental back three with Gael Clichy and Jesus Navas providing the width in the draw with Borussia Dortmund, while a makeshift back four, featuring Alexsandar Kolarov as centre-back, was deployed against Arsenal on Sunday, in a 4-3-3.
Indeed, having added wide attacking options over the summer, a 4-3-3 could well feature in the coming PL season.
"I have an idea of how we will play, but when I arrived in Germany with Bayern Munich, I had some ideas of how the team would play but changed them as I went along," Guardiola told mancity.com last month.
Managers
The new campaign will be Guardiola’s first in the Premier League. At his first club, Barcelona, he departed with 14 trophies in four seasons, a record backed up by Bayern in a spell that reaped seven more pieces of silverware in three years.
Guardiola replaces Manuel Pellegrini, who departs the Etihad Stadium with a PL record of 114 matches, 70 wins, 21 draws and 23 losses.
Roberto Mancini won City's first Premier League title, while before him were Mark Hughes, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Stuart Pearce, Kevin Keegan, Joe Royle, Peter Reid, Brian Horton and Joe Royle.
Last season
City won their first five matches of 2015/16 without conceding a goal and led the standings up until Matchweek 7.
Vincent Kompany was integral to their fast start but the captain suffered injury and only managed 14 league matches as the Citizens slipped out of the title race, albeit finishing in the top four for the sixth consecutive season.
Pre-season form
City have only had two matches to adopt their new coach’s tactics due to the postponement of their Manchester derby fixture in Beijing.
They lost 1-0 to Bayern in their first outing before registering the first win of the Guardiola era against Dortmund, triumphing 6-5 in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw.
They suffered their second defeat of pre-season, going down 3-2 to Arsenal in Gothenburg on Sunday, with Sergio Aguero scoring for the second match in succession and Kelechi Iheanacho finding the net.
Significant injuries
Guardiola has introduced a strict regime since arriving in a bid to cure City’s injury woes.
They endured a long list of absentees last season but will need to be fighting fit in 2016/17 to embrace Guardiola’s intense pressing style.
In terms of injuries, Kompany is set to miss the start of the season with the groin issue which also kept him out of UEFA Euro 2016.
He joins Gundogan on the sidelines, the German still recovering from a dislocated kneecap expected to keep him out until September.
What the manager says
“I have no preconceptions at all about coming to England or the football in the Premier League. I want to learn as much as possible.
“I know how hard the Premier League is and some people have said that I will find it hard to play the football I like to play in England so I said to myself, ‘Why not?’ That’s why I’m here - because I want to try.' "
Did you know?
When Kompany was in the team last season, Manchester City kept nine clean sheets in 14 PL matches.
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