THE Premier League has no intention of starting this season subtly. Not content with a new, earlier closing of the transfer window, another high-profile Friday night opener and six games yesterday, there are three more matches to fill out a bustling Sunday schedule.

It begins today, heavy metal style, at Anfield. I am not alone in believing that Liverpool’s summer moves, allied to an already vibrant squad and a manager in keeping with his surroundings, make them favourites for second place. Pre-season is never an indicator of future returns but the Klopp XI acquitted themselves well on tour in the USA and last week thumped Napoli 5-0.

However, their opponents, West Ham, have played the necessary change card this summer and it is reasonable to expect a test from the Irons. They did just enough to stay up last season under David Moyes although the football on offer was far from eye-catching.

Manuel Pellegrini will be expected to deliver on the results improvement and watchability fronts. Having radically altered the squad, the professorial Chilean is understandably still trying to work out his ideal team. That Jack Wilshere has joined the club he followed as a boy, makes things even more intriguing. No one can question Wilshere’s natural ability and with the Hammers, he will be asked to control the flow and rhythm on a weekly basis.

Southampton, who play Burnley, similarly had no choice but to address deficiencies in the squad while retaining the manager who prevented relegation, Mark Hughes. It is fair to say this is a club that usually plans and executes the right way in terms of team building and identifying those who fit them. I like their addition of Danish giant, Jannik Vestergaard, previously at Borussia Monchengladbach. It will be fascinating to see where and how ex-Celtic and Dundee United man Stuart Armstrong is deployed. The suspicion is he may have to be patient at the start of this campaign.

Burnley should by rights be in better match shape than anyone having been taken to extra time by Aberdeen in the Europa League before Thursday’s 0-0 draw in Turkey against Basaksehir in the same competition. There is a doggedness about Sean Dyche’s side that makes them very difficult opponents but they are not well suited to taking the game to the other side.

If the middle game today lacks out- and-out glamour, the same cannot be said of the final offering. Arsenal against Manchester City is chock-full of storylines and angles. For the first time in 22 years, someone other than Arsene Wenger will be in charge of a Premier League match for the Gunners. Unai Emery must come up with a system that helps Mesut Ozil bring his influence to bear. Don’t be shocked if Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang attacks from the left with Alexandre Lacazette operating centrally. Aubameyang has done this before at Dortmund to marvellous effect.

Manchester City, who eased to a 2-0 victory over Chelsea in last weekend’s Community Shield match, win if they play to their best and have a way of brushing aside the opposition and removing all tension from a game. Doing that will be more difficult than usual against a highly- charged Arsenal.

Such are City’s playing riches though, they can afford to be without a not yet ship-shape Kevin De Bruyne. A victory at the Emirates would be quite the statement to make right off the bat.

TO return to the subject of the summer transfer period, there is a certain logic attached to what English clubs have done as regards its timing. The whole process previously lasted too long and there were something incongruous about business being conducted with the season already up and running.

But one wonders if in altering the time-frame the Premier League has perhaps handed the other big European leagues a strategic advantage. German, Spanish or Italian clubs, rather than get into a price war with their English counterparts, can now sit tight and wait for the inevitable sale from the island, on terms often more favourable to them. Books have still to be balanced in the Premier League and that means transferring unwanted players, but in this case with limited leverage.

It’s only with the benefit of hindsight that we can properly assess how particular teams have fared on the buying and selling front. The most striking feature of Thursday was Manchester United’s inability to land a central defender after scouring the continent for a top talent. Jose Mourinho told the media he plans to enjoy this season but it is difficult to construct a coherent argument supporting such a prognostication.

Don’t misunderstand me. Manchester United still possess considerable match-altering talent. How can it be otherwise with Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku and Juan Mata around? But Mourinho had made acquiring a centre-back his priority but it became clear well before the deadline the club would fall short.

Raphael Varane, Harry Maguire, Jerome Boateng and Diego Godin were all signing targets of United yet for one reason or another, United failed to bolster the spine of their team.

In the aftermath of it all, United, along with Tottenham, are arguably the two most interesting sides, paradoxically because inactivity was the watchword for both on Thursday. Spurs, who have rightly been applauded for a reliance on their own highly-proficient academy more than most, became the first Premier League club not to sign a single player in a summer transfer window since the first such period in 2003.

The North London team have other things on their mind: a state of the art new stadium and training ground. The cost was already considerable and manager Mauricio Pochettino opined on Thursday that the Brexit process has served only to raise the price.

Perhaps in due course we’ll look at Spurs as role models in terms of how it should be done if a thriving academy is already doing its work. After all, is panic buying ever a good thing?