Premier League LIVE: Kane to Bayern hit by delay and transfer updates

Pep Guardiola claims it is inevitable standards will drop at Manchester City following last season’s treble success.

The City boss accepts it is unlikely his team will be able to match the intensity that saw them pick up the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League trophies last term as a new campaign begins.

The Spaniard wants to make sure City pace their challenge for further silverware and is not even thinking about an end goal yet.

“We are going to drop that’s for sure,” said Guardiola, whose side begin their quest for a sixth domestic title in seven years at Burnley on Friday.

“It’s inevitable a little bit. We’ll try to avoid it as much as possible. Now it’s (about) not dropping too much – staying there, staying there, (being) close to our rivals.”

Manchester City get their season up and running with a short trip to Burnley this evening, Pep Guardiola ready to re-acquaint himself with Vincent Kompany as the Belgian prepares to take charge of his first game in the English top flight. A fourth consecutive Premier League crown would be unprecendented – Richard Jolly has been digging back through the history books to try and explain why.

As the curtain went down on last season, one of the clubs facing most uncertainty over the immediate direction they would, or indeed could, take was Tottenham Hotspur.

It was clear that their second interim manager of the campaign, Ryan Mason, wouldn’t be in charge; who was to take over and try to – yet again – restructure and rebuild the underperforming team was a mystery. It was clear that a new sporting director had to be appointed given Fabio Paratici’s ban and departure; who they would land to fill the void was unclear. And above all, it seemed that both captain and vice-captain would move on from tthe playing squad: Hugo Lloris’ last involvement saw him subbed midway through the drubbing at Newcastle and he was outspoken over summer over his “desire” to depart, while star striker – and most valuable asset in every sense – Harry Kane has just a year left on his contract and many suitors keen on his talents.

And yet, in what can only be described as very Tottenham-esque fashion, both Lloris and Kane remain at the club on the eve of the new season, new boss Ange Postecoglou handed the task of rebuilding a team without fully knowing if the spearhead of it will in fact remain past the next few weeks.

Remember to set your FPL gameweek 1 teams today – a Friday night fixture means an early deadline as the new season begins. Our writers have picked out the 30 players you should be targeting for fantasy success.

And Miguel Delaney, our chief football writer, has more detail on what might be holding up the completion of Kane’s transfer.

Some more news on Harry Kane’s potential move to Bayern Munich, which now would appear to be in doubt. Kaveh Solhekol, of Sky Sports, is reporting that Tottenham may be attempting to alter the terms of the deal they agreed with the German club yesterday:

The Premier League is back ahead of a new season with different teams emerging as front runners and the prospect of top players leaving European football.

But there is plenty of intrigue surrounding Arsenal and whether they will be able to push champions Manchester City again, especially with their lucrative spending and the addition of Declan Rice.

Liverpool will hope that their last campaign was more of a blip with Chelsea also looking to firmly leave the 2022/23 season in the dust. There will be questions concerning Newcastle who surpassed expectations to qualify for the Champions League last time round, as well as Tottenham who finished outside the European spots.

While there is great uncertainty at the bottom, with Nottingham Forest looking to avoid a second-season dip, and Luton just looking to survive.

The Independent’s team of writers have made their predictions for the next season:

Could that see Chelsea pivot to Romeo Lavia as their primary midfield target? Todd Boehly and co. have tabled a bid for the Southampton youngster.

And another player set for a mega-money move is Moises Caicedo. The Brighton midfielder has long an object an interest for Chelsea but Liverpool have swooped in with an offer that would set a new British transfer record.

Richard Jolly has the latest:

It’s officially day one of the new Premier League season, with Burnley and Manchester City ready to raise the curtain at Turf Moor this evening, but the morning stories are all transfer related, with a couple of big bits of breaking news overnight.

The first concerns Harry Kane, who it would appear is Munich-bound, as Miguel Delaney reports.