The central clash of the opening round of the English Premier League will take place between two clubs that failed to perform at the expected level last season. Liverpool began the previous football year as English champions, spending half a billion euros on the transfer market. Of course, Arne Slot had the task of strengthening the championship-winning position in the domestic league, as well as contending for the trophy in the Champions League. Neither was achieved. The new star players barely fit into the Merseyside club's squad, and by the end of the season the Reds' goals were narrowed to finishing in the Champions League places in the Premier League. Given that this task was also accomplished with difficulty, Slot was dismissed in the off-season, and on July 1 his place was taken by Andoni Iraola. The Spanish coach received his first such serious challenge in his career. Previously Iraola had quite successfully coached Rayo Vallecano and Bournemouth, but Liverpool appears to be a transition to a completely different level. Unlike the previous coach, the Spaniard did not receive a huge transfer budget, having the task of assembling a solid team from expensive players already in the club's squad. Liverpool's short list of newcomers consists of Jeremy Jacques and Victor Munoz, meant to strengthen the Reds' defense. Mohamed Salah, Ibrahima Konate and Andrew Robertson left the Merseyside club as free agents. Newcastle had a disappointing season, finishing twelfth in the Premier League, which for the 'Forty' was the lowest in the last five seasons. Eddie Howe, who had built such a successful Newcastle in recent seasons, lost the threads of managing the team and was relieved of his position by the club's management. He was succeeded by Matthias Jaissle, who had trained Al-Ahli for three years. There were serious changes in Newcastle's squad as well. Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes and Anthony Gordon left for more promising footballing conditions. In their place Newcastle bought a whole raft of players for a total of around 200 million euros. In fact, Jaissle faces the task of creating a new team, which is why Newcastle's readiness for the season is judged to be lower than that of their upcoming opponent.