Premier League reset: Record manager upheaval leaves 2026/27 wide open

A record nine clubs will begin 2026/27 with a new manager appointed since last season ended - and five of the traditional Big Six have bosses appointed during 2026; we analyse an extraordinary changing of the guard and what it could mean for the most unpredictable season in years

There's a sense of unpredictability surrounding the new Premier League campaign.

And perhaps with good reason: nine of the 20 clubs will start the season with a manager appointed since the end of 2025/26 - the biggest summer reset of the Premier League era.

According to Opta, nine managers taking charge of their first league game for a club on the opening weekend is the most in an English top-flight season since 1946/47 - the first campaign after World War II.

Marco Rose (Bournemouth), Xabi Alonso (Chelsea), Pierre Sage (Crystal Palace), Alvaro Arbeloa (Fulham), Gary O'Neil (Ipswich Town), Andoni Iraola (Liverpool), Enzo Maresca (Manchester City), Matthias Jaissle (Newcastle) and Oliver Glasner (Nottingham Forest) will all take charge of their new clubs for the first time in the Premier League in the opening round of fixtures.

And the upheaval reaches right to the top. Three of the Big Six begin the season with managers appointed this summer, while Manchester United and Spurs have bosses who arrived only in January and March respectively.

The clear outlier is Mikel Arteta . The Arsenal boss is now the Premier League's longest-serving current manager, having spent 2,432 days in charge by August 19.

The upheaval is part of a longer-term trend towards shorter managerial reigns.

Looking across completed tenures, the five-season rolling average now stands at just 1.9 years. That is the fourth-lowest level on record.

The extraordinary volume of change this summer has also left clubs entering the new campaign with historically little managerial continuity.

Across the 20 clubs, managers have been in their current jobs for an average of just 474 days going into 2026/27 - the lowest opening-day figure of the Premier League era.

Analysis covers every Premier League season since 1992/93. Tenure is measured from a manager’s original club appointment, including pre-promotion. Caretaker and interim-only spells are excluded; uninterrupted caretaker-to-permanent spells are merged. Relegated managers retain continuous tenure if they return the club to the Premier League, otherwise tenure is capped before the next Premier League season. Ongoing spells are excluded from completed-tenure averages, but retained in current-manager tables. Dates are primarily sourced from Soccerbase, with Transfermarkt used for role classification and profile data.

The average age of managers going into 2026/27 is 47.1 years - the youngest in 20 years and fewer than two years above the Premier League-era low of 45.3, recorded at the start of 1993/94.

Arteta fits that bill at just 44 years of age, but his longevity at the Emirates also fits a wider Arsenal trend.