The opening weekend of the 2019-20 Premier League campaign will conclude with an early-season treat at Old Trafford as Manchester United host fellow top-four hopefuls Chelsea.
Both sides now boast a club legend in the dugout and are looking to make fresh starts after summers of change and 2018-19 campaigns which, for one reason or another, failed to live up to expectations.
Manchester United
© Reuters
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be delighted to get the new season underway, if only to distract from the relentless transfer speculation which has surrounded the club since the window opened.
Romelu Lukaku is gone, Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James are in, and perhaps even more crucially Paul Pogba is still a Manchester United player.
Whether that will still be the case when the European transfer window closes on September 2 remains to be seen, but numerous reports have suggested that Thursday's English deadline was the cut-off point for any deal for the World Cup winner to take place.
Plenty of old faces do remain, then, but Solskjaer has been eager to freshen up the squad by targeting younger talent and already the United class of 2019-20 looks more dynamic than its immediate predecessors.
The Norwegian boss has stressed that there are no quick fixes, though, and there are certainly still plenty of areas to address following their sixth-place finish last term.
Number one on that list is their defensive record. United spent a world-record sum to bolster their ranks with Maguire and also splashed £50m on Wan-Bissaka, and they will be hopeful that such a financial outlay results in a significant improvement after keeping just seven clean sheets all last season - only relegated Huddersfield Town and Fulham kept fewer.
You have to go back to February 24 for United's last Premier League shutout, so keeping Chelsea at bay this weekend would be a welcome start to the campaign, particularly for David de Gea following his under-par performances last term.
De Gea is yet to put pen to paper on a new deal having now entered the final year of his current contract, although the Spanish shot-stopper is understood to have agreed terms for a six-year extension.
The main concern amongst the fans now comes at the other end; Solskjaer insisted that it was the right time to let Lukaku leave, but failed moves for Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic have left them without a replacement beyond youngster Mason Greenwood or playing Anthony Martial and Alexis Sanchez through the middle.
Free agent Fernando Llorente is still an option to sign, although even with the former Tottenham Hotspur man it is debatable whether United have enough firepower throughout their squad to get back into the highest echelons of the division.
Llorente was on the pitch for Spurs when United picked up their only victory over a fellow top-six side throughout the whole of last season, and that is another record which simply must improve drastically if the Red Devils are to challenge for the top four at least.
One record United will be eager to extend is their opening-day form, which has seen them lose just one of the last 26 times they have begun a campaign at home.
Add to that the possibility of winning five successive opening-day matches for only the second time in the club's entire history - and the first since 1910 - and the omens look good for Solskjaer's side.
United are on a five-match winless streak in the top flight and could equal the club record for four successive Premier League home games without a win, but their pre-season form will have dispelled any of the doom and gloom which surrounded the end of last term.
The Red Devils won all six of their summer outings - including triumphs over both Milan clubs and Champions League runners-up Tottenham - and so come into the new season in far better form than they ended the old one.
Competitive action is a whole different story, though, and Solskjaer's big rebuild could have perhaps done with an easier start on paper.
Recent form: WWWWWW
Chelsea
© Reuters
With the exception of a change of manager, Chelsea's fresh start has been imposed upon them by a FIFA transfer ban which is likely to see a number of young players get chances this season.
The signature of Christian Pulisic was secured before the embargo came into place, and two goals in a pre-season win over Red Bull Salzburg hints that it could be a valuable piece of business too, but it is a big ask for the 20-year-old to fill the shoes of the departed Eden Hazard.
Hazard may well have lifted himself into the argument of Chelsea's greatest ever player before his move to Real Madrid, although many will feel that the man now in the dugout takes that accolade.
Frank Lampard's ascent to the Chelsea job has been quicker than he might have expected, but such was his impact at Derby County last season that he has been handed one of Europe's top jobs after just one year in management.
The bookmakers regard Solskjaer as more likely than Lampard to lose his job first despite Chelsea's notoriously trigger-happy nature when it comes to sacking managers, and there is an acceptance around Stamford Bridge that the club-record goalscorer will need more time than his predecessors have been afforded.
One thing he does have in his favour is the love of the fans, a crucial element Maurizio Sarri never quite enjoyed despite leading the Blues to a third-placed finish, Europa League glory and the EFL Cup final during his only campaign in charge.
The level of disillusion amongst the supporters under Sarri did not quite tally with some impressive achievements on the field, and you can be sure that Lampard would take a repeat of the 2018-19 campaign if offered it now.
Chelsea will certainly be looking to carry their form over from last summer having lost just one of their final 13 games across all competitions in 2018-19, and on the whole they have managed to do that in pre-season with four wins from seven games - including a particularly notable one over Barcelona.
However, some elements do need to improve, and chief among them is Chelsea's away form. The Blues only won two of their last nine away league games last term and did not beat a single top-half team on their travels all season, taking just three points from a possible 27 from such fixtures.
As it happens, United were the only top-six side against whom Chelsea avoided defeat away from home, and Lampard would probably take a repeat of that 1-1 draw again on Sunday as he tries to avoid becoming the first man since Avram Grant to lose his first game in charge of the club.
It will be a tall order for Lampard to match last season's start, when Chelsea won their opening five Premier League games, but success on Sunday - coupled with UEFA Super Cup glory against Liverpool in Istanbul on Wednesday - would make for a memorable start to life in the dugout for the managerial novice.
Recent form: WLWWWD
Team News
© Reuters
After a summer during which he was rarely out of the headlines, Pogba has been passed fit to play on Sunday despite missing their final pre-season match with a back spasm.
The French midfielder is expected to play in a deeper role alongside Nemanja Matic, and behind that both Maguire and Wan-Bissaka should make their competitive debuts.
James is in contention to do the same, although he is more likely to be used as an impact sub with Martial and Jesse Lingard also pushing for starts.
Sanchez is unlikely to be risked after his Copa America exploits, and Willian could also be missing for Chelsea due to the same reason.
Lampard has injury concerns over both N'Golo Kante and Antonio Rudiger and, while Kante could be fit, Rudiger is not expected to recover in time for this match.
The deadline day sale of David Luiz means that Lampard's centre-back choices are essentially limited to Kurt Zouma and Andreas Christensen, and in front of them he must decide whether to start Jorginho or Mateo Kovacic should Kante pass his fitness test.
Chelsea are also short of options up front, where Olivier Giroud is expected to get the nod ahead of Tammy Abraham.
Man Utd possible starting lineup:
De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw; Pogba, Matic; Mata, Lingard, Martial; Rashford
Chelsea possible starting lineup:
Kepa; Azpilicueta, Zouma, Christensen, Alonso; Jorginho, Kante; Pedro, Barkley, Pulisic; Giroud
Head To Head
Chelsea are about as close to a bogey team as United have had in the Premier League era, with the Blues boasting the record of being the only side to have beaten the Red Devils more often than they have lost to them in the competition.
United have won just two of their last 13 top-flight meetings, although they are unbeaten in their last six at Old Trafford, winning two and drawing four.
The two sides have not met on the opening day since 2004 - a match notable for being Jose Mourinho's first game in English football - while you have to go back to 1958 for the last time this fixture was played on the opening day at Old Trafford, when Bobby Charlton scored a hat-trick.
Both league meetings last season ended all square, but United did knock Chelsea out in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
We say: Man Utd 1-1 Chelsea
There is a certain degree of uncertainty about how both of these sides will fare at the start of the season, particularly Chelsea under Lampard. It is a difficult fixture for both to open up the new campaign and, despite the desire to attack from both managers, avoiding defeat may be their priority on such an occasion.
Barney Corkhill
