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Don’t need to say much here, the guy is a freak.

He’s scored 25+ goals in three of his four seasons in the Premier League. 

Only Haaland (24) scored more non-penalty goals in the Premier League than Semenyo (16) last season.

He’ll be one of City’s biggest goal threats away from Erling Haaland with there being a 10 goal gap between Semenyo and City’s next biggest scorer in Foden last season.

Semenyo has been in very good form during pre-season, registering an assist in all three of his appearances. He’s also spoken about enjoying his role under Maresca and he should continue to be a threat in front of goal. 

Morgan Gibbs-White finished last season with his best ever goal tally in the Premier League, netting 15 goals across his 35 starts with only one of these goals coming from the penalty spot.

This tally was nine more goals than Forest’s next top scorer in Igor Jesus - so we can expect Gibbs-White to be an influential player in front of goal for Forest again this campaign with Chris Wood likely to be absent for the start of the season.

Gibbs-White should have extra motivation this season too after being left out of the England squad over the summer, and has plenty of creative teammates to fashion him chances. 

Bryan Mbeumo ended last season as Manchester United’s joint top scorer in the Premier League with 11 goals to his name.

He’s a proven goalscorer in the division having reached double digits in each of the last two campaigns - including a 20 goal haul in his final season at Brentford.

Manchester United also play in a way that really suits Mbeumo with Carrick wanting his side to play in transition, making the most of the speed Mbeumo has when running in behind. 

Morgan Rogers has made the move from Villa to Chelsea over the summer in a big money transfer which carries a lot of expectation.

Rogers has scored 14+ goals across all competitions in each of his last two seasons with Aston Villa and his output should improve further now that he has the likes of Palmer and Joao Pedro around him.

Rogers’ shot volume has steadily increased over the last two campaigns and he should get plenty of chances as part of an exciting Chelsea attack guided by Xabi Alonso.

This is quite a generous price for one of the most consistent players in the Premier League when it comes to registering shots on target.

Semenyo has been impressive during pre-season for Enzo Maresca’s side, registering an assist in all three friendlies and finding the target in two of these games. 

He’s played on both wings during the pre-season campaign and is crucially two footed - meaning that Semenyo is just as likely to find the target on his left foot as he is on the right.

Semenyo scored the second most non-penalty goals in the Premier League last season, only behind Erling Haaland, from a shot output of 83 (2.33 per 90), seeing 49% of these efforts find the target (1.15 per 90). 

BTTS has landed in four of the last five head to head meetings between these sides, despite this meeting usually being quite a tight contest.

I would expect it to be a bit more open on this occasion given that both sides will still be without key players, especially defensively which opens up the opportunity for goals at both ends of the pitch.

Arsenal have seen BTTS in all four of their friendly matches ahead of this tie, conceding against the likes of Girona, Dortmund, Betis and Como while Enzo Maresca’s side have also seen BTTS in all three of their friendly matches.

Arsenal’s overall approach to games won’t change too much this season, and that means we will see the Gunners utilise set pieces once again as a key part of their attacking style.

They’ve signed another excellent corner and free kick taker in Christos Tzolis, giving Arteta another option from set pieces to be creative when the likes of Rice and Saka are unavailable - which may be a more frequent occurrence this season given his many games the duo played last year.

Arsenal racked up five corners when the sides met in the Premier League earlier this year and averaged 5.68 corners per game in the Premier League last season.

This game is rated at 9.40 by my Goals Sheet for Over 1.5 Goals.

Nine of the last 10 Community Shield games have seen this bet land.

That includes Arsenal 1-1 Man City in 2023 (Arsenal won on pens).

Both sides are capable of covering this line on their own, and it’s a good chance to land an early punch ahead of their respective title pushes.

The last five head-to-heads between these two have all seen two or more goals.

My Goals Sheet rates this game at 9.00 for Over 1.5 Goals.

Only Barcelona and Real Madrid scored more La Liga goals last season than Villarreal, so they can land this bet on their own.

This is Racing Santander’s first game back in La Liga since 2011/12, they topped the second tier last season - and were comfortably the division’s best attacking team, netting 2.14 goals per game.

The two played in the Copa Del Rey last season, with Racing winning 2-1; expect an enterprising opening weekend clash.

The Goals Sheet loves this game for Over 1.5 Goals, rating it at 9.55.

It landed for both sides last week, with Lommel drawing 1-1 at St Truiden and Charleroi winning 3-1 at home to Leuven.

Charleroi scored in 15 of their 20 league away games last season and should get on the scoresheet at newly-promoted Lommel.

Lommel themselves generated 1.72 xG in their first league game, so should create enough chances at home to contribute to this bet.

The Goals Sheet likes this game for Over 1.5 Goals, giving it a rating of 8.93.

Both sides won promotion from the Turkish second tier last season, and both their head-to-heads in that campaign saw Over 1.5 Goals (2-2 and 2-0 to Erzurumspor).

Amed saw 3.24 goals per game in the second tier last season, and Erzurumspor scored in 37 of their 38 league outings.

My Goals Sheet has this game at 8.93 for Over 1.5 Goals.

Lazio are heavily odds-on to win this Coppa Italia first round tie.

They are as short as 1.36 in places to cover this line on their own and score twice or more.

Mantova came 9th in Serie B last season and are unlikely to tame this Lazio, who have been free-scoring in pre-season and can lay down a marker for the campaign after a disappointing 25/26.

Jarrod Bowen is the best player in the Championship this season for me, he could easily be playing at the top level in the Premier League and should end the campaign with a decent goal haul.

He’s already got off the mark this season with a well taken goal against Portsmouth from two shots. He’s reached double digits across all competitions for goals in each of his last five seasons with West Ham, and will also be on penalties for the Hammers throughout the campaign.

Bowen maintained an average of 0.74 shots on target per 90 in the Premier League last season, a rate I would expect to increase this campaign given that he’s dropped down to a lower level with the same quality he’s shown over the last few campaigns.

Hannibal is always a good player to back for fouls, and I think he’ll have quite a lot of work to get through in this opening clash of the season for Burnley.

Hannibal has never quite managed to tame his aggressive nature, resulting in consistently high foul counts. He committed 24 fouls across 15 starts in the Premier League last season (1.75 per 90), notably collecting 10 yellow cards in the process. 

He’ll be up against a West Ham side who will be confident enough to keep the ball as the away side with his direct opponents including Edson Alvarez (1.64 fouls won per 90) and Lewis Orford (0.81 fouls won per 90). 

I expect West Ham to be amongst the top sides in the Championship for corners this season given that they will be able to dominate most games, and have two wide players in Bowen and Solomon who will cause problems on the flanks.

West Ham averaged 4.92 corners per game in the Premier League last season, and have a lot of potential threats from these set piece situations - including Mavropanos, who averaged 0.82 shots per 90 in the Premier League last season.

Most teams will sit quite deep against West Ham in the Championship this season, which also aids their chances of registering a healthy corner count in the majority of their matches. 

West Ham are shaping up as the team to beat in the Championship, and they carried that authority straight into the season with a commanding 3‑1 cup win over Portsmouth.

Bowen and Castellanos both found the net in that fixture, and that kind of attacking firepower should serve the Hammers well over the long haul, especially against sides that simply cannot match that same quality in the final third.

Burnley, meanwhile, have watched a host of key figures depart over the summer, and they now turn to a manager with no previous experience at this level. 

Their preseason produced no victories, and they could only manage a stalemate against Notts County in the EFL Cup before this contest, hardly the ideal preparation for facing one of the division's strongest outfits.

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This bet is priced as short as 2/1 with some bookies.

Sky Bet are offering a 167% increase on 2/1, boosting this from 5/1 to 7/1 themselves, for a repeat of last season's Premier League - Arsenal finishing 1st and Man City 2nd.

With so much turnover elsewhere, Arsenal are 6/4 to retain the title and with City are the clear second-favourites in the market.

Enzo Maresca has experience balancing European football and aiming to compete towards the top of the division, they have the heavily odds-on favourite for the Golden Boot, Erling Haaland, in their ranks and a repeatable playing style that Maresca will look to build on, rather than tearing it up and starting from scratch.

Third and fourth favourites for the title, Liverpool and Chelsea, are set to endure clunkier transitions with their managerial changes (Arne Slot to Andoni Iraola and Liam Rosenior/Calum McFarlane to Xabi Alonso).

The top two in the Premier League has been Arsenal and Man City, in different orders, in three of the last four seasons.

7/1 suggests there is only a 12.5% chance that it finishes Arsenal 1st and Man City 2nd, I'd argue it's far more likely than that and other bookies agree.

Not much needs to be said here. If anyone was to have a shot on target for Man City, it’d be Erling Haaland. He is off the back of an unreal debut World Cup where he landed at least one shot on target in each game, averaging 2.52 per 90.

For Man City last season, he averaged 1.80 shots on target per 90, with him landing this in 10 of his last 11 games in the Premier League. Against Arsenal specifically, he landed this in both games they played in the league.

With a weakened Arsenal defence after the injury to Saliba, Haaland could see himself getting a good amount of chances to hit the target.

After a season riddled with injuries last year, Saka will be wanting to start this one strongly. He finished the World Cup with a hat-trick in England’s third-place play-off, so will be looking to carry that momentum into this game.

Despite missing 15 games last season, he still averaged 1.09 shots on target per 90. He also hit two on target in his last appearance against Man City in the Carabao Cup Final.

I expect Saka to be the focal point of Arsenal’s attack, and I think he’ll get opportunities to cut in from the right and test Donnarumma.

This should be a really exciting game between two Welsh sides who will have lofty ambitions this season. They actually met in the EFL Cup last year, a game that ended 2-1 to Cardiff with both sides registering an xG in excess of 1.0 (1.14-1.97).

Cardiff saw five goals in their EFL Cup tie against Swindon last time out, coming away 3-2 winners with an xG of 2.52. They did allow the away side to record an xG of 1.36, which is a pattern I think we’ll see from Cardiff throughout this season. 

They want to play good football, which is admirable, but this will come at a defensive cost in the Championship.

Wrexham saw 56 goals across their 23 away matches in the Championship last season (2.43 per game), notably seeing an exact split in the number of goals scored and conceded (28).

Benfica are as short as 1.17 with some bookmakers to win this game, so we’re getting a slightly better price on Marco Silva’s side to score 2+ goals in their opening game of the domestic campaign.

Benfica didn’t lose a single away game in Liga Portugal last season, winning 12 of their 17 matches. They scored 33 goals across these games (1.94 per game), a tally only bettered by Sporting (38) in the Portuguese top flight. 

By contrast, Casa Pia only managed to win two of their 17 home games in Liga Portugal last term. Only three sides in the division conceded more goals at home than Casa Pia (26) last season, suggesting that Benfica should be able to come away with a comfortable victory. 

Odds-on favourites for this one, Pisa, will be looking to start the season strongly after finishing rock bottom of Serie A last season.

Empoli survived a relegation battle in Serie B, they still managed to score 1.24 goals per game in their narrow escape and have seen BTTS land in their last four games against Pisa - all taking place in Serie B.

Empoli scored two or more goals in three of those four head-to-heads.

This bet has landed in four of the last five meetings between the sides, which have all come in the Eerste Divisie.

All of those five games have seen over 2.5 goals, with over 3.5 landing in four of them.

De Graafschap finished 23 points better off than Jong AZ last season, and are strong odds-on favourites ahead of Monday’s clash.

Samsunspor were the 5th-best team in the Turkish Super Lig last season for Both Teams to Score.

Seeing the bet land in 21 of their 34 games (61%).

Goztepe did not see it as much, but proved a reliable attacking side on their travels, finding the net in 12 of 17 away league games.

Cardiff return to the Championship, after one season away, with a South v North Wales clash against much-fancied Wrexham.

The hosts were the top scorers in League One last season, and Wrexham never seem too far away from a high-scoring game.

Wrexham’s second tier games averaged 2.91 goals per game last season, the 4th-highest in the league, they also saw both teams score in 65% of them (30/46).

Benfica have seen both teams score in three of their four competitive games so far this season.

Casa Pia saw BTTS in 10 of 17 home league games last season, and Benfica conceded in 10 of their 17 league away games.

Somewhat remarkably, Benfica went unbeaten in the league last season but only came 3rd. With Jose Mourinho now gone, replaced by Marco Silva, they’ll be looking to take the handbrake off in aiming for the league title, which should produce some more entertaining games.

Yousef Salech was really impressive for Cardiff in the League One last season, netting 14 goals across 26 starts and finishing the campaign as Cardiff’s top scorer.

Salech achieved this tally from 89 shots (3.39 per 90), seeing 31 of these efforts find the target (1.18 per 90) - numbers which suggest that Salech is capable of replicating this sort of form in the Championship.

Salech has already shown he has the ability to perform at this level having netted eight goals across 14 starts in the Championship during the 24/25 campaign - averaging 1.48 shots on target per 90.

He’s started the season very strongly with a brace against Swindon in Cardiff’s EFL Cup first round victory, managing three shots on target in that game.

Lewis O’Brien was a useful player in the final third for Wrexham last season, ending the campaign with 10 goal contributions across 29 starts in the Championship.

I’m more interested in the defensive side of his game for this selection with O’Brien likely to be part of a midfield three which should be engaged in a real battle in the middle of the park.

O’Brien committed 31 fouls in the Championship last season, working out to an average of 1.04 fouls committed per 90.

If you look at O’Brien’s heat map, he spends most of his time on the left hand side of the pitch - making his direct opponents Alex Robertson (1.59 fouls won per 90) and Perry Ng (1.81 fouls won per 90).

This will be Perry Ng’s seventh season at Cardiff, and he’s played a very regular role from fullback during his time at the club.

I’m interested in his battles with George Thomason (0.74 fouls won per 90) and Nathan Broadhead (1.08 fouls won per 90) who could outnumber him at times with Wrexham often lining up with wingbacks and trying to create those overloads in wide areas.

Ng averaged 1.13 fouls committed per 90 in League One last season, and is likely to be more regularly tested in the Championship given that Cardiff won’t be as dominant as they were last season.

Cardiff were involved in a five-goal thriller against Swindon in their most recent EFL Cup tie, coming away 3-2 winners with an xG of 2.52. They did allow the visitors an xG of 1.36, which feels like a pattern we’ll see from Cardiff throughout this campaign.

They want to play attractive football, which is admirable, but it will likely come at a defensive cost in the Championship.

Wrexham saw 56 goals across their 23 away league games last season (2.43 per game), with a remarkably even split between goals scored and conceded (28 each).

These sides faced off in the EFL Cup last year, with BTTS landing on that occasion as Cardiff came away 2-1 winners over Wrexham.

There is a lot to like about Wrexham coming into the 26/27 Championship season. They’ve recruited well, signing the likes of Patterson, Imray and Whiteman having already bolstered their squad in January as well.

They finished just two points outside of the playoff spots last year, a finish that would actually gain them a spot in the playoffs this time around with the number of spots available extending down to eighth.

Cardiff were dominant in League One last season, but I do have some concerns about their style of play at this level with the players that Brian Barry Murphy has available to him. It’s clear that he’s not going to change how he sets his team up, but that could prove costly against some of the heavy hitters in the Championship.