Who will set the standards for the Premier League?

Brendan Rodgers is an easy man to mock. He has a painting of himself on his wall at home, and his management includes trying to scare his players with the threat of having their names written inside an envelope. But despite his David Brent/Nev from the Call Centre style, he’s a talented coach with an entertaining and free-flowing style of play. Last season, Liverpool were massively inconsistent. They tore apart Newcastle, Fulham, Wigan, Swansea, and Norwich twice, but lost to Aston Villa, Stoke, Southampton, and West Brom twice. A forward line that includes Dan Sturridge, Philippe Coutinho and possibly Luis Suarez will be more suited to Rodgers’ fluid style of play than the squad he inherited and many players, most notably Jordan Henderson, will feel more comfortable with the demanded style than last year. And a deeper squad should allow Liverpool to utilise Raheem Sterling without burning him out.

Roberto Martinez has earned plaudits for years for playing an attractive style of football with one of the league’s lesser teams, showing that it isn’t necessary to squeeze out every ounce of joy from the game to avoid a financially crippling relegation. He’ll probably want to switch Everton’s approach to a slightly more open style, and has spoken about aiming for the Champions League. But can he successfully do so without disrupting what made the side work for years? In many ways, Martinez faces a tougher task than Moyes does at Man Utd, as he’s also replacing a man who set the standards high, but he’ll probably want to change the style. As has been pointed out elsewhere, the Merseyside derby should be an attractive match next season.

Given that so many things are in flux at the top end of the table, it’s not impossible for a surprise team to break up the status quo.

As I’ve written previously, I find di Canio a fascinating figure. Not in the sense that he gives melodramatic quotes, but I’m genuinely fascinated by the way he goes about managing his sides. When Titus Bramble announced he’d been fined for not showing up for training, most took the manager’s side. But last summer, di Canio decided to freeze out his title winning captain Paul Caddis, named in the League Two team of the year, because he felt he’d lost his intensity in pre-season. This happened shortly after Caddis became a father, and he wasn’t even given a chance to prove di Canio wrong.

With actions like that and the unusual step of substituting a goalkeeper for performance reasons, di Canio the manager seems to be the physical embodiment of the concept of intensity. With Mourinho, di Canio and Holloway in the Premier League, the amount of time Sky Sports and the like refer to ‘great characters’ will be unbearable. But the management and football philosophies of each are interesting and it should be intriguing to see di Canio tested at a higher level.

With a series of January signings settled, will Newcastle return to their impressive form of 11-12, perhaps taking advantage of one of the top clubs under-performing, or will Pardew’s seven-year contract come under threat? Aston Villa looked more cohesive and threatening in the latter stages of the season, with Matt Lowton and Ashley Westwood particularly impressive. If they can build in the next season, they could be the best team with a core of English youngsters since David O’Leary’s Leeds.

There is an unusual sense of uncertainty ahead of next season. This time last year, despite City’s late surge for the title, I strongly suspected that Manchester United would hit back harder and seal the title easily, and I wasn’t the only one. Next season looks harder to predict.

In other countries, the dominant managerial figure changes on a regular basis. In Spain, Guardiola was for three years the figure who loomed large over every other club. Mourinho’s title-winning season was so impressive, breaking Guardiola’s La Liga points record and Pellegrini’s points record at Real, exhausting Guardiola in the process, that he caused doubt about the viability of the Catalan philosophy. Real’s deeply disappointing performance this season and Barcelona breaking the La Liga points record despite the disruption of having the manager away for long stretches has thrust Tito Vilanova (or at least an abstract representation of the Barca ideal) to the position of dominant figure.

The King of the Premier League is gone. Who will be next to claim the throne?