The Premier League returns for the 2026-27 season with a familiar question at its heart: can anyone stop Arsenal from retaining their crown?
For Indian fans, however, the new campaign offers much more than a title race. A changing managerial landscape, Manchester City’s attempt to move on from the Rodri era, an intriguing Indian connection at Liverpool and a schedule packed with heavyweight clashes from the opening weeks have all added to the anticipation.
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With the new season getting underway on August 22, here are five reasons why the Premier League promises to deliver another season of high-stakes drama.
1. A new era is taking shape in the dugouts
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The Premier League will have a significantly different look on the touchline this season, with nine new managers taking charge of clubs.
The biggest change comes at Manchester City, where Pep Guardiola’s long reign has come to an end. Enzo Maresca now inherits the responsibility of steering one of England’s most successful teams through a period of transition.
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There is also considerable interest surrounding the return of Xabi Alonso to Chelsea, while Alvaro Arbeloa’s arrival at Fulham adds another fresh managerial storyline to the competition.
The changes could have a significant impact on the tactical battle. With established managers facing new challengers and several clubs entering unfamiliar territory, the Premier League’s tactical landscape could look markedly different from last season.
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2. Can Arsenal handle the pressure of being champions?
Arsenal finally ended a 22-year wait for the Premier League title in 2025-26. Now comes the considerably harder task: defending it.
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Mikel Arteta’s team set an impressive benchmark last season, collecting 85 points from 26 victories and seven draws while suffering only five defeats. Their defensive consistency was arguably even more impressive.
Arsenal conceded just 27 goals and kept 19 clean sheets — the best defensive record in the league last season.
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But being champions changes the equation. Every opponent now has an extra incentive to beat Arsenal, while the Gunners must maintain the hunger and consistency that carried them to the summit.
Arteta, now the Premier League’s longest-serving manager, will be tasked with ensuring his players don’t become victims of their own success.
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The question is no longer whether Arsenal can win the league. It is whether they can cope with being the team everyone wants to knock off the top.
3. Liverpool gets an added Indian connection
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Indian viewers have another reason to keep a close eye on Liverpool this season.
British-Indian businessman Amit Bhatia is leading 1892 Holdings in an agreement to acquire a minority stake in the Merseyside club. The consortium also includes the Mittal Family Trusts, alongside Adar Poonawalla and existing investors.
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The Mittal family is also set to have a major connection with the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, creating an unusual crossover between two of the world’s biggest sporting competitions.
For Indian Premier League followers who also follow English football, Liverpool’s ownership story therefore adds another layer of familiarity to the Premier League.
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It may not affect what happens on the pitch, but it certainly gives Indian fans another reason to follow the Reds closely throughout the campaign.
4. The title race could explode from the opening weeks
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The Premier League schedule has wasted little time in putting the biggest clubs under pressure.
Arsenal and Chelsea will meet in a major London derby on September 6, before Manchester United and Manchester City renew their rivalry at Old Trafford on September 13.
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Then comes another heavyweight encounter on October 11, when Liverpool face Manchester City.
These matches could arrive before the teams have fully settled into the new season, making them even more significant.
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A strong start could provide a psychological advantage in the title race, while an early defeat could force one of the contenders to play catch-up.
For supporters, it means there is little reason to wait for the traditional festive period for the Premier League to hit top gear. The biggest clubs will be tested almost immediately.
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5. The post-Rodri era could define Manchester City’s season
Perhaps the most fascinating storyline at Manchester City is what comes after Rodri.
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The midfielder’s departure leaves an enormous hole in City’s midfield after five seasons in which he became central to the club’s success.
Rodri made 172 Premier League appearances for City, scoring 22 goals and providing 21 assists. During his time at the club, he won four consecutive Premier League titles and was part of a remarkable 50-match unbeaten run in games he started.
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Replacing that influence will be one of the biggest challenges of the season.
City are not the only club making major moves, either. Premier League spending has reached a collective £2.14 billion, underlining the scale of investment across the competition.
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Tottenham’s £100 million move for Sandro Tonali is among the headline deals, while other Big Six clubs have also strengthened significantly.
The result is a league where the established hierarchy could face serious disruption.
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A title race with no shortage of storylines
Arsenal begin the season as champions, but their crown is likely to be fiercely contested. Manchester City are entering a new era, Liverpool have an added Indian connection and Manchester United and Chelsea will be hoping their own rebuilds can translate into results.
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Add nine new managers and a calendar that throws up blockbuster fixtures almost immediately, and the ingredients are there for another unpredictable Premier League campaign.
Premier League Season 2026-27 gets underway on August 22, with all the action LIVE on JioHotstar and Star Sports Network.
They had also agreed to sign Ederson from Atalanta before a medical revealed concerns and the deal for the Brazil international fell through.
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While Baleba is currently out after an ankle problem, it is not thought to keep him out for long or to be enough of an issue to prevent a transfer from going through. Personal terms are not expected to be an issue with the midfielder either.
In a huge moment, Shinsuke Nakamura officially unveiled WWE’s newest superstar – a 36-year-old former New Japan Pro Wrestling star. They even have a new tag team name.
The partner of Shinsuke Nakamura is none other than Hiromu Takahashi, who now goes by the name of “Kyoki” after debuting in WWE. Together, they will be known as Bakusai and have straight-up said that they would be going after the MFTs and the WWE Tag Team Championship. This is a huge boost for the tag team division, and it’s going to be interesting to see the impact that Kyoki fka Takahashi has in WWE as well as the tag team division at large.
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Shinsuke Nakamura’s new tag team could be a part of WWE’s larger plan
It had been rumored for a while that WWE wanted to revamp the tag team division. These rumors tend to pop up every few years, and little is actually done to improve the division, except for small pockets of time. For example, when The Motor City Machine Guns debuted, it looked like WWE was taking the tag team division seriously and stacking it up, but that has been slowly dismantled over the course of two years.
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Either way, the MFTs need a challenger, and Shinsuke Nakamura and Kyoki seem like an interesting duo. With over ten years under his belt in WWE, Nakamura needs a new challenge. Although he has been a tag team champion before, he has never been fully integrated into the tag team division.
It leaves one glaring question, however – who else is there in the tag team division? Fraxiom hasn’t been properly utilized for ages through no fault of their own, and Damian Priest and R-Truth are completely out of the title picture after a loss in their rematch to the MFTs on the 21st August episode of SmackDown. Hopefully, there is a big plan in place.
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FIFA banned three Argentina players on Friday, including a 10-match suspension for midfielder Leandro Paredes, for striking Spain opponents after losing the World Cup final.
The ban for Paredes — who grabbed Spain’s Eric Garcia by the throat and pushed Gavi to the ground — ranks with the FIFA sanctions for Uruguay forward Luis Suarez in 2014 as among the most severe in World Cup history.
Argentina defender Nahuel Molina was handed a seven-game ban while Thiago Almada was given a one-game suspension. FIFA imposed fines of $90,000 on Paredes and Molina, and $30,000 for Almada.
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Leandro Paredes will essentially miss an entire year of Argentina games due to his 10-game suspension. (Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
The ban for Paredes is effectively a one-year expulsion from the Argentina team as the FIFA calendar for national team schedules includes 10 games through June 2027.
All of those games could be friendlies with no competitive games currently scheduled.
Spain’s Gavi also banned for game vs England
Gavi also was banned for one game, which is a Nations League match for Spain against England at Wembley on Sept. 26.
An Argentina coach, Roberto Ayala, also got a three-game ban and $30,000 fine.
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The Argentine Football Association was fined $110,000 for a range of incidents during the World Cup including players carrying a political banner about the Falkland Islands after the semifinal win against England, and discriminatory chants by fans.
AFA also was ordered by FIFA to spend $100,000 on anti-racism projects. Argentina received $34 million in World Cup prize money from FIFA.
Argentina expected to appeal
AFA can appeal the longer sanctions and fines to FIFA, and likely after at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“The AFA legal department will, in a timely manner, request from FIFA the grounds for the reviewable rulings in order to file appeals with the governing body’s appeal committee, while retaining the future option of appealing to the CAS as a final recourse,” the federation said in a statement.
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Suárez and Simunic cases
In 2014, Suárez was banned from all soccer for four months, including for his new club Barcelona, and eight more competition games for Uruguay for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini in a World Cup group stage game in Brazil.
Argentina Related Stories
Paredes’ 10-game ban equals that in 2013 for Josip Simunic of Croatia after winning a World Cup qualifying playoff. Simunic used a megaphone to lead fans chanting a slogan used by the country’s pro-Nazi regime during World War II.
The on-field clashes at last month’s final in East Rutherford, New Jersey — which were charged by FIFA as assault cases — came after Argentina lost a testy final to Spain where it was mostly outplayed and barely created a scoring chance.
Spain forward Ferran Torres scored the only goal in the second period of extra time, after Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez was sent off.
FIFA disciplinary judges also ordered Argentina to play its next home game in a stadium limited to 50% of capacity. FIFA deferred a second stadium sanction and a $100,000 for probationary periods.
-12 W Clark (US), -11 G Woodland (US), -10 JJ Spaun (US), -9 S J Im (Kor), C Gotterup (US), -8 P Cantlay (US), M Thorbjornsen (US), -7 C Morikawa (US), R McIlroy (NI), R Henley (US), M McNealy (US)
Selected others: -4 J Rose (Eng), -3 RMacIntyre (Sco), M Fitzpatrick (Eng), -2 A Fitzpatrick (Eng), T Fleetwood (Eng), -1 A Rai (Eng)
Overnight leader Rory McIlroy said he would be heading to the driving range after falling away from the lead at the BMW Championship in St Louis.
The Masters champion began with a fine six-under-par in the opening round, but followed that with a one under-par 69 on Friday.
It means he is five shots behind Wyndham Clark, with whom he shared the lead after the first round.
Clark had a flawless round to finish on 12 under and leads the contest by one stroke over Gary Woodland.
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The 32-year-old is the only player in the competition without a bogey in the first two rounds.
“I feel like conditions were pretty similar to yesterday,” McIlroy told the Golf Channel after his round.
“The wind was coming out of a different direction, but still very scorable. The greens are soft, maybe the ball’s got a little bit more run out on the fairways, but you’ll still see guys shooting pretty good scores today.
“I didn’t quite hit it as good as I did yesterday, so probably an afternoon on the range for me.
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“I’m proud of how I just hung in there. A lot of good par putts on the back nine, especially. The only bogey I had was with a mistake on the par-five eighth hole, but I made some really good par saves coming in and that sort of kept me in it.”
Since winning the Championship by 11 points from Ipswich Town, Coventry have spent about £130m, breaking their transfer record four times already this summer.
They have signed midfielder Frank Onyeka, centre-back Aurele Amenda, winger Loum Tchaouna and goalkeeper Carl Rushworth, while Ghana midfielder Caleb Yirenkyi was their record signing at £23.1m.
All five started at the Emirates, while fellow new arrivals, Gustavo Hamer from Sheffield United and striker Taiwo Awoniyi from Nottingham Forest, came on as substitutes.
All of them have top-flight or international experience, as well as physicality to their game, but even those additions did little to prevent Arsenal from asserting their superiority on Friday night.
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When asked what Lampard told the players at full-time, captain Matt Grimes said: “Our season won’t be defined by coming to places like this and getting beaten. Coming here against players like this is always going to be a tough ask.”
But a game that could define their season follows next week when they host Hull City – who came up through the play-offs – at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
The Sky Blues have the toughest opening schedule of any team this season, according to Opta, with trips against Manchester City and Nottingham Forest to come next month, so the game against Hull takes on greater significance.
The teams played out goalless draws in both meetings in the Championship last season.
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“With that start, we have to remain calm,” admitted Lampard.
“We want to get rolling. We had a good feeling last year of winning games and it makes everything pretty easy. It won’t be so easy this year, but we want to get those points for sure.”
Returning to the Premier League was hard for the Sky Blues. But now it gets even harder.
The 2026 BMW Championship continues on Saturday with the third round at Bellerive C.C. in St. Louis. You can find full BMW Championship tee times for Saturday’s third round at the bottom of this post.
BMW Round 3 tee times: What to know
Wyndham Clark is on a hot streak.
The five-time PGA Tour winner has notched two victories in the last three months, as well as an additional three top-5 finishes to go with them. The reigning U.S. Open champ is currently No. 5 in the FedEx Cup points standings, and after firing consecutive rounds of 64 in St. Louis, he’s the solo leader at 12 under par, and well-positioned to add yet another win to his resume.
A blemish-free scorecard that included six birdies and zero bogeys on Friday gave Clark a one-shot lead over Gary Woodland heading into the weekend. A victory is projected to launch Clark from 5th to 3rd in the FedEx Cup rankings for next week’s FedEx Cup finale: the Tour Championship.
On Saturday, Clark will tee off for Round 3 at 1:50 p.m. ET alongside Woodland.
You can watch Saturday’s third round of the 2026 BMW Championship from 1-3 p.m. ET on Golf Channel, followed by the CBS broadcast from 3-6 p.m. ET. PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ will provide exclusive early streaming coverage starting at 9:15 a.m. ET on Saturday, in addition to featured group and featured hole coverage.
Check out the complete Round 3 tee times and groupings for the BMW Championship below.
No player has arguably been better than their peers at their respective position than Fred Warner since the turn of the decade. But as the San Francisco 49ers’ star returns from a gruesome ankle injury that ended his 2025 season prematurely, is Warner still the NFL’s best linebacker ahead of the 2026 campaign?
We ranked the 10 best linebackers in the league as we prepare for the new year. Warner, a four-time first-team All-Pro, was one of two players to receive first-place votes in our rankings, with the Detroit Lions’ Jack Campbell and the Baltimore Ravens’ Roquan Smith among those vying for the top spot.
Here’s a full look at our top 10 linebackers entering the 2026 season.
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Devin Lloyd had a Pro Bowl year with the Jaguars in 2025, landing him a rich deal with the Panthers. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)
Greg Auman: Can takeaways be what takes Carolina’s defense from bad to good? In defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero’s first year in Charlotte in 2023, the Panthers had an NFL-low 11 takeaways, improving to 17 in 2024 and 21 last year. Lloyd signed a three-year, $42 million deal after a breakout Pro Bowl year with the Jacksonville Jaguars, in which he had five interceptions to help his former team record 31 takeaways, second-most in the NFL.
It’s concerning that Jacksonville let Lloyd walk from the middle of its defense, but he and edge rusher Jaelan Phillips are two high-dollar additions to Carolina’s defense as they try to improve enough to repeat as NFC South champs. Lloyd is 27 and needs to show last year’s splash plays — notably absent his previous two years — can continue as a defensive spark.
Nick Bolton recorded over 100 tackles for a second straight season in 2025. (Photo by Johnnie Izquierdo/Getty Images)
Ben Arthur: Bolton has been one of the NFL’s most steady off-ball linebackers since entering the league in 2021, helping the Chiefs win two Super Bowls. The former second-round pick is coming off his second straight season of 100-plus tackles, six pass breakups, an interception and a forced fumble. In 2025, he tied for third in run stops (86) and 10th in hustle stops (15) among linebackers, according to Next Gen Stats.
With Kansas City’s secondary undergoing a makeover this offseason, Bolton will take on a more pronounced role in Steve Spagnuolo’s back-seven as the green dot. Pass coverage is an area for improvement, though. Opposing quarterbacks had a 93.8 passer rating when targeting him in coverage last season, the third time in five seasons he’s allowed a 90-plus passer rating, per NGS.
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Ernest Jones IV earned second-team All-Pro honors in 2025. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
Eric D. Williams: Only 26 years old, Jones has won two Super Bowl rings in six NFL seasons. Since Seattle made a midseason trade for the South Carolina product with the Tennessee Titans in 2024, Jones has been the green-dot playcaller and a leader for one of the best defensive teams in the NFL. Jones finished with a career-high five interceptions (a franchise record for a linebacker) and 126 combined tackles in 2025, earning second-team All-Pro honors for the first time in his NFL career.
Jones has finished with at least 100 tackles for four straight seasons. Jones spent his first three seasons in the league with the Los Angeles Rams, setting a single-season franchise record with 145 tackles in 2023, including a career-high 4.5 sacks.
Azeez Al-Shaair was named a Pro Bowler for the first time in his career in 2025. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
Arthur: Once in the shadows of Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw in San Francisco, Al-Shaair has come into his own as a star linebacker the last couple of years. His aggressive play style sets the tone as the green dot of the Texans’ juggernaut defense. In 2025, the former undrafted free agent registered his third 100-tackle season and posted career-highs in interceptions (two) and pass breakups (nine) to make his first Pro Bowl.
Overall, Al-Shaair is one of the league’s best coverage linebackers. Among qualified linebackers last season, he ranked ninth in both tight windows forced rate and coverage EPA and 20th in ballhawk rate, per NGS.
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Jordyn Brooks led the NFL in total tackles in 2025. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Auman: Brooks, 28, is the rare Dolphins star the franchise chose to keep this year, locking him up with a three-year, $48 million deal. He earned first-team All-Pro honors last year, leading the NFL with 183 total tackles, but he’s been productive for a while. Over the last five years, he has the third-most tackles in the league, with more tackles for loss (45) than anyone else in the top five. He’s aggressive at the line of scrimmage, with 3.5 sacks and 13 tackles for loss last year, and he’ll need to be as part of a rebuilding Dolphins roster under new head coach Jeff Hafley.
Can the Dolphins win enough games to stay ahead of the Jets and avoid the AFC East cellar? Brooks is a core piece in Miami that’s part of their past and part of their future as well.
Zack Baun had another standout season in 2025 following his surprise breakout 2024 campaign. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
Ralph Vacchiano: It is still absolutely remarkable that the Eagles viewed Baun as little more than a special teams player when they signed him away from New Orleans in 2024, and instead they got a two-time Pro Bowler and one of their best defensive starters. He was one of the best defenders in the league in 2024 and he had almost identical production last season when he had 123 tackles, 3.5 sacks and two interceptions.
Baun’s the perfect versatile linebacker for Vic Fangio’s scheme. He’s got the speed to rush the passer and drop back in tight coverage, and he has better instincts than many linebackers in the league. Linebacker hasn’t always been a strength in Philadelphia. But thanks to the 29-year-old Baun, it is now.
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Carson Schwessinger won Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2025. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)
Bucky Brooks: The second-year pro quickly established himself as a tackling machine in the middle of the Browns’ defense. Schweisinger’s instincts, range, and awareness as a “see ball, get ball” defender shrink the field for the opponents, leading to fewer explosive plays against the ultra-aggressive unit.
With the youngster also controlling the game as the green dot wearer, the Pro Bowler’s intelligence and communication skills set him apart from others at the position.
Jack Campbell had the second-most tackles in the NFL this past season. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
Henry McKenna: Let’s just start with last season when he had 176 tackles, nine tackles for loss, three forced fumbles, five sacks and four pass breakups. Sort of like a quarterback whose rare arm talent allows him to use every blade of grass, Campbell has the athleticism, range and awareness to be a threat in just about every part of the field. There really isn’t a defensive phase where he doesn’t make an impact.
I’m not sure Campbell gets the love he deserves, in part because he’s a defensive playmaker and in part because his position is no longer considered “premium.” But to that point, it takes a truly special linebacker to justify the draft position of 18th overall, where the Lions got Campbell in 2023. And he has absolutely made that pick worth it.
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Roquan Smith has logged at least 100 tackles in all eight seasons of his NFL career. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
Williams: One of the most explosive linebackers in the league, Smith can make plays from sideline to sideline and is one of the best tacklers in the NFL. A four-time Pro Bowler and three-time first-team All-Pro, Smith has eclipsed 100 tackles in all eight of his NFL seasons.
But Smith will have to adjust to a new system with defensive-minded head coach Jesse Minter taking over as the team’s head coach. Smith is looking to take the ball away this season after finishing with zero forced fumbles, sacks and interceptions in 2025.
Fred Warner missed the majority of the 2025 season due to a dislocated and broken ankle. (Photo by Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Brooks: The NFL’s prototype at the position displays a rare combination of size, speed, intelligence, and violence. Warner is a menacing sideline-to-sideline defender who covers ground like a gazelle, but attacks runners and pass catchers like the Lion King tracking his prey.
Given Warner’s penchant for producing big plays as a run defender and in coverage, the All-Pro is the “Mike” linebacker that every defensive coordinator would choose as a foundational piece.
MILWAUKEE – The greatest show on the sand, silt, and clay of the pitcher’s mound these days is Milwaukee Brewers right-handed force of nature Jacob Misiorowski. The 24-year-old is not just the best pitcher in the world in 2026, he’s also the most viscerally overwhelming pitcher in the world.
Misiorowski on Friday at the Brewers’ home yard squared off against Chris Sale, one of the best at his craft and a pitcher some 13 years Misiorowski’s senior. It was not only a clash of aces, it was also a duel between two of the best teams in baseball. The 40,130 in attendance — marking the 16th Milwaukee sell-out of the season (and this one on weekday afternoon) – surely knew it meant a little more than most August games do.
Beyond the importance of the outcome — Milwaukee won 2-1 — and what it meant to a Brewers team trying to fend off the Cubs and secure top seed throughout the postseason and a Braves team angling to secure a bye, it was a Misiorowski start. No matter the opponent, that’s appointment viewing these days. If you were watching, here’s what you saw.
First inning
Working from the first base side of the rubber, Misiorowski opens with a 101.8 mph fastball to greet Braves leadoff hitter Ronald Acuña Jr. It’s a ball inside. Misiorowski will go to the fastball with all five pitches that Acuña sees — all triple digits, and four of them out of the zone. Acuña flicks away the only strike, one on the outside sliver of the zone, and works a walk.
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With most starting pitchers, we’d note that they’d now be working from the stretch. Misirowski, though, is unusual among starting pitchers in that he always works from the stretch. Perhaps, with his long levers and maxed-out stuff, keeping it simple is the soundest approach. It’s certainly impossible to argue with the results, just as it’s impossible to argue with the Brewers’ faculties when it comes to pitching development.
On Misiorowski’s sixth pitch of the game, he finally departs from the fastball and presents Drake Baldwin with a 98-mph cutter. Two offerings later, he goes to the slider for the first time on Friday. It’s not his fully gassed-up slider. He’s touched 98 with his slider this season, although when his slide-piece is at those levels, it might be more of a cutter than a true slider. If you call it a true slider, then Misiorowski has thrown 49 of the 50 fastest sliders on record. Is a 98-mph slider more impressive than his occasional 104-mph fastball? It might be, if, of course, it’s a slider in the genuine sense and not a cutter or the infelicitously named slutter. We know that his fastball is a fastball, though, so it’s fine to direct your amazement there, as you likely already were.
Misiorowski gets his first strikeout of the game on a 101.6 mph fastball that catches the outside edge at Baldwin’s expense.
Speaking of the typical purpose of pitching from the stretch — to hold runners — preventing the steal is a skill of Misiorowski’s that gets overlooked. On that note:
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This was a delayed steal on the part of Acuña, so the out was more an instance of poor decision-making running headlong into William Contreras‘ powerful throwing arm. Contreras is among the game’s best when it comes to controlling the running game, but let’s note that Misiorowski has allowed only one stolen base this season – the fewest among qualifiers alongside Ryan Weathers.
Not long after, Misiorowski ends the frame with a backfoot slider to Matt Olson that he whiffs on. He throws the slider about three times as often to right-handed batters, but, as Olson will surely attest, he can back-foot it to left-handed batters as a putaway pitch. This one was 91.8 mph, so, yes, it’s a true slider.
Second inning
It seems like the merest matter of time before Misiorowski eventually authors a no-hitter, but it won’t be today. With two out, Mauricio Dubón lines an 0-2 fastball to right for a single. At 103.1 mph, the pitch is Misiorowski’s hastiest of the day and the first pitch we’ve seen enter what’s informally known as “Miz Velo Country.”
It’s not particularly fair to throw that hard as a starting pitcher, and what makes it even less fair from the Misiorowski standpoint is how close to the plate he releases the ball. The 6-foot-7 Misiorowski gets, on average, an absurd 7.6 feet of extension off the rubber and toward the plate. That puts him in the 99th percentile in extension among big league hurlers.
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Take a look at Misiorowski’s first inning landing spot, as amateurishly captured from the American Family Field press box:
And here’s how it looked in the fourth inning after Sale has put his spikes on the mound:
As you can see, the 6-foot-6 Sale had been planting well behind Misirowski. Sale gets his six-and-a-half feet in extension, on average, and that puts him in the 59th percentile, but thanks to his crossfire delivery he doesn’t get down the hill as much as Misiorowski does.
That’s where the notion of effective velocity comes into play. The hitter obviously has vanishingly little time to react to Misiorowski’s fastball, and because he releases the ball so close to the hitter, it’s even less time than you might think. Misiorowski this season has averaged 100.6 mph with his fastball, but his average effective velocity — meaning what the pitch feels like to the hitter — is 103.1 mph thanks to his elite extension. He has a high leg lift, with the knee basically coming in line with the jersey lettering when he’s going into his delivery, and that sets him up to stride deep toward the plate.
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When we talk about Miz’s fastball, we’ll often couch it in terms like “fastest by a starting pitcher” when talking about Aroldis Chapman in historical terms or Mason Miller on the contemporary front. Miller indeed does best Misiorowski on the radar gun, with an average four-seamer of 101.5 mph. In effective velocity, though, Miller comes in at 102.4 mph because he gets less extension than Misiorowski. Miller may throw harder, but most hitters would probably tell you that Miz seems like he throws hardest of all.
He induced a 2-1 fly-out from Dom Smith to strand Dubón and end the inning.
Third inning
The third frame, in which after the first two batters Misiorowski gets into the Atlanta lineup for the second time, sees him take a slider-heavy approach. Of his 11 pitches in the inning, just three are fastballs. He goes to the four-seamer more than 60% of the time overall, which is a point of distinction these days, so this is a brief departure for Misiorowski. Like most teams, the Braves are less effective against breaking stuff than fastballs, and Misiorowski is getting deeper into his secondaries a bit early, since he probably won’t go extremely deep into this game even if the zeroes continue to stack up. He’s pitching on extra rest, as is custom with him lately, as his workload continues to mount and as the Brewers increasingly operate with a focus on a deep October run.
Misiorowski whiffs Austin Riley on a fastball after feeding him three straight sliders. Against the Braves No. 9 hitter, Mike Yastrzemski, he throws a curve for the first time. The curve is actually Miz’s best pitch in terms of whiff rate, but this one lands a bit too middle-in, and Yastrzemski lines it to right for a single. First pitch ground-outs to Acuña and Baldwin end the frame.
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Fourth inning
Freshly staked to a 2-0 lead, Misirowski benefits from the first ABS challenge of the day by Contreras, who flips a called ball into a called strike at the top of the zone to put Olson in an 0-1 count. He’s back to a fastball-heavy approach in this inning and throws three straight balls to Olson before retiring him on back-to-back swinging strikes at the fastball. With a 2-1 count, Harris stings a 99.7 mph high fastball – it’s the first hard-hit ball that Misiorowski has permitted on this day – but center fielder Luis Lara makes a nifty ranging catch to prevent extra bases. The 16-pitch perfect frame ends on an Ozzie Albies fly-out.
Fifth inning
For a pitcher like Misiorowski, who doesn’t throw a sinker and leans so heavily on a four-seamer he likes to spot high in the zone, you wouldn’t expect strong groundball tendencies. But Misiorowski has a ground-ball percentage of 45.1, which puts him in the 64th percentile among MLB hurlers. This is because his secondaries all get more grounders than you’d expect given their traits and types. The fifth provides a reminder, and Dubón leads off the inning by grounding out to Brice Turang at second on a Miz cutter. The pitch was at the very top of the zone, but because of the late natural sink it dipped under the barrel and registered a -3 degree launch angle.
Another ground ball followed, but this one off the bat of Smith (with a -17 degree launch angle) sneaked into right field for a hit. Facing Riley for the second time, Misiorowski flipped his approach and went fastballs broken up by a slider. He earned a whiff. The Braves brought the potential tying run to the plate when Yastrzemski earned a four-pitch walk — not a common occurrence for Misiorowski. Yes, his stuff is electricity set on fire, but it’s all harnessed and commanded. He’s walked just 6% of opposing batters, which is figure that puts him among the league’s top control artists (a descriptor that, even so, will never be applied to him). This walk meant Misiorowski would face the perilous Acuña for the third time on Friday in a crucial spot. With a 1-2 count, he fed the former MVP a fastball above the zone followed by a slider at the very bottom of it. One -17 degree launch angle later, a 6-3 putout ended the threat.
Sixth inning
Improbably, Misiorowski this season has permitted a .122/.230/.194 line when facing an opposing lineup for the third time in a start. Still, in-game familiarity benefits the hitter, and the theory holds even when a pitcher like Misiorowski is defying it. The sixth indeed occasioned danger for the Milwaukee ace.
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To start, he freezes Baldwin for a punchout on the sixth pitch of their encounter. Next was Olson, and Misiorowski got ahead 0-2 thanks to two different brands of sliders – one back door and one back foot. Olson evens the count at 2-2 and then bruises a high fastball, 104.8 mph off the bat, to center. Lara, though, is on the case:
The ball off Olson’s bat had an expected batting average of .770, but in truth that figure turned out to be .000. Two pitches later, Harris smoked a double to right off a slider, and a mound visit followed. An Albies fly-out put an end to the inning. With a pitch count of 96 Misiorowski’s day was probably already done, but the Brewers no doubt noted that against Albies he threw his slowest four-seamer at 97.2 mph and his slowest cutter at 94.7 mph. The Fatigued state is when mechanics go awry, and we know what can happen from there. Wielding the beast of unthinkable velocity means respecting it, at least if you want to keep wielding it. He wasn’t his sharpest self in that inning, and, who can say, if the sunlight didn’t break through that bank of windows at American Family Field in the sixth and complicate the hitting visuals, maybe it’s not a spotless day after all for Misiorowski.
His final line:
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As of that work, Misiorowski this season has an ERA of 1.68 and an FIP of 2.14 in 145 innings. He’s also struck out 216 batters, which comes to a K% of 39.3 — an absurd figure for any pitcher, let alone a starter who isn’t even a quarter-century old yet. All of that — everything, really — leads the majors.
The Braves broke through against the Milwaukee bullpen with a run in the eighth and put the tying run on base in the ninth, but in the end the crisp two-hour and 21-minute pitcher’s duel — connoisseur’s baseball — went the way most expected it to. It went to the better team and — this is often said in reference to a probable future Hall of Famer like Sale — the better pitcher. The Brewers, thanks to the heavy lifting of Misiorowski, are now the first team to 80 wins in 2026.
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Given the two moundsmen involved and the two teams involved, it all felt like a prelude to something bigger, say, seven or eight weeks from now. That sounds all right, does it not?
Rory McIlroy headed straight to the driving range after dropping off the pace during the BMW Championship‘s second round in St Louis.
The Masters champion opened with a six-under-par round to share the lead, but managed to improve his score by only a single stroke on Friday with a 69.
“I feel like conditions were pretty similar to yesterday,” McIlroy told the Golf Channel.
“The wind was coming out of a different direction, but still very scorable. The greens are soft, maybe the ball’s got a little bit more run out on the fairways, but you’ll still see guys shooting pretty good scores today.
“I didn’t quite hit it as good as I did yesterday, so probably an afternoon on the range for me.
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JJ Spaun impressed on Friday (PA)
“I’m proud of how I just hung in there. A lot of good par putts on the back nine, especially. The only bogey I had was with a mistake on the par-five eighth hole, but I made some really good par saves coming in and that sort of kept me in it.”
McIlroy’s underwhelming round came after Bryson DeChambeau hit back at the Northern Irishman after he questioned the value that the American and Jon Rahm had brought to LIV Golf, amid the breakaway league’s struggles.
DeChambeau said: “I think we just have a bit of a responsibility to continue to show this. If it works, it works; awesome. If it doesn’t, we’ll figure things out.”
He added: “Time will move on, and I would say that time heals things. I hope people can see that we actually bring value to the game of golf. My wish is that people give us one more shot and be open minded.”
American JJ Spaun looked on course to dominate the second round after reaching 11 under at the turn.
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Three bogeys on the back nine slowed his advance, but two birdies, including at the 18th, set the early clubhouse target on 10 under.
World number one Scottie Scheffler, two over after a first-round 72, bogeyed the first but bounced back with five back-nine birdies to remain contending at three under.
The 2026 NFL regular season gets underway in under three weeks with the kickoff game on Wednesday, Sept. 9. With Week 2 of the NFL preseason rolling, the time has come for Fantasy football owners to lock in on preparations for another big Fantasy football draft weekend. Veterans like Josh Allen, Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs and Ja’Marr Chase all headline the 2026 Fantasy football rankings, and will likely be among the top players on most Fantasy football draft boards. The key to Fantasy success remains finding sleepers and rookies who outperform their Fantasy football ADP, and avoiding drafting players that end up being Fantasy football 2026 busts.
Last year, the model accurately predicted that Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin would fall well short of his top-50 ADP. The result: A season after piling up nearly 1,100 receiving yards and a career-high 13 touchdown catches, McLaurin had career lows in receiving yards (582) and receiving touchdowns (3). Injuries were a factor, but his per-game averages were down across the board as well, so anybody who avoided him in Fantasy drafts dodged a major headache.
The same model has a proven track record providing Fantasy football tips, identifying A.J. Brown as a sleeper in 2020, nailing Jonathan Taylor’s monstrous season in 2021 and correctly predicting C.J. Stroud would take a step back in 2024. Additionally, it’s called past Fantasy football sleepers like Derrick Henry in 2019, Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara in 2018, and Davante Adams in 2017.
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Now, SportsLine has simulated the entire NFL season 10,000 times and released its latest Fantasy football rankings 2026, along with plenty of sleepers, breakouts and busts. Head to SportsLine now to see them.
Top 2026 Fantasy football busts
One of the 2026 Fantasy football busts the model is predicting: New York Giants receiver Malik Nabers. He’s going off the board around pick No. 34, but SportsLine’s model doesn’t even have him as a top-15 receiver. In fact, it has players such as DeVonta Smith and Nico Collins above him.
Nabers isn’t a lock to be ready to at the start of the season after tearing his ACL last season and then undergoing a follow-up procedure in the spring. The Giants are also expected to lean heavily on the run game under offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, making Nabers a risky pick in the second or early third round. See more busts at SportsLine.
Another bust that SportsLine’s Fantasy football rankings 2026 have identified: Bills running back James Cook. Cook is going off the board with an ADP around No. 11 overall and is the fifth running back being taken on average. SportsLine’s model, however, ranks him as RB No. 10, behind players such as Derrick Henry and Chase Brown, saying that he should be more of a late-second or even third round pick.
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Cook has stacked two impressive seasons and was the RB6 a year ago, so it’s understandable why he’s getting first-round consideration in many drafts. He did fumble at a higher rate last season, however, and he’s not an elite target out of the backfield. Also, Josh Allen always looms as a touchdown vulture for Buffalo, as these factors are why the model is leaning to other high-end backs early. See which other Fantasy football busts 2026 to pick here.
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