Nine clubs start under a new manager, a record for an opening weekend, and the reshuffle reaches almost every corner of the top six: Enzo Maresca at Man City, Andoni Iraola at Liverpool, Xabi Alonso at Chelsea, Matthias Jaissle at Newcastle.
Pre-season, as ever, dealt out its usual mix of flattering thrashings and instructive defeats, most of which will mean nothing by October. With that caveat firmly attached, here is where all 20 stand:
Arsenal
Champions, and behaving like it when it counted.
The friendlies were forgettable - beaten by Real Betis and Borussia Dortmund on home soil, the kind of results that vanish the moment the whistle blows - but the 3-0 dismantling of Man City in the Community Shield in Cardiff was a statement of intent that pre-season rarely provides.
Christos Tzolis, the £34 million arrival from Club Brugge, has looked worth the money, and the £75m capture of Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle hands Mikel Arteta a midfield of genuine control.
This was a summer of refinement rather than overhaul, though the absence of a new number nine will keep the same tired debate ticking over until someone settles it on the pitch.
Aston Villa
Unai Emery's men earned the right to open the European season, contesting the UEFA Super Cup as Europa League holders after that emphatic 3-0 win over Freiburg in Istanbul, their first major trophy since 1996. They lost it 2-1 to PSG, Emery's fourth Super Cup defeat, though 17-year-old Brian Madjo announced himself with the equaliser.
The pre-season ledger reads badly - defeats to Porto, Real Sociedad, Bayern and Monchengladbach - but the opposition explains most of it. The real concern is subtraction: Morgan Rogers gone to Chelsea for £117m, Youri Tielemans to Man Utd, and Amadou Onana sidelined by an ACL injury.
Club-record signing Johan Manzambi and Joao Gomes arrive to rebuild the middle, with Alejandro Garnacho on loan to add thrust, but a Champions League campaign and a thinner creative core are a demanding combination.
Bournemouth
Life after Andoni Iraola begins under Marco Rose, and the early attacking signs are loud: five past Augsburg, four past St Pauli, 10 past Genoa behind closed doors. Numbers to enjoy without over-reading.
The bigger question sits at the back, where a summer of defensive turnover has brought in Antonio Silva, Alvaro Rodriguez, Alex Jimenez and Juanlu Sanchez, a lot of new faces to weld into a unit before the real thing. Marcos Senesi's free departure to Tottenham thins the experience further.
Rose has the forward tools; the defence still looks like an early work in progress.
Brentford
Keith Andrews defied the doubters with a ninth-place finish last season, matching the club's best, and was rewarded with a contract to 2032. The headline of the summer is a non-transfer: Igor Thiago, whose 22 league goals were bettered only by Erling Haaland, has stayed.
Pre-season was sparse but violent, a 7-0 evisceration of Eintracht Frankfurt at the Gtech the standout. Mamadou Sangare arrives from Lens as the marquee addition, with Jaidon Anthony and a free-transfer Callum Wilson adding depth.
The recruitment looks measured rather than transformative, which suits a club that rarely does anything by accident.
Brighton
Business as usual on the south coast, which is to say business done cleverly. Two consecutive eighth-place finishes and a Conference League campaign to juggle, and Fabian Hurzeler's side rolled through pre-season with wins over Roma and Bologna, plus a 4-3 thriller at Strasbourg.
The model kept turning: Jan Paul van Hecke sold to Spurs for £52m, Pascal Struijk and Michael Svoboda brought in to replace him, Luka Vuskovic signed permanently. James Milner has retired, and Solly March has been released.
The gap, as ever, is whether the restocking holds at the back while a young squad chases Europe on two fronts.
Chelsea
Xabi Alonso's arrival is the most intriguing appointment of the summer, a coach of real pedigree inheriting a squad assembled at eye-watering cost.
Morgan Rogers became a £117m club record, one of 11 arrivals alongside Geovany Quenda, Marco Palestra, Maxence Lacroix and Emmanuel Emegha.
Joao Pedro was the pre-season story, a hat-trick against Western Sydney and a double against AC Milan, hinting at a striker hitting form early. There is no European football to contend with this season, the sort of clear diary that helped Antonio Conte drill a title-winning Chelsea in 2016/17.
Alonso has the resources; coherence from a sprawling, youthful roster is the only real question, even with the added experience of Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck.
Coventry
Twenty-five years away, and Frank Lampard's promoted side is spending like they intend to stay. A club-record £23.1m on Caleb Yirenkyi, plus Loum Tchaouna, Aurele Amenda and, crucially, Premier League-proven Taiwo Awoniyi from Nottingham Forest.
The pre-season 2-0 win over Monaco and 3-1 over Espanyol suggest a squad with a pulse, even if an early defeat to AFC Wimbledon offered a reminder of the gap to be bridged.
The unknown is simple and unavoidable: none of this has been tested at this level. Ambitious rather than reckless, and seemingly better placed than most promoted sides in recent memory.
Crystal Palace
Pierre Sage, plucked from Lyon, takes over a group that has just lost Maxence Lacroix to Chelsea for £52m, a significant hole at the heart of the defence.
The incomings lean on free transfers and loans - Oscar Mingueza, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Dwight McNeil in a swap with Everton - alongside the £21m arrival of Anan Khalaili.
Pre-season was choppy: a 3-1 win over Wolves offset by 3-0 defeats at Bromley and Freiburg.
A first-time Premier League manager, a departed key defender and a squad in flux are a lot to reconcile.
Everton
David Moyes has added creativity and legs - Tyrique George from Chelsea, Brennan Johnson via a swap, Merlin Rohl and Hayden Hackney through the middle, Christian Norgaard for balance.
Pre-season was solid without being emphatic: four past Dundee, a 3-1 win over Newcastle at Murrayfield, offset by defeats to Stoke and Stuttgart.
The perennial Everton riddle remains unanswered, though. For all the midfield reinforcement, the question of who reliably scores the goals is one the summer has so far not resolved.
Fulham
The summer's boldest gamble sits at Craven Cottage, where Alvaro Arbeloa steps into senior management for real.
Pre-season was thin, three matches, closing with a 1-0 win over Stuttgart, which tells you little.
The recruitment is a bet on youth: Gonzalo Garcia arrives from Real Madrid for £34m to replace the goals of Raul Jimenez, who left on a free transfer, with Shea Charles adding some steel.
Losing Jimenez and Harry Wilson while handing the attack to a 21-year-old under a rookie coach is a lot of faith placed in potential. High risk, and the early evidence is too scant to grade.
Hull
After nine years away, Sergej Jakirovic, who steered the Tigers through the play-offs and past Middlesbrough at Wembley, has been backed with wholesale change: Jack Butland, Konstantinos Tzolakis, Nobel Mendy, Matt Targett, Joe Gelhardt and a small squadron of others in, a similar number out.
Pre-season ticked along steadily: wins over Konyaspor and Rizespor, a goalless draw with Nice, a defeat to Frankfurt.
The scale of the turnover is the story and the risk in equal measure. A dozen new faces make for an unpredictable few opening months, and it starts against Man Utd at the MKM.
Ipswich
Kieran McKenna's departure was the summer's surprise, with Gary O'Neil inheriting a heavily rebuilt squad: Emersonn, Julio Enciso, Abdul Fatawu and Daizen Maeda among a dozen arrivals north of £150m combined.
The football warmed up nicely, a 3-0 win over Rayo Vallecano and a 4-2 victory at Union Berlin closing pre-season on an upswing.
The concern is the familiar one for a promoted side rebuilt at speed: cohesion. O'Neil's record reads as survival-flavoured, and he has precious little time to make a new group move as one.
Leeds
Daniel Farke's side, safe in their first season back, ran through pre-season with a swagger, beating Liverpool 4-2 in Chicago, RB Leipzig 2-0 and Augsburg 4-0.
James Trafford's £40m arrival from Man City is a statement in goal, with Harry Wilson and Tarik Muharemovic adding quality across the pitch. Pascal Struijk's sale to Brighton and Illan Meslier's free exit are manageable losses.
The lingering doubt is the one that undoes most promoted survivors: whether this squad scores enough to stay comfortable. On this evidence, the mood at Elland Road is justified.
Liverpool
The most precarious rebuild in the division is occurring at Anfield as Andoni Iraola replaces the sacked Arne Slot and walks into a spine stripped bare - Mo Salah, Ibrahima Konate and Andy Robertson all departed on free transfers, a staggering trio of exits for nothing.
The incomings do not come close to matching that outlay in stature: Jeremy Jacquet for £55m, Victor Munoz, and Ronald Araujo on loan from Barcelona.
Pre-season mirrored the uncertainty, a bright win over Como set against defeats to Leeds and Monaco.
Replacing Salah's fear factor is the defining problem of Liverpool's summer, and right now there is no obvious answer on the books.
Manchester City
The end of an era, and a stop-start beginning to the next.
Enzo Maresca succeeds Pep Guardiola after FA Cup success but a surrendered title, and his reign opened with a 1-1 draw against Inter Milan in Hong Kong, lost on penalties despite 24 shots to Inter's 10. Back-to-back 3-1 wins over a K-League All Stars XI and Atletico Madrid followed, with Antoine Semenyo the pick of the attackers and Omar Marmoush scoring twice against the Spanish side.
Then came Cardiff, and a chastening 3-0 Community Shield defeat to Arsenal that undid much of the goodwill.
The squad has been reshaped around Maresca; Rodri, Bernardo Silva and John Stones are gone, and a club-record £116m has been spent on Elliot Anderson.
As a disciple of Guardiola, the burden now is to prove he is more than an echo.
Manchester United
Michael Carrick, now permanent, delivered a third-place finish after Ruben Amorim's exit, and that is the bar he must now defend.
The pre-season was a curiosity: a 1-0 defeat to Wrexham in Helsinki raised eyebrows before a 5-0 rout of Rosenborg restored order, only for a 4-2 loss to Amorim's AC Milan to muddy it again.
The midfield has been rebuilt around Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans, and Marcus Rashford returns from his Barcelona loan. The glaring gap is up front: Rasmus Hojlund was sold to Napoli with no marquee replacement signed.
For all the midfield investment, the question of who leads the line is unresolved and pressing.
Newcastle
The summer's biggest gamble, and it is not close.
Eddie Howe has gone, replaced by Matthias Jaissle, and the squad he inherits has been gutted at the very top: Anthony Gordon to Barcelona, Bruno Guimaraes to Arsenal, Sandro Tonali to Spurs for £92.5m, Kieran Trippier released.
In their place come Bazoumana Toure, Aladji Bamba, Amar Dedic and Sean Steur, players of promise rather than proven Premier League output.
Pre-season offered flickers, a 2-1 win at Valencia among them, but the arithmetic is stark. Three of the club's best players sold, a coach new to England, and a rebuild that has to click almost immediately.
Nottingham Forest
Oliver Glasner arrives with genuine pedigree, a Europa League with Frankfurt and an FA Cup with Palace, to replace the dismissed Vitor Pereira.
His inheritance is complicated by the £116m sale of Elliot Anderson to Man City, a windfall that funds a rebuild but leaves a creative void, as well as Taiwo Awoniyi's exit to Coventry. Still, Ousmane Diomande and Xaver Schlager look like shrewd additions.
Pre-season was a genuine mixed bag, with wins over Bayer Leverkusen and Brest running alongside defeats to Sporting and Barcelona.
European nights return this season, and squad depth behind the departed pair is the thing to watch.
Sunderland
Seventh place and European football in their first season back was one of last season's great overachievements, and Regis Le Bris deserves the credit.
Pre-season carried the same spirit, a 5-1 romp at York and a 2-1 win over Rennes bookending a decent tour.
The unease is in the transfer market: on confirmed deals, Sunderland's incoming business has been strikingly light next to their peers, with Thomas Meunier the notable free arrival and a raft of loanees returning.
After punching above their weight and with a Europa League diary to fill, a quiet window is a risk, though these things can shift late.
Tottenham Hotspur
Roberto De Zerbi, in the job since March, gets his first full pre-season and a substantially rebuilt spine.
The spending has been heavy: Sandro Tonali for £92.5m, Mateus Fernandes for £85m, Jan Paul van Hecke for £52m, plus experienced free transfers in Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi. The club is also welcoming long-term absentees James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski back into the fold after missing practically all of last season through injury.
Selling captain Cristian Romero to Atletico Madrid leaves a hole that the incoming defenders must fill.
The football on the pitch has been encouraging, including a 2-1 win over Chelsea in Sydney and a 3-0 dismantling of Hoffenheim, with Richarlison looking sharp throughout.
Ambition is not in doubt; how quickly De Zerbi makes a reshaped group cohere will ultimately decide their season.