The nascent Premier League table already looks worryingly familiar, with Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United rushing to the top after the first round of games and unlikely to budge far until May.
The financial disparity between the have and have nots of the English top flight means there are unlikely to be many shocks, with the big six holding a seemingly unbreakable grip on the top rungs over the past couple of years.
So this season we will be coming up with an alternative Premier League based on our own pound-for-pound power rankings which take into account our expectations of each club at the beginning of the season. Who are punching above their weight and who are failing to deliver?
Brighton & Hove Albion, Newcastle United and Sheffield United were the three favourites to be relegated so can they confound those predictions? Five clubs have spent more than £100m this summer – Arsenal, Aston Villa, Everton, Manchester City and Manchester United – so can they turn that investment into points?
Here are The Independent's highly scientific alternative Premier League power rankings:
Take a look through the gallery above to see how every club ranks after the first round of games.
