Premier League season 22/23: New teams, players and rules

The new Premier League season kicks off tonight, but with a winter World Cup on the way and some exciting new faces, this season is going to be different!

With the Lionesses' victory in the Euros, Cam Norrie being generally ace at Wimbledon and the Commonwealth Games dominating the summer so far, you can be forgiven for not keeping up-to-date with all the goings on within the Premier League.

So, ahead of the 2022/23 Premier League season's first match between Crystal Palace and Arsenal on Friday 5 August, here's all you need to know.

The promoted teams

Fulham are back in the Premier League as Championship champions

Promoted teams include Fulham and Bournemouth, who have been missing from the Premier League for one and two years respectively.

Meanwhile the third promoted club, Nottingham Forest hasn't played in the top flight of English football for 23 years, they last appeared and were relegated from the Premier League in 1999.

Forest are one of English football's most famous and successful teams. They won the Champions League twice, back to back, in 1979 and 1980 - when the competition was known as the European Cup.

Big name signings

Unsurprisingly for a promoted side, Nottingham Forest have had to add to their team to have a better chance of staying in the Premier League.

One player they've brought in, is former Manchester United and England player Jesse Lingard.

Lingard's contract with United ended this summer meaning he could join a new club on a free transfer. Despite interest from West Ham and Newcastle, the midfielder - known for his dance celebrations - chose to join Forest instead.

Possibly the biggest signings of the summer have involved two strikers signing for the league's two best teams.

Erling Haaland who scored lots and lots of goals for sides in Germany moved from Borussia Dortmund to Premier League Champions, Manchester City.

Meanwhile, Liverpool signed striker, Darwin Nunez for £85m from Benfica. The Uruguayan scored 34 goals in 41 appearances in all competitions as he finished as the top scorer in Portugal's top flight last season.

But who will be the Premier League's top scorer? We'll know the answer to that question when the season finishes on 28 May 2023!

Other big signings include Christian Eriksen to Manchester United, Raheem Sterling to Chelsea and Gabriel Jesus to Arsenal.

You can read more about top Premier League signings here.

The winter World Cup

The World Cup kicks off over winter and will be held in Qatar in November

One of the big changes to the Premier League season will be a winter break, of sorts.

Players who are selected to represent their national team will jet off to play in the men's World Cup in Qatar in the Middle East in November.

For those Premier League stars not picked and hoping to put their feet up and watch the tournament on the telly like the rest of us… there's some bad news.

The Premier League says clubs will be allowed to play friendly matches during the tournament, to keep those players fit who aren't playing in the World Cup.

The World Cup will be staged from 21 November to the 18 December - at a time when it's cooler in Qatar which is a very hot country.

The Premier League's final fixtures before the tournament will be on the 13 November, before the league season resumes again on Boxing Day.

New Premier League rules

The multi-ball system - which allows the match to resume with another ball thrown into play when the match ball goes out of play - is back, and it's hoped it will speed up the game.

With the ball going out of play last season, in-game time last season averaged at just 55 minutes and 7 seconds!

Meanwhile concussion trials are to continue for another season. Meaning teams are allowed to make an extra substitution in the event of a bang to a player's head and a suspected concussion.

The Premier League is understood to be supportive of the idea of temporary substitutions, meaning medical staff will have an amount of time to make a decision on whether a player can be subbed back on after being taken off with a head injury. If and when that rule comes in hasn't been decided.