The big kick-off for the 2025/26 Premier League season is now just days away, and teams are approaching their final friendly games before the competitive action begins once again. Pre-season looks different for each side in the top flight, though many will take in a mix of matches, including foreign tours, mini-tournaments and games against lower-league English opposition.
By grouping friendlies together and labelling them as tournaments, complete with their own shiny silverware, clubs seek to increase the exposure they gain, maximise revenue and, perhaps, make things a little more competitive. However, they are fooling nobody, and such games remain friendlies in everything but name.
Sides may create their own events in conjunction with sponsors, but the Premier League itself has also created such competitions, or has at least aligned itself with them. The Premier League Asia Trophy (originally known as the FA Premier League Asia Cup) dates back as far as 2003, but was last played in 2019. Somewhat surprisingly, Wolves won the last competition, seeing off Manchester City, Newcastle and West Ham.
The PL’s new summer jamboree is the Summer Series, and this was first played in 2023. Chelsea triumphed, with Aston Villa, Newcastle and Brighton the other clubs involved. The 2025 Premier League Summer Series has just been completed, and this time around, it was Man United who will be adding to their trophy cabinet. The silverware for this competition will be nestled deep in the Old Trafford collection, but even so, United fans will at least draw some optimism from their US excursion.
Where Was the 2025 Premier League Summer Series and Who Took Part?
This year’s Premier League roadshow took part in the USA, just like the previous edition two years ago. The States will probably be the Summer Series’ home, but it was also handy in 2025 as part of America’s ongoing preparations for co-hosting the 2026 World Cup.
Three different stadia were used, split across the east, south and Midwest. Two of the three, the MetLife in New Jersey (which was used extensively in the FIFA Club World Cup) and the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, will be used at the World Cup next year. The other Summer Series stadium was in Chicago, with Soldier Field doing the honours.
As you have probably deduced from the title of this feature, Man United were one of the four PL sides involved. The others were West Ham, Everton and Bournemouth. The tournament uses a simple group format, with each club playing the other three, then whoever wins the most points is crowned the Summer Series champion. If needed, goal difference, goals scored, head-to-head result and fair play are the tiebreakers.
United Go Unbeaten
🏆 Summer Series winners
🤩 Exciting new signings
💫 Brilliant Bruno Fernandes
➕ And even more…Why Man Utd should be optimistic for Ruben Amorim’s first full season in charge…
— Premier League (@premierleague) August 6, 2025
Man United boss Ruben Amorim was clear before, during and after this event that his side have a lot of work to do to get anywhere near where they want to be in the Premier League. After finishing way down in 15th place last term, even challenging for the top six in 2025/26 will be a major challenge.
They have added a couple of big signings in the summer, in Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford and Matheus Cunha from Wolves. However, everyone at the club, right from the very top, and most certainly the fans, knows that they need to get rid of unwanted footballers such as Alejandro Garnacho and sign at least three more really good players.
They have so many areas where improvement is needed, but they can at least take a little bit of heart from the fact that they were the only unbeaten side at the Summer Series. As said, these are simply glorified friendlies – but United fans need to draw hope wherever they can find it these days!
They won their opening two games and a draw in their final fixture was enough to see them top the pile with seven points. The final table was as follows:
| Place | Team | Points | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goal Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man United | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | +4 |
| 2 | West Ham | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | +2 |
| 3 | Bournemouth | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 |
| 4 | Everton | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -4 |
United’s Results
Manchester United with their trophy after winning the Premier League Summer Series 🏆 pic.twitter.com/1GLlOC1Sbz
— B/R Football (@brfootball) August 3, 2025
Man United were favourites, despite their woeful performances last term. They opened with a game in New Jersey against West Ham and managed to get the win. Two goals from Bruno Fernandes put them into a comfortable lead before Jarrod Bowen got one back after 63 minutes.
The clash ended 2-1, meaning Bruno’s penalty after just five minutes and second after 52 were enough for United to get three points on the board. Amorim made 10 subs after 66 minutes, which gives you an indication of just how seriously he was taking the game and the tournament.
Next up for the Red Devils was Bournemouth, who had thumped Everton 3-0 in their first fixture. This game took place in Chicago and was United’s most impressive performance of the tour. They again scored early, Rasmus Højlund netting after eight minutes. The Dane is believed to be surplus to requirements at Old Trafford and available for a fee of around £30m, which would leave his club with a hefty loss.
Patrick Dorgu, Amad, and youngster Ethan Williams put United four to the good before a late own goal gave the Cherries a very minor consolation. Williams was one of nine subs who came on for United, and his goal after 72 minutes came just after he entered the fray.
It was the Toffees next for the Red Devils, with Everton yet to have managed a point. They lost their second game 2-1 to West Ham, despite taking the lead. Despite David Moyes’ men finishing rock bottom, they were the only side to take anything against United, and deservedly so.
Amorim’s men led twice, Fernandes getting another slightly dubious penalty, but they also conceded another own goal. The match finished 2-2, and this time the manager was less drastic with his subs and only used seven players from the bench, spread over three changes.
All in all, there were some positives and some negatives for all four clubs involved. That said, drawing any really firm conclusions from games like these is probably unwise. United round off their pre-season with a home game against Fiorentina, and that might give us more of an idea of how they will set up for their Premier League opener eight days later against Arsenal.