May 13 2012 will forever be remembered as one of the most important in the history of the English Premier League. Not only did Manchester City win their first title in 44 years, they did it by pipping bitter city rivals Manchester United to the trophy in dramatic style, beating QPR 3-2 and scoring twice in injury time to come from behind and claim the crown.

Now the really tough work starts for City, owned of course by HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE. Can they retain the title this season? United will be desperate to save face and reclaim the trophy they’ve won themselves 12 times since 1992, while London sides Arsenal and Chelsea will be in the mix as usual.

We can’t tell you the outcome of the season here at Time Out (although we have a feeling City’s transfer kitty will see them celebrating next May), but we can tell you where to watch it and give you our definitive guide to the new Premier League season.

The big transfers

With clubs such as Portsmouth and Glasgow Rangers in dire financial straits, the Premier League’s summer transfer window hasn’t been particularly busy this year. Chelsea have been one of the biggest spenders so far, bringing in nippy Belgian winger Eden Hazard from Lille and attacking Brazilian midfielder Oscar from Internacional. A big loss for them will be striker Didier Drogba, who leaves the club for Shanghai Shenhua. London rivals Arsenal will expect big things from German striker Lukas Podolski and French striker Olivier Giroud. City’s rivals United have been quiet, with Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa their biggest signing. They’ve also sold Korean star Park Ji-Sung to QPR, a surprising move considering how reliable a player he’s been for the club. As for Man City? They’ve been linked with Arsenal’s Dutch international Robin Van Persie but no deal has been struck yet. Man Utd have also been linked with the Dutch hitman and are rumoured to be close to signing Brazilian winger Lucas Moura for Dhs175 million.

The new boys

Staying in the Premier League is almost as tough as winning it. Teams such as Norwich and Swansea, who joined the top flight last season, performed so well it’ll give the new boys this season – Reading, Southampton and West Ham – some hope they can survive. None of them have been big movers in the transfer market, although West Ham will miss goalkeeper Robert Green, who’s joined QPR. Our bet to ‘do a Norwich’ and be successful this year are Southampton. Two promotions in a row means they have the winning mentality in place and striker Rickie Lambert knows where the net is, scoring an incredible 87 goals for the Saints in the past three seasons.