Although the final 2012-13 Premier League table had a familiar look about it, it was the lesser teams that found success in cup competition, Swansea winning the League Cup and Wigan the FA Cup. For the first time ever, two Welsh teams appear in the competition this season.
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Arsenal's home strip is unchanged, a refreshing change. The new away kit reverts to the always popular yellow and blue colours. This will be the last time that Arsenal play in Nike as Puma take over the contract next season.
(Denis Hurley, Jairo "Jay" Moreno, Anish Banerji, Michael Hollis)
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Away
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It is 30 years since Villa won the European Cup so, following the trend for retro-inspired outfits, Macron have come up with an excellent interpretation of the Le Coq Sportif strip worn at the time that is bound to be a winner with Villa supporters. An unusual detail is the light blue mesh strip across the top of the chest concealed behind two small flaps of material. The away strip is both striking and original.
(George Woodley, Ian Duggan, Martinos Perdikis)
Home
Yellow Alternate
Blue Alternate
Vincent Tan's controversial make-over did the trick and the "Red Dragons" have finally made it to the first tier although to supporters, Cardiff will always be "The Bluebirds." The new home kit was originally launched with dark red shorts but after an outcry from supporters, the management consulted season ticket holders who chose black shorts instead.
The club have not identified their "away" and "third" strips, and it seems they will alternate between the two.
(Martinos Perdikis, James Clyde, Michael Hollis)
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Third place in the Premier League and the Europa League trophy were not enough for Rafael Benitez to keep his job so he joined the conveyer belt that shuttles managers in and out with alarming regularity. And who should sail over the horizon to lift supporters' spirits if not the Special One?
The tease campaigns associated with the three kit launches have featured Chelsea's expensive stars splattered with blue paint. Don't worry, it will come off. Promise.
Some commentators have interpreted the bands on the away shirt as a reference to a change kit worn in the early 60s. The black third choice is positively restrained compared to recent designs although the official strap line insists "It's not black, it's blue." Looks black to me mate. More blue paint was, however, spilt.
(David Niblock, Jairo "Jay" Moreno)
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Not so long ago Palace were in administration and survived only when a group of wealthy supporters bought the freehold on their ground and the club itself. Their reward came by virtue of an extra time penalty in the Championship play-offs final.
Their new kits are a considerable improvement on the deeply unpleasant
outfits worn last season. The home strip is a break with tradition while the alternative is a radical take on the much-loved diagonal sash.
(Andy Burton, Michael Hollis)
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The ill thought out redesign of the club crest provoked an outcry, forcing the club to commit to consulting supporters before introducing a revised version next season. It remains to be seen how fans will respond to the latest, rather undistinguished home shirt but it is possible it may sell because of its curiosity value. The white bands on the sleeves seem like an afterthought (they are after all the template developed for Arsenal last season and now recycled) although the neat collar looks rather good. The away strip revives the popular combination of gold shirts and blue shorts but now with a prominent blue yoke.
(George Chilvers, Lukman Rewa, Andrew Mihaleff)
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The Kappa strips worn by Fulham in recent seasons may not have been perfect but they were distinctive. It seems a shame that the team are now kitted out in a standard Adidas design. The red and white away strip revives an old favourite from the 1990s known by fans as the "Darts Shirt" because it resembled the tops worn by professional flingers of arrows at the time.
(Andrew Mihaleff, Lukman Rewa, Joe Tivy, Martinos Perdikis)
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Hull are back in the Premier League after finishing as Championship runners-up. Stripes make a welcome return to the home strip but the away strip has divided opinion among the Tigers' support. There are those that don't like it and there are those that really don't like it.
(Alec Hitchman, Connor Lenehan)
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Charity
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Warrior Sports' new home strip reinstates white trimmings and has "Liverpool FC" printed into the fabric to form subtle vertical stripes. The new away kit, allegedly "a refreshed version of the 1989-91 kit" was met with a mixture of derision and horror from supporters. From a design point of view, it represents a step back to the awful shirts of the 1990s. The third strip defies belief. Watch out for players wearing their socks on the wrong feet.
(Sebastian Vega, Will Pike & many, many others)
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City finished 2012-13 empty handed, eleven points behind rivals United and suffered a surprise defeat in the FA Cup final. Nike will now supply their kits for the next six seasons and have started out with a neat, classic look that reinstates navy trim on the home strip. The black and charcoal alternative is a very neat variation on a popular theme, set off with pale gold trim and a colour-keyed crest.
(Paul Green)
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Europe Home
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After 26 years in charge, Sir Alex Ferguson finally retired after winning his 13th Premier League title - insiders claim he planned to retire last season but changed his plans when City won the title.
The new home kit is pretty straightforward with only a small, button down collar (which would have been better in white) and trim on the socks setting off the plain design. If you thought last season's gingham home kit was nonsense you had better sit down before viewing the new away strip.
(Jairo "Jay" Moreno)
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Fourth
Life is never dull in Geordieland. Devout muslim Papiss Cissé objected to wearing shirts carrying a payday loan company's logo on religious and ethical grounds. His principled stand was undermined when images of him playing roulette in a Newcastle casino emerged and he subsequently settled his differences with the club.
Then to add to the jollity, Joe Kinnear gave a shambolic interview to Talksport after being appointed Head of Football over the head of the manager, Alan Pardew
By comparison, the new strips are really rather tame, even the revival of an old favourite for third choice, but more controversy was created by the introduction of a spurious "members only" fourth kit. Worn in a pre-season friendly, this appears to be a cynical attempt to wring more cash out of
Toon's devoted support.
(Jonathan Auty, Chris Dixon, Mark Craggs)
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Charity
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Errea have introduced green sleeves to the home strip, a look that has frequently turned up in Norwich's back-catalogue, going back as far as 1910. The strap line for the smart new away kit warns us to "Be Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf." Big Bad Canaries, surely? It turns out to be a reference to their new signing, Ricky van Wolfswinkel.
(Rowan Dinwoodie, Paul Durrant)
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Umbro's contract with Southampton was one of those Nike allowed to lapse before selling off the company. Adidas have taken over and, to everyone's surprise, produced another all-red home kit. The away kit is Adidas' new Campeon 13 design and may also be worn with black shorts.
(Scott Griffin)
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Lightning flickers dangerously around the cream of Stoke's squad as they model the new away strip. We do not like fluorescent colours under any circumstances while the white bat wings, a feature of Adidas' latest Tiro 13 template, are frankly embarrassing. The home shirt is subtly different from the other striped tops on offer from Adidas this season: the stripes, for example are broader while the sleeve patches are a different shape.
(Martinos Perdikis, Jon Forbes)
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Away
The Black Cats' new away kit was unveiled in June and is a rather anonymous yellow/navy strip with red bits on the shirt. The home strip is very similar to last season but the stripes are reversed. The shirt sponsor is part of a global business based in South Africa and builds on the "Invest in Africa" deal of last season.
(Jonathan Auty, Paul Robinson)
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Charity
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Swansea celebrated their centenary by winning the League Cup, their first major trophy. This season they have returned to black trimmings on their traditional all-white home strip in Adidas' Tiro 13 style. The away strip is, well, hard to miss. The club have appropriated Dylan Thomas' famous villanelle, Do not go gentle into that good night for their promotional campaign. Thomas lived near to Swansea but as the poem is a reflection on grief and death, it seems an odd choice that would have prompted some sharp words from Wales' national poet. The charity strip, worn against Crystal Palace was auctioned off in support of the club's own community trust.
(Michael Hollis, Martinos Perdikis, Sean Paul)
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Charity
Cup Home
Europe Home
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Cup Away
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Under Armour have come up with rather more traditional outfits this season but with tweaks to the colours. The blue on the home strip is darker than the usual navy and described as "Cadet Blue." Shades of light blue have often been used for the away strip and the new version is called "Capri Blue." You will also be delighted to learn that the material dries 50% faster than previously. How did we manage before?
Once again Spurs have
a different shirt sponsor for cup games and as usual they wear all white in Europe. The third kit features a checkered pattern acrioss the shoulders.
(Peter Fleming, Martinos Perdikis, Pablo Aceituno, Travis Hogarth-Colby, Sean Paul)
Home Aug-Feb
Home Feb-May
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Athough I am not a fan of Adidas' Tiro 13 template I have to admit it works quite well on West Brom's striped tops. The design is noticeably different from the German company's other new striped top, the Estro 13 worn by Brentford this season. If we are going to quibble (and you know me) I would much rather see Albion in white shorts and socks: although they wore navy shorts in the late 1980s, white has otherwise been the dominant colour in their kit for nearly 125 years. The third strip appears to be the same attractive deep red as last season's change kit but now with white trimmings rather than navy. Due to an unfortunate oversight, the club ran out of hooped socks in February and had to wear plain navy ones for the rest of the season.
(Connor Lenehan, Jairo "Jay" Moreno, Martinos Perdikis, Adam Dove)
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Remarkably it is over 25 years since West Ham wore Adidas kit but some of those shirts from the 1980s are fondly remembered. The new wqhome shirt combines tradition with Adidas' trademark trim and while we like the use of white in the elegant collar, somehow the white stripes on the shirt do not quite work. The away kit is styled to resemble the Hammers' alternative from the same period.
(Andrew Mihaleff, Ismail Ali, Jack Parr)