Holders Bayern Munich are the team to beat. They only lost twice in the league last season, finishing with 88 points - ten points clear of their closest challengers. They will be equally formidable this term under new boss Carlos Ancelotti. Ancelotti will bring a wealth of experience from managing at the very top level in several different countries.
The FCB have been busy in the transfer market, selling some big names like Mario Gotze, who joined Dortmund for 22 million euros. They have signed some exciting talent such as Renato Sanches, an 18-year old wonderkid from Benfica who will liven up the midfield and Mats Hummels, who has returned to Bayern from Dortmund to sure up the defence.
Ancelotti's team got off to the perfect start by beating closest league rivals Dortmund 2-0 in the German Super Cup on Sunday. Strikes from Arturo Vidal and Thomas Mueller saw the Italian lift his first trophy in charge of the club. The manager will look to last season's Bundesliga top scorer Robert Lewandowski to find the back of the net and replicate his thirty-goal haul. Thomas Mueller scored twenty league goals last season and will look to recapture the lethal partnership he formed with his Polish teammate. Bayern are strong favourites to win the title again this year.
Borussia Dortmund finished second last season and are expected to run Bayern Munich closer this time round. Manager Thomas Tuchel has overseen a lot of transfer activity over the summer. He has sold some key players such as Ilkay Gundogan, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mats Hummels and Jakub Blazcykowski, raising 111 million euros in the process. He has spent most of it bringing in a wealth of exciting, young talent like Andre Schurrle, Ousmane Dembele, Marc Bartra and Mario Gotze.
If Tuchel can get the new faces to gel quickly, Dortmund will be a formidable threat. They scored the most goals in the league last campaign, finishing with eighty-two. Last season's club top-scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang finished with a tally of twenty-five goals, making him the second highest scorer in the league. Aubameyang believes Dortmund can go all the way this term and is eager to "get under Bayern's skin". If he can continue being a lethal attacking threat, he will certainly achieve that.
Bayer Leverkusen's supporters have much to be excited about this year. Their team has seen some vast improvements under boss Roger Schmidt and they could get involved in the title race. Over the summer they sold midfielder Christoph Kramer to Borussia Monchengladbach for 15 million euros, but have signed several new faces including Kevin Volland, an attacking midfielder the club have been tracking for a long time. Volland is likely to sit behind last season's club top-scorer Javier Hernandez (17 goals last term) and provide creativity as well as firepower. Leverkusen have a wealth of attacking options and many choices in defensive midfield. Their defence is also good, but it needs more depth to last the course of the season. Schmidt is looking to add Austrian defender Aleksandar Dragovic to address this. If everything comes together, Leverkusen could well push Bayern and Dortmund all the way.
There are several more teams who will challenge for European qualification. The strongest of these is Borussia Monchengladbach. Manager Lucien Favre has brought in several new faces, like Jannik Vestergaard in defence and defensive-midfielder Christoph Kramer. They have suffered a big loss will be the sale of their captain Granit Xhaka to Arsenal for 45 million euros. The club will miss his leadership, steel and creativity from deep. It is unlikely that Monchengladbach will challenge for the title. They will focus on a top four finish instead.
Overall, this will be a very interesting season. There are strong signs that both Dortmund and Leverkusen could mount a serious challenge to Bayern Munich's dominance. If so, this could be one of the most exciting and eventful Bundesliga campaigns in years.