Rebecca Lowe returns to NBC’s Premier League desk after a whirlwind World Cup summer

Rebecca Lowe had the highlight of her broadcast career this summer as the lead host of Fox Sports’ World Cup coverage.

As much as Lowe enjoyed it, though, she is equally as joyed to be back leading NBC Sports’ Premier League coverage. Lowe and NBC’s studio crew of Robbie Earle, Robbie Mustoe and Tim Howard are in England for the start of the season. They were in London for defending champion Arsenal’s 3-0 victory over Coventry on Friday.

They will be in West London for Brentford-Spurs on Saturday and Newcastle on Sunday for Newcastle-Liverpool.

“It’s like going home, back to my family,” Lowe said. “It was an amazing summer to work with (Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry and Alexi Lalas) on every level. They were brilliant, challenging and kept me on my toes. But going back to the two Robbies and Tim, who I know inside out, it’s like my three big brothers.”

Lowe, Earle and Mustoe have been with NBC since its Premier League coverage started in 2013. Howard was a guest analyst while being a goalkeeper at Everton but became a full-time studio analyst in 2020 after retiring.

Lowe was on loan from NBC for Fox’s record-setting World Cup coverage. While she knew it was going to be a challenge because of the hectic schedule, Lowe did enjoy seeing how the tournament commanded the spotlight in the U.S. during the five weeks.

“It was so incredibly rewarding on a personal front, but also to see the country do what it did in terms of audience figures and just general water cooler conversation,” she said. “It seemed to give America something it has never had before, and that made me really proud.”

While Lowe is ready for the season despite only four weeks off, she knows that most of the players who competed in the World Cup will still need a couple of more weeks to prepare for a long domestic season. That could also make for some interesting early results.

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Lowe also sees Arsenal being able to defend as champions after it won the Premier League for the first time since 2006 last season with Chelsea as a possible dark horse.

“They slowly but surely kept the face with Mikel Arteta, who now by the way, is the longest-serving Premier League manager at six years, which is amazing,” Lowe said. “They trusted in this process that he talked about to build a foundation, to put them now where they are while everybody else is scrapping around with new managers and trying to buy big players.

“Now they’re playing with house money, but it’s a different challenge this season. They’re at least going into it now knowing what it feels like to win and they know how to do it. And there aren’t that many other teams that can say that.”

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here