For the first time in 13 years, Shanghai SIPG will start a new campaign without Wu Lei. 

How will the defending champions deal with the aftermath of losing one of their most prolific and influential elite strikers might be the most intriguing question ahead of the Chinese Super League 2019 season, which returns to action on Friday after three months away.

With more stringent regulations kicking in on March 1, including a salary cap to clamp down on irrational spending, the CSL now faces the Herculean task of ensuring that the eyes of the fickle fans remain on Asia's most high-profile and bankable league amid all the doom and gloom emanating from a tumultuous off-season.

Despite a relatively quiet transfer window, big-name additions such as Marouane Fellaini (Shandong Luneng), Marek Hamsik (Dalian Yifang), Sandro Wagner (Tianjin Teda) and Mousa Dembele (Guangzhou R&F) provide a much-needed thrill, excitement, and hope.

There is a lot to play for this season; with or without Wu Lei, the CSL still has plenty to offer.

Post-Wu era

Vitor Pereira pulled off an impressive feat in his first term at Shanghai Stadium, breaking Guangzhou Evergrande's seven-year stranglehold on Chinese topflight with SIPG as they lifted the CSL title for the first time. 

However, it will inevitably be a different story this season as SIPG waved goodbye to their all-time top goalscorer, who embarked on a new challenge in Spain after scoring an incredible 151 goals in 296 appearances for the Chinese giants. 

There was never the slightest doubt that life after Wu Lei would be extremely hard to adjust to for Pereira's team. To make matters worse and much to the chagrin of their supporters, SIPG even failed to sign a replacement in the winter. 

Nonetheless, they have started the season flying by adding another trophy to their name after a morale-boosting Super Cup win over Beijing Guoan last week, with the departure of Wu doing little to slow them down. If that emphatic display against Roger Schmidt's side is anything to go by, Wu's exit might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

The fluid attacking quartet of Hulk, Oscar, Elkeson and Lü Wenjun ran the show as SIPG put two goals past Guoan in the span of four minutes. The 29-year-old Lü, who filled Wu's boots down the right flank, is particularly flourishing. He set the tone by hitting the woodwork in the opening minutes and sealed the game with a clinical finish when Guoan threatened to turn the tide in the closing stages. 

Although sterner tests await SIPG and surely there will be moments when Wu's absence is felt keenly this season, but one thing is for sure, Pereira will strive to show that success can be built even while losing your best player as long as you have a plan to drive your team to outweigh the sum of its parts.

Title Fight

With SIPG entering an uncertain period, could Guangzhou Evergrande seize the moment and reclaim the CSL throne? 

Fabio Cannavaro's side's superior financial prowess and irresistible attractiveness to elite players are still there for all to see. They were the busy bees of the winter transfer window as the club secured eight new signings, including a stunning five members of the China Under-23 squad.

But there is a danger that Evergrande could regress further in 2019. The team still boast Brazilian stars Paulinho, Talisca and talismanic captain Zheng Zhi, but have lost top striker Ricardo Goulart and defensive stalwart Kim Young-gwon. 

Gone also are a host of established players that varied in effectiveness from Alan Carvalho – exceptionally good last season – and Zheng Long to Zhang Wenzhao and Zhang Chenglin – disappointing failures – as well as back-ups Wen Jiabao and Liao Lisheng.

In line with a national agenda to nurture home-grown talents and as part of a sensational plan to field a Chinese-only squad by 2020, Evergrande announced earlier this month that they will cut the number of foreign players per game from the maximum three to two in the new season to make room for local players.  

It will be quite absorbing to see how their young core of new recruits such as Wei Shihao, Gao Zhunyi and Zhang Xiuwei fare in this Evergrande squad as Cannavaro is tasked with rebuilding an aging starting XI in the upcoming campaign.

More than anything else, it will be the consistency that must improve for Evergrande to dethrone SIPG. The gap on CSL's early pacesetters was too yawning last term after unusual slip-ups in the first few weeks, but with their envious strength in depth to compete on all fronts, Evergrande will remain a force to be reckoned with this season.

While Evergrande are going through massive overhauls, Shandong Luneng are happy to follow last season's formula. The third place finish last term was a testament of the resilience shown by Li Xiaopeng's team and with names like Graziano Pelle, Roger Guedes and Gil in their ranks, they have made only one major addition in the form of Fellaini to their squad. 

The capture of the former Manchester United star, who will bring a different dimension and much-needed ruthless to Luneng's attack, is a sign of the club's burgeoning ambition as they look to launch a renewed assault on the CSL. 

As Luneng's conqueror in the FA Cup final last term, Beijing Guoan cannot be written off either. The disappointment of finishing fourth after sitting top of the league at the halfway stage was somewhat mitigated by taking home the season-ending consolation prize, but the Capital powerhouse will be determined to come back with a vengeance in 2019.

New signings Kim Min-jae, Zhang Yuning, Norway-born Hou Yongyong and England-born Li Ke add strength to key areas and Schmidt will expect them all to make an immediate impact as Guoan add the AFC Champions League to their fixture schedule and prepare to face stronger challenges from their rivals.

Behind the top four, Dalian Yifang are the obvious contenders to gate-crash the title race, having coming up with what seem to be a series of shrewd acquisitions. Seasoned Chinese veterans such as Zhao Xuri, Zhao Mingjian, Li Jianbin, Yang Shanping and Zheng Long have been brought in to add to the depth of experience within the squad.

With much fanfare, Choi Kang-hee's side also landed Hamsik, whose quality is undoubted. At the age of 31, the Napoli all-time top goalscorer still has plenty to offer in the CSL. The purchase of Levante's Ghanaian striker Emmanuel Boateng, whose hat-trick last May ended Barcelona's hopes of an unbeaten season, represents another coup. 

With former Atletico Madrid duo Yannick Carrasco and Nicolas Gaitan still remaining at Dalian, there is plenty of optimism around the club heading into the new campaign.

Relegation Battle

Dalian Yifang's staggering spending spree comes in marked contrast to Hebei China Fortune, who having been left inactive in the transfer market. Chris Coleman's side dumped eight quality players, including former Inter and Juventus midfielder Anderson Hernanes in the winter clearout, but had no big addition to a team that finished sixth last season.

With a limited talent pool at Coleman's disposal, Hebei could be dragged into the fight for survival at the tail of the table. The same could be said of Tianjin Quanjian, who have been forced to rename to Tianjin Tianhai following the shocking arrest of their disgraced billionaire owner Shu Yuhui on charges of running a pyramid scheme. 

After a massive rescue operation initiated by the local government, the new-faced Tianjin strugglers will hope that a semblance of stability will prove to be enough this season.

As for the newly promoted sides, Shenzhen F.C. and Wuhan Zall, who return to the CSL after a five-year hiatus, are the odds-on favorites to go down. 

The new boys will have to muster every possible resource if they are to stand a chance of remaining in the topflight, as this season's battle to avoid the drop is likely to be a much tenser affair than that of last year.