Talk to the teachers! Something is unsettling him. I would not see this solely as a preference when it's this extreme. Most children enjoy nursery, even if they have a bit of difficulty with the moment of separating from mum/dad or there is something REALLY exciting at home they want to get back to (screens or a brand new toy or whatever) or they just don't like being told what to do - you can see it's different because this upset is usually temporary, or by the time they get to nursery they have forgotten and they are excited about things and when they come out they want to tell you what they have done, they have stories about things they have seen and done, (maybe not immediately but over the course of a few days you hear about positive things they have done at nursery, or they'll point things out like "They have this toy at nursery!") they want to show you their paintings etc. Whereas when they are stressed out/unsettled by not really coping with something in the nursery environment, you don't get that. They are exhausted and/or emotional, they may have terrible behaviour all afternoon/evening, their distress at going is much more prolonged and extreme or specific, any mention/reminder of nursery puts them into a more black mood.
That IME means they aren't really coping.
Some children are overwhelmed by a busy preschool environment, he might be worried about a particular teacher - they might have noticed this, too, if he says he was scared because he was shouted at and told off, and then the next day the same teacher reassured him that they do not think he is "naughty" - now that could be a teacher who is overworked and stressed and is genuinely shouting and then apologised, it could be that there was another situation he saw where a teacher spoke very strongly to an older child about a safety issue, it could be that your child did something which was very alarming and the teacher felt they needed to make an impression, it could be that your child is more sensitive to tone and interprets an adult's firm voice as "shouting". It could be that his old nursery had a gentler, slower approach and the pace of this one is a bit faster and more robust or enthusiastic or their behaviour management is more rigid. It could be that the old one was stricter and in this one the rules are less clear, which is unsettling. It could be that he is quiet but they keep trying to encourage him to join in and he feels rushed/pressured. It could be a number of things. Talk to them. If you want to, phone up or email the old one and ask what their observations of him were, so you can contrast.
It could also be other children who are upsetting him. It could be that he is frightened of something in the toilets so he doesn't go to the loo all day and is then uncomfortable which makes it more difficult for him to manage emotions and behaviour. It could be that the food is different so he doesn't like it and isn't eating much and is hungry.
If you can open up a dialogue with the teachers they will likely find it helpful to know he is struggling to come in in the mornings, and they will be able to keep an eye on him and see if there's any support which might benefit him. For example, it might be that there's a quieter area he can use when he's feeling overwhelmed but he is currently not aware it's an option. They might be aware of some social dynamics and are thinking to let the children work it out, but now that they know it is causing stress around nursery generally, they could take a more active role in helping the children work through the issues. It might be that when he is feeling anxious, this shows up as disruptive behaviour and the staff are interpreting it as him needing a firm hand (which does work for some children) and not realising that the behaviour is anxiety driven for example, and could benefit from a softer or earlier redirection kind of approach.
If it's the new start which has unsettled him, it might be that having one member of staff work to build a closer relationship with him would be beneficial and then as he starts to feel more secure in that environment, they can back off a bit. If he is the type to observe quietly before joining in then it might help if they give him space to do that. All of this is much easier for them to do if you can talk to them and share your observations and what happened at the previous nursery and so on. I have a very sensitive child, who ended up moving nursery twice, once because we thought it would be helpful to move from a larger to a smaller setting, and then we were forced to move house and it was impractical to stay at the second nursery, unfortunately. Because he'd been struggling a bit at Nursery 1, I thought he could have a fresh start, I didn't want the staff at N2 to form a negative opinion before they even met him, I didn't tell them about the difficulties he'd had - this was a mistake. They assumed that because he was older than most of their new starters and had been to nursery before, he wouldn't need much settling in and would be fine so they sort of just chucked him in the group and let him get on with it. It made it really difficult because he did actually need more support to settle in, and because that did not happen, rather than settling he became more anxious and we saw the disruptive behaviour start again. Because the staff didn't realise this was an anxiety response they (fairly) told him off for it etc which meant that he had no chance of developing a relationship with them because he then didn't trust or like them. I realised my mistake, so when we moved to N3 and I was upfront about how he'd struggled, he had a much more managed intro more like they would offer for a younger child and he has fitted in much better and done well. His difficulties are still there but they aren't resulting in disruptive behaviour all the time.
If they notice a pattern like he's generally OK in the mornings but as the day goes on he seems to struggle to cope more, then it might be that while younger children are having a nap, he could also be taken either to the nap space or to a similar quiet space to do a calming, relaxing activity like a children's meditation or listening to a story on someone's lap. (For my child, I was surprised to find this helped enormously, even though he had long stopped napping at home - he REALLY needed that break during the busier day).
Do you have a partner? Any way to share drop offs/pick ups e.g. they drop off and you start earlier, then finish early and pick up? Or the other way around. I would not rush to do earlier pick ups if it's going to cause issues at work, unless it does seem like he's getting progressively overwhelmed and the "quiet time" doesn't help, then it might be worth considering. But I think I would first look to see whether the nursery can meet his needs in the current set up before you look to change the set up.