The Premier League is back. Matchday one has already come and gone, and we have some insight into all 20 teams for this young season.
I totally didn’t forget to write this before MD1; I just wanted to watch a bit of each team before I made my formal predictions.
There will be a lot of new factors to take into consideration for my predictions this season, considering it has been one of the busiest and craziest summer transfer windows in recent memory.
As it stands currently, I do not believe we will see all three promoted sides going straight back down after Sunderland’s 3-0 trouncing of West Ham United, although West Ham have looked extremely poor in both games so far, and they may be relegation favourites this season.
Anyways, let’s get into my table predictions:
Liverpool
Arsenal
Man City
Chelsea
Aston Villa
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Brighton Hove & Albion
Nottingham Forest
Tottenham
Crystal Palace
Fulham
Bournemouth
Brentford
Everton
Sunderland
Leeds United
West Ham United
Wolves
Burnley
Extremely hot take –and this may very well be an overreaction given their humiliating defeat in week 1, but– I sincerely believe West Ham will be relegated, they do not have the quality to stay up aside from James Ward-Prowse and Jarrod Bowen. They looked absolutely lifeless in their 3-0 defeat to newly promoted Sunderland and again in their 5-1 loss to Chelsea today.
Further, no offense to Burnley, but they stand no chance in my humble opinion. They are not deep enough, not talented enough, and their manager is unproven. They won’t be as bad as 2024-25 Southampton, but they will be relegated with 3 games to go. Wolves just lost too much talent (Mattheus Cunha, Ryan Ait-Nouri) and will suffer the consequences of not having replaced them. I hope at the very least, one of the promoted teams stays up, for continuity’s sake or simply to prevent the gap between the EPL and Championship from getting even bigger.
Finally, I believe both Sunderland and Leeds United will stay up at the expense of Wolves and West Ham. Sunderland invested heavily in the transfer market, bringing several quality players in –namely ex-Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Granit Xhaka– who has the EPL experience and leadership skills to know what it takes to win in the league. They will confirm their safety before MD37 concludes.
Leeds have always had talent on their roster (Willie Gnoto, Sean Longstaff, Jack Harrison, and Brenden Aaronson). Combine that with acquiring Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who brings goal-scoring and proven EPL experience, and it’s now an issue of whether or not the new manager can employ the right tactics/lineups to keep them up. I think he does.
Regarding the title race, I really hope I’m wrong. Arsenal have spent a lot of money this season improving the squad, and they finally have their striker, who has scored 97 goals in all competitions over the last two seasons at Sporting FC. The expectation should be to win the league or Champions League, or else it will be regarded as a failure; as much as I support Mikel Arteta, if that happens, you would have to question his inability to win silverware, notwithstanding having to compete against juggernauts like City and Liverpool.
Speaking of Liverpool, the defending champs, they only went and added Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez, and several other talented players to an already incredibly talented and well-coached team, led by Golden Boot winner Mo Salah, who notched 29 goals and 47 G/A last season. They still remain my title favourites.
Man City have strengthened, as have Chelsea. They began strengthening for this season in January 2025, so best believe they will be ready for another title race. I’ve learned to never count out Pep Guardiola’s side, especially if rumours of Gianluigi Donnarumma, arguably the best goalkeeper in the world right now, heading to City are true.
Chelsea will have to balance Champions League with the league this season, but given their immense squad depth at every position due to overbuying and acquiring pretty much any player that’s available, they will have the quality and skill to achieve a top-four finish while advancing to the knockouts of the UCL. They just battered West Ham 5-1 in MD2. Granted, it’s only West Ham, but the offensive talent is 100% there. They're also strengthening defensively, too.
Aston Villa have recently always been contenders for a top-five finish. They finished sixth last season and fourth the year before. At the end of last season, everyone expected Emi Martinez to be sold, yet a transfer has not materialized. With their top-class keeper and a solid core of players like Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers, Amadou Onana, John McGinn, Youri Tielemans, and Ezri Konsa, they will be a threat for Europe. However, losing key players like Jacob Ramsey and Leon Bailey will sting; unless they bring in another quality, proven midfielder and forward to replace them (Samuel Illing Jr and Emiliano Buendia aren’t convincing), they may slip further.
Manchester United looked very threatening on opening week against Arsenal, creating numerous high-quality chances (22 shots and seven on target), and with their new attacking three of Bryan Mbeumo, Mattheus Cunha, and Benjamin Sesko, they will be a threat to many defenses this season. They were just unable to break through Arsenal’s rigid defense and were denied a few times by David Raya’s heroics. But don’t kid yourself, they will be a much-improved side this season. If this positive attacking football continues, the future will be bright for Ruben Amorim.
Likewise for Spurs, with a new promising manager in Thomas Frank who plays a brand of attacking football that is fun to watch, but is not afraid to switch it up tactically and employ different strategies against different styles of opponents, there is truly nowhere to go but up after their absymal 17th-place league finish last year, even with injury concerns at the CAM spot.
Newcastle will miss Alexander Isak, who is holding out of all action, trying to force a move out. They will be playing in the Champions League after finishing fifth last season, so without their main striker, it will be difficult to succeed in the UCL while keeping up good form in the league. However, Newcastle has 10 days left in the transfer window to find another striker. They were close to acquiring Brentford’s Yoane Wissa, but Brentford wouldn’t let him leave. They are a tough team to play against, especially at home. They should be able to find an attacker to secure a top-seven finish and secure European football.
Nottingham Forest qualified for the Conference League but were upgraded to the Europa League after Palace was demoted for breaching UEFA rules. Forest will fall just outside the European places this season, because despite making some great additions in Omari Hutchinson, Dan Ndoye, and James McAtee, I still don’t believe they have enough depth to manage both the league and UEL. However, they will comfortably finish in midtable because their only major loss was Antony Elanga, but they replaced his right-wing production with Ndoye.
Brighton Hove Albion and Crystal Palace (high off their FA Cup and Community Shield wins) are locks for midtable finishes. Brighton finishes higher because Palace will be distracted by and likely prioritize their Conference League matches. Further, Palace just lost star Eberechi Eze to Arsenal, and Brighton has a bit more talent and depth in most positions because of their better youth scouting and development systems.
Fulham will compete for a spot in the upper-half of the table and will fall off in the latter third of the campaign. Fulham have finished 10th, 13th, and 11th in their last three seasons in the Premier League. I believe they will split the difference and finish 12th. Fulham have done very little in the transfer window, signing only a keeper and losing five players. If anything, losing Reiss Nelson (end of loan) and Carlos Vinicius will cause them to finish lower than 12th.
Bournemouth is a good team, but they’ve lost too many players to have any chance of finishing in the top half of the table. Losing Dean Huijsen to Real Madrid, Milos Kerkez to Liverpool, among many others, will sting, and most of their incomings are young prospects, which, if they pan out, will pay dividends, but there are no guarantees any of them will make an instant impact. They will compete for a spot in the top half and will be as high as ninth for a small portion of the season, before trailing off to 13th at the end of the season.
Brentford is in a similar position to Bournemouth. They lost their manager, Thomas Frank, who won them promotion into the Premier League and has been essential to their success in the EPL. On top of that, they lost their best goal scorer in Bryan Mbeumo, who scored 20 goals for Brentford last season. Yoane Wissa is back in training, but he alone won’t be enough to carry Brentford to success with an unproven manager.
Everton finished 16th in 21/22, 17th in 22/23, 15th in 23/24 and 13th in 24/25. Slight improvement each of the last four years, despite a minor regression in 22/23, where they were in danger of relegation for much of that season. I believe Everton will secure safety quite comfortably with their relatively talented roster led by James Tarkowski, Jordan Pickford, and Iliman Ndiaye, but they won’t be much higher than 15th unless new signing Jack Grealish can eclipse 30 G/A, which I doubt at this stage of his career.
League winners: Liverpool
FA Cup: Arsenal
EFL Cup: Man United
UCL winners: Arsenal
UEL winners: Roma
UECL winners: Chelsea
Golden Boot: Mo Salah (it will be Gyokeres if Arsenal win the title)
Erling Haaland will be a close second.
Golden Glove: David Raya
Has won it two years in a row. Arsenal’s defense has only strengthened. Raya was incredible against Man United, picking up right where he left off.
It’s a long season, a lot can happen between now and when the title is awarded in 10 months' time. Check back in May 2026 to see how I’ve done.
