The wait is almost over! The Premier League returns on Friday at Anfield, where ليفربول will kick-off the defence of their title against Bournemouth. The resurgent Reds swept everyone aside on their way to winning a record-equalling 20th English championship last season, with Arne Slot’s side finishing 10 points clear ahead of أرسنال.
Rather ominously for Liverpool’s rivals, the club’s American owners, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), have spent big during the summer, meaning the Merseysiders are the clear favourites going into the new season. However, Arsenal, مانشستر سيتي and Chelsea have splashed plenty of cash themselves – as have مانشستر يونايتد, who have completely revamped their forward line.
And what about the relegation battle? Are we going to see all three newly-promoted teams go straight back down for the third year in a row? Here at BALLGM, we’ve tried to answer those questions by compiling a final league table based on predictions made by our writers and editors. Check out the results below and let us know in the comments what you think we’ve got right – and what you think we’ve got badly wrong…
The wait is almost over! The Premier League returns on Friday at Anfield, where Liverpool will kick-off the defence of their title against Bournemouth. The resurgent Reds swept everyone aside on their way to winning a record-equalling 20th English championship last season, with Arne Slot’s side finishing 10 points clear ahead of Arsenal.
Rather ominously for Liverpool’s rivals, the club’s American owners, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), have spent big during the summer, meaning the Merseysiders are the clear favourites going into the new season. However, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea have splashed plenty of cash themselves – as have Manchester United, who have completely revamped their forward line.
And what about the relegation battle? Are we going to see all three newly-promoted teams go straight back down for the third year in a row? Here at بالجم we’ve tried to answer those questions by compiling a final league table based on predictions made by our writers and editors. Check out the results below and let us know in the comments what you think we’ve got right – and what you think we’ve got badly wrong…
One has to feel a little sympathy for Scott Parker. The former Chelsea midfielder has taken a team into the Premier League for the third time as a manager – and this time after amassing 100 points in the Championship thanks in no small part to a historic defensive record (just 16 goals conceded in 46 games).
However, it doesn’t look like he has a squad remotely capable of achieving top-flight survival – not least because goalkeeper James Trafford, the man responsible for so many of last season’s clean sheets, has returned to Manchester City and key defender CJ Egan-Riley has joined Marseille on a free transfer. Not even Kyle Walker’s arrival from City will be enough to keep the Clarets afloat.
ليدز يونايتد are a curious case. Daniel Farke’s side racked up 100 points and scored 95 times during last season’s Championship triumph – yet the German’s position was still a subject of much debate during the summer.
Farke did not fare well in his previous Premier League campaigns with Norwich City and has never really been a fan favourite at Elland Road. Consequently, the lack of meaningful investment in the Leeds squad (there are serious concerns over where the goals are going to come from) suggests that Farke could be out of a job sooner rather than later.
Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus certainly can’t be accused of parsimony or a lack of ambition. The Swiss-French businessman has stumped up well over £120 million ($161m) for the Black Cats to spend on new players during the summer, including Granit Xhaka, Simon Adingra and Habib Diarra.
Unfortunately, Regis Le Bris’ squad still looks short on Premier League quality, so a team that lost 12 times in the Championship last season – and only came up via the play-offs – is expected to go straight back down.
The big problem with over-achievement is that it attracts the attention of underperforming clubs keen to steal the secrets of surprise success – as Brentford have discovered to their considerable cost this summer. Manager Thomas Frank has been snapped up by توتنهام, Christian Norgaard has joined Arsenal, while Manchester United paid mad money to sign Bryan Mbeumo.
Former set-piece coach Keith Andrews has been tasked with filling the considerable void left by Frank and the hope now is that his job isn’t made more difficult by any further departures, given Yoane Wissa and Nathan Collins have plenty of Premier League admirers. They have, however, signed Jordan Henderson, for what that’s worth in 2025…
Vitor Pereira was one of the managers of last season, with the Portuguese taking over 19th-placed Wolves in December and ensuring Premier League survival well before the end of the season thanks in no small part to a stunning six-game winning streak.
Pereira is going to have his work cut out repeating that kind of form, though. On the plus side, Jorgen Strand Larsen has joined on a permanent basis after a terrific debut season at Molineux, while new signing Jhon Arias was outstanding at the Club World Cup for Fluminense. However, Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait Nouri are both going to be sorely missed – even if Pereira should still be capable of keeping his team out of relegation trouble.
We fear for Graham Potter at West Ham. The Englishman is undoubtedly one of the leading contenders to ‘win’ the sack race after failing miserably to turn things around at the London Stadium, after succeeding Julen Lopetegui as manager in January.
If West Ham’s performances had at least been better than their results, there would have been some grounds for optimism, but they weren’t, so there are not. Jarrod Bowen may still be knocking about, but the sale of Mohammed Kudus to Spurs is a clear indicator of a club moving very much in the wrong direction, making it almost impossible to see West Ham even managing to match last season’s 14th-placed finish.
In football, they say you should never go back, but David Moyes’ return to Everton worked out wonderfully well for everyone involved, with the Scot reinvigorating a team hovering around the drop zone during a stirring second half of the season.
As things stand, Moyes isn’t happy with the squad at his disposal for the coming campaign. He still feels as if Everton need more signings before the window closes – and he’s definitely right. However, they appear to be edging closer to adding the kind of creativity they so sorely lacked last season with the loan signing of Jack Grealish, while playing in a beautiful brand new arena should give everyone at the club a huge boost.
Bournemouth were right in the mix for a European place going into the final few weeks of last season but, as it transpired, they’d left themselves with too much to do after a rotten run of results at the start of spring. They’ve since lost Milos Kerkez, Ilya Zabarnyi and Dean Huijsen, to Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid, respectively, while on-loan goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga has joined Arsenal, leaving Andoni Iraola to rebuild his almost entire defensive unit.
The Cherries do still have Evanilson, Justin Kluivert and Antoine Semenyo on their books to provide attacking firepower, but repeating last season’s ninth-place finish could be tough.
Fulham are a classic mid-table team. They won one more game (15) than they lost last season (14), and scored as many goals as they conceded (54) while coming home in 11th place.
After an eerily quiet transfer window featuring just one confirmed signing so far (veteran goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte), more mediocrity beckons for the Cottagers. Indeed, were it not for their very accomplished coach Marco Silva, there would be a real risk of Fulham being dragged into a relegation battle.
The entire Nottingham Forest project appeared to be collapsing when Tottenham agreed to pay the buy-out clause in Morgan Gibbs-White’s contract – just hours after Anthony Elanga had left the City Ground for Newcastle. However, Evangelos Marinakis not only managed to hold onto Gibbs-White, Forest’s larger-than-life chairman got the England international to sign a new contract – much to the relief of Nuno Espirito Santo.
The Portuguese will also have been buoyed by the arrivals of Dan Ndoye, James McAtee and Igor Jesus, but repeating last season’s surprise seventh-placed finish looks beyond Forest as it stands – particularly with Europa League football to contend with this year.
Crystal Palace made history last season by stunning Manchester City in the FA Cup final to claim their first-ever piece of silverware, while at the same time racking up their highest-ever points tally in the Premier League (53). They backed that up by triumphing over Liverpool in the Community Shield, but it will be tough for Oliver Glasner to top those remarkable achievements given the Eagles’ worrying lack of activity in the transfer market.
The fear is that they’re waiting to see what happens with Eberechi Eze, Marc Guehi and Jean-Philippe Mateta – all three of whom have been linked with moves away from Selhurst Park before the close of the transfer window. If even just one of those key players were to leave, Palace could struggle in the league, particularly as they’re likely to invest so much effort in their first-ever European adventure.
Brighton were understandably disappointed after failing to finish among the European places last season, but eighth place was still a fine achievement for Fabian Hurzeler at the end of his first year in English football. The Seagulls also finished the 2024-25 campaign with a flourish, taking 13 points from their final five games, and although they’ve since lost Joao Pedro to Chelsea, that might be no bad thing.
The Brazilian had become something of a liability, and holding onto the likes of Carlos Baleba and Kaoru Mitoma was probably of far greater concern to Hurzeler, who will also be looking forward to working with the very exciting Greek forwards Charalampos Kostoulas and Stefanos Tzimas.
Everything was going so well for Newcastle – at least on the field. Manager Eddie Howe masterminded a stunning upset of Liverpool in the كأس كاراباو final in March, thus ending a 70-year domestic trophy drought, before then leading the Magpies back into the دوري أبطال أوروبا via a fifth-placed finish in the Premier League.
However, the summer transfer window has been a disaster for Newcastle, who have been humiliatingly rejected by one transfer target after another while having to deal with star striker Alexander Isak pushing for a move to Liverpool. All things considered, it could be a long, gruelling season for Howe and the Toon Army if things don’t turn around in the final weeks of the window.
Ange Postecoglou is perfectly entitled to feel hard done after being sacked by Spurs despite ending the club’s trophy drought. Let’s face it, though: Spurs were lucky to beat Manchester United in the Europa League final and were absolutely atrocious from start to finish in the Premier League.
The excellent Thomas Frank should, therefore, have little trouble improving a team that finished 17th last year – even if the leadership of the universally loved Son Heung-min will undoubtedly be missed. The former Brentford boss could definitely do with a few more new signings, but Joao Palhinha should add some bite to the midfield, while Frank could work wonders with Mohammed Kudus.
The incorrectly disallowed goal at Old Trafford that effectively ended Aston Villa’s hopes of qualifying for the 2025-26 Champions League is beginning to look like a huge sliding-doors moment in the history of the club. Remember, Unai Emery’s men really appeared to be going places after reaching the quarter-finals of last season’s competition, but not being in it this year has had a terrible effect on Villa’s summer recruitment, with only one significant arrival so far: Ivorian striker Evann Guessan from Nice.
Emery will, therefore, have his work cut out getting his team back into the Champions League even if the likes of Ollie Watkins and Emiliano Martinez remain on the club’s books.
From 15th to fifth in one year?! Funnily enough, it actually seems possible for Manchester United. Granted, Old Trafford is still falling apart and there is an almost complete lack of trust in Sir Jim Ratcliffe among the supporters. However, there are grounds for optimism at United.
A lack of goals was United’s main problem last season, but the entire forward line has been revamped and two of the new arrivals, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha, have already proven themselves capable of scoring freely in the Premier League. It’s also unlikely that Ruben Amorim will be hindered by as many injuries as last season – not least because United will regularly have a week off between games due to the absence of European football, meaning more precious time on the training ground for the Portuguese coach and his players.
Chelsea have a very poor success rate when it comes to signings, but they make so many that it’s inevitable that some will come off, and Joao Pedro is already looking capable of solving their striking problem. There’s also the fact that the Blues are much better sellers than they are buyers, meaning their rather ridiculous approach to recruitment is starting to look sustainable (for now, at least).
From a purely footballing perspective, Chelsea will take a colossal amount of confidence into the new season after their surprise Club World Cup triumph – but there is a fear that their participation could result in some seriously tired legs the longer the season goes in, particularly as Enzo Maresca’s men will be competing in the Champions League this year.
Chelsea’s incessant spending obviously attracts a lot of attention, while Liverpool have made waves this summer with their historic outlay, so it’s kind of gone under the radar that Manchester City have forked out approximately £330m since the turn of year. Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki should prove astute signings, but it is worrying that Omar Marmoush is the only one of the January arrivals to have made a big impact in the Premier League.
Pep Guardiola is still considered the best coach in the world and the presumption is that City will get back to something resembling their best after last season’s horror-show, but the suspicion remains that we may be witnessing the start of the end of an era at the Etihad.
We’re approaching now-or-never territory for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. The Spaniard has only lifted one major trophy during his time in charge, the FA Cup, and that was five years ago, with what was essentially Unai Emery’s team.
Arteta is, therefore, likely to come under serious pressure if Arsenal finish second for the fourth consecutive season. He’s been once again been backed to the hilt in the transfer market and finally got himself a prolific No.9 in Viktor Gyokeres, meaning the time for excuses is over.
Unquestionably the team to beat. Don’t be deceived by the low points haul (84) – Liverpool were outstanding last season. Despite making just one signing (Federico Chiesa), Arne Slot’s side ran away with the league, went into party mode after wrapping up the title with four games remaining, and yet still finished 10 points ahead of Arsenal.
Given Fenway Sports Group (FSG) has since spent an unprecedented amount of money on summer signings, including Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Hugo Ekitike, the Reds are perfectly primed to win a record-breaking 21st title.
The one unknown is how the tragic death of Diogo Jota will affect the players, but captain Virgil van Dijk says that they are determined to honour their memory of their eternal team-mate each and every time they set foot onto the pitch.
