Believe it or not, we are about to dive into the 30th season of the Premier League since its landmark rebranding, with English football basking in the afterglow of its national team being a penalty shoot-out away from winning Euro 2020 and a second all-EPL Champions League final out of the last three.
Manchester City comfortably regained supremacy last season, landing their fifth league title in 10 years, although Pep Guardiola’s side ought to expect a battle royale similar to when Liverpool pushed them all the way in 2018/19. Chelsea have proven to be the Cityzens’ Kryptonite since Thomas Tuchel took the reins at Stamford Bridge and the European champions could be strong contenders to topple Guardiola and co on the domestic front as well. Nor should we discount Manchester United, who have been steadily improving under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and have executed some smart summer business.
This time last year, Liverpool were on the stratospheric high of ending their interminable wait for a Premier League triumph, but Jurgen Klopp’s side have not kicked on since that magical 2019/20. If anything, they may need to be mindful of being usurped by an Arsenal side who’ve had some astute additions, or possibly the continually overachieving Leicester. Meanwhile, Tottenham are in a state of flux while West Ham have Europa League commitments, so there could be a huge opportunity for someone like Aston Villa, Everton or Leeds to gatecrash the European places.
Wolves and Crystal Palace are both under new management following the reigns of long-serving predecessors, although both should have mid-table aspirations. Looking further down the food chain, the likes of Newcastle, Southampton, Burnley and Brighton will all hope to put a bit more distance between themselves and the bottom three than they managed last season.
Norwich and Watford are both back in the top flight after a 12-month absence and will hope to avoid the fate of Fulham and West Brom, both of whom went straight back down in 2020/21. The other promoted name will be the most intriguing, though – Brentford become the 50th club to play in the Premier League, and while they could relish a chance at taking down some of the top flight’s elite, this season is simply about trying to give themselves the best possible chance of staying up.
There are several reasons to be cheerful about the upcoming campaign. Fans are back in earnest after 2020/21’s lockout, while Mike Riley has pledged that VAR will be operated with a bit more competency this time around. We’ll believe that when we see it, but if he’s right, the 30th Premier League season should be a far more enjoyable spectacle than its predecessor.
ARSENAL
For the first time since 1996/97, Arsenal go into a season without European football to work into their schedule. That is a sign of how far they have fallen since their run of 19 successive Champions League campaigns under Arsene Wenger, but Liverpool fans will recall how the Jurgen Klopp era began to take flight when they were out of Europe in 2016/17. Mikel Arteta will hope to use that as the blueprint for navigating a Gunners squad with no shortage of ability, but still plenty of question marks over their consistency, throughout the forthcoming campaign.
Just as they have one of the youngest managers in the Premier League, Arsenal are gravitating towards deriving inspiration from some of the brightest young talents in English football, most notably Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe. Ben White has also been added to the mix for a cool £50m, but while the youth is certainly having its fling at the Emirates Stadium, Arteta could do with getting more out of experienced campaigners such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and especially the underwhelming Willian. They also need less of the self-destructive moments such as those which saw Granit Xhaka and Nicolas Pepe pick up stupid red cards last season.
Arsenal are still some way off getting back chasing for titles but a genuine push for top four this term would be seen as discernible progress. They still seem a little short of a Champions League return, but they should certainly improve on the eighth-placed finishes of the last two campaigns.
Prediction: 6th
ASTON VILLA
A summer spending splurge is no guarantee of success, as Aston Villa fans will tell you after their 2019 trolley dash preceded a final-day escape from the drop in July 2020. This time around, though, the spree feels different.
Jack Grealish will undoubtedly be a very difficult man to replace but Dean Smith certainly hasn’t been idle in trying to plug the gap, lashing out on creative talents such as Emiliano Buendia and the turbo-charged Leon Bailey. The capture of Danny Ings from Southampton also looks a very clever move, with both him and Ollie Watkins proving that they are capable of finding the net regularly at this level. Add a vastly under-rated goalkeeper in Emiliano Martinez and a sturdy centre-back partnership in Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa to the mix and you have strength all over the park.
Few, if any, Premier League clubs will be as happy with their summer transfer business as Aston Villa. If the likes of Buendia, Bailey and Ings reproduce the form from their previous clubs at Villa Park this term, a European finish is well within their grasp.
Prediction: 7th
BRENTFORD
Twelve months on from the bitter taste of defeat to near neighbours Fulham in the Championship play-off final, Brentford are finally among the big boys, with their fellow west Londoners passing them out on the escalator between the top two divisions to make it all the sweeter.
There is one standout reason as to why the Bees are back in the top flight for the first time since 1947 – Ivan Toney. The former Newcastle prospect tore the Championship apart last season, netting 33 goals as he fired Thomas Frank’s side into the promised land. There remains the distinct possibility of a big-money move elsewhere for the striker, but Brentford have shrugged off the departures of Neal Maupay, Ollie Watkins and Said Benrahma in recent years to keep their star ascending. It isn’t all the Ivan Toney Show, either – centre-back Ethan Pinnock also looks capable of making the considerable leap from Football League to Premier League, while former Celtic man Kristoffer Ajer should also shore up their defence.
Brentford will no doubt enjoy their first few months of Premier League action and will certainly fancy their chances of taking some lucrative scalps (possibly starting with Arsenal on Friday night?). However, with relatively little summer investment to what is fundamentally a Championship squad, the Bees might not have the longevity to keep the good times rolling for a full nine months. So long as they’re not completely outclassed, this will be a memorable season for their supporters no matter how it ends.
Prediction: 19th
BRIGHTON
In 2020/21, Brighton were like a Rolex watch with the battery taken out – lovely to look at but frustratingly ineffective. Time and again they created enough chances to blow teams out of the water, only to let themselves down with wasteful finishing and fateful lapses at the back.
Even with £50m bankrolled from the sale of Ben White, it has been a quiet summer on the transfer front from the Seagulls, with Graham Potter hoping that the plaudits which have come his way will more regularly translate into points. The talent is undoubtedly there in this squad – just look at how Tariq Lamptey took to top-flight football like a duck to water before his long-term injury, or how Danny Welbeck enjoyed an Indian summer at the Amex Stadium. However, they need to be more ruthless in both penalty boxes if they are to back up memorable wins over the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City by beating the teams around them, something with which they struggled last season.
Brighton should certainly be a nice watch once again under the likeable Potter, but unless they learn to seize the chances which come their way and can compensate for the absence of White at the back, it could be another season spent nervously peering over their shoulder at that dotted line separating 17th from 18th.
Prediction: 17th
BURNLEY
In stark contrast to Brighton, Burnley will rarely win points for artistic merit, but the formula which has served them so well for so long under Sean Dyche continues to yield Premier League stability for them. Last winter’s takeover from ALK Capital should also offer greater fiscal security, even if the Clarets aren’t exactly throwing money around in recent months.
By now we all know the ingredients which make Burnley tick – an excellent goalkeeper in Nick Pope, a no-nonsense centre-half duo of Ben Mee and James Tarkowski, an industrious midfield embellished by the creativity of Dwight McNeil, and the clinical robustness of Chris Wood up top. Dyche’s strongest XI is sound, but where Clarets fans have every right to worry is in terms of squad depth – no Premier League club has fewer than their 21 senior players, so a spate of injuries could leave them alarmingly threadbare.
Without being disingenuous, a mid-table finish would represent an excellent showing from this Burnley squad. So long as Dyche stays around and they keep the bulk of the first XI fit for most of the season, though, they should do enough to eventually put some distance between themselves and the drop zone.
Prediction: 14th
CHELSEA
It took favours from elsewhere for Chelsea to cling onto fourth place last season, but that was swiftly forgotten as Thomas Tuchel led the Blues to Champions League glory with a third victory over Manchester City in the space of six weeks. Frank Lampard put the pieces in place with last summer’s spending extravaganza; the German then found a way of combining them to greater effect upon his January arrival at Stamford Bridge.
The splurge of 2020 has meant that Tuchel hasn’t had to be too frantic in the transfer market, but his sole first team capture could be the one which turns them from contenders into champions. Romelu Lukaku is back at the club where he had precious little chance to prove himself as a youngster, the burly Belgian now buoyed by an enviable scoring return at every club he’s represented since. With the likes of Mason Mount, Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic providing the ammo while Duracell bunny reincarnate N’Golo Kante minds the house in midfield, Chelsea now look a formidable unit, one which has already evolved greatly under their current manager’s watch.
I tipped the Blues for the title this time last year but the star-studded blend wasn’t quite right under Lampard in the closing months of 2020. With Tuchel now at the helm, though, and this team already proving it can land the big prizes under his watch, Chelsea could be a good get to emulate Liverpool by following up Champions League glory with the Premier League title a year later.
Prediction: 1st
CRYSTAL PALACE
At the start of July, Crystal Palace had no manager in place and released 11 players to leave themselves without enough at the club to even put a team on the pitch. By the end of the month, Patrick Vieira had finally been installed as Roy Hodgson’s successor and the former Arsenal captain had, to put it mildly, got down to work in the transfer market.
If it weren’t for the blue and red stripes, the Eagles would look almost unrecognisable from recent years. Gone are the elder statesmen such as Gary Cahill, Wayne Hennessey, Andros Townsend, Mamadou Sakho and James McCarthy. In their places are the impressive centre-back Joachim Andersen and some fledgling talents in Michael Olise, Marc Guehi and loanee Conor Gallagher. A sense of continuity is preserved by the likes of Wilfried Zaha, Christian Benteke, Luka Milivojevic and Cheikhou Kouyate, all of whom can be expected to help bring on the younger newcomers.
It’s not widely known what Vieira will bring to the party, but after four years of sterile if stable mediocrity under Hodgson, a change is certainly refreshing around Selhurst Park. The new manager seems to have put the right pieces in place to keep Palace in their familiar lower mid-table position – so maybe that’ll be one constant around south London.
Prediction: 13th
EVERTON
Scorned by the abrupt departure of Carlo Ancelotti for Real Madrid, Everton fans’ ire was dialled up another few notches by the subsequent arrival of Rafael Benitez in his place. The Bluenoses haven’t forgotten the Spaniard’s “small club” remarks during his tenure across Stanley Park at Liverpool, and few Premier League managers will have ever had a taller task in terms of trying to win over a club’s fanbase.
The playing pool that Benitez has inherited at Goodison Park is a talented one, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and James Rodriguez all capable of wreaking havoc in the final third. However, Everton oscillated between looking like world beaters and panel beaters on more than one occasion last term, failing to consistently produce the type of performance which had them properly pushing for Europe at one point. The summer signings so far – Andros Townsend, Demarai Gray and Asmir Begovic – are Premier League proven but not likely to inspire any huge excitement among the Toffees faithful.
Everton fans may also need to be patient with Benitez’s natural pragmatism, which is fine so long as it yields results. The new boss is incredibly headstrong and won’t have his feathers ruffled if fire and brimstone pours down from the stands at Goodison.
Prediction: 10th
LEEDS
Just as fellow Yorkshire outfit Sheffield United finished ninth in their first season back in the top flight in 2019/20, Leeds did likewise the following term. However, they will also be aware that the Blades finished rock bottom in 2020/21, so the more cautious among Whites fans will be mindful of the fear of regression now that the surprise element is gone.
Still, Marcelo Bielsa has a far stronger squad than what Chris Wilder could call upon. An attacking triumvirate of Jack Harrison, Patrick Bamford and Raphinha is very capable of plundering plenty of goals at this level, Kalvin Phillips has been superb as their midfield anchor and Stuart Dallas has been superb wherever his manager has put him. They will also welcome fans back to Elland Road for the first time since their top-flight return, giving their younger following a first chance to see Premier League football in the flesh at their boisterous home. Even without that vocal support, they still took points off each of the so-called ‘Big Six’ at home last season.
The last two campaigns have shown that Leeds can last the distance of a full season under Bielsa’s notoriously intense playing style, and so long as the heroes of 2020/21 can replicate those performance levels again, the Whites should be set for another comfortable top-half finish.
Prediction: 9th
LEICESTER
Leicester’s bean counters may still be having sleepless nights over two successive last-gasp failures to retain a Champions League spot, but their fans have had a glorious summer bookended by victories in the FA Cup final and Community Shield over Chelsea and Manchester City respectively.
With the Foxes proving that 2019/20 was no fluke, Brendan Rodgers knows he has the squad to push for the top four once again, particularly with some astute summer additions such as pacy striker Patson Daka and midfield destroyer Boubakary Soumare. Also, Harvey Barnes is back from long-term injury, while Kelechi Iheanacho has helped to reduce the scoring burden on Jamie Vardy, who even at 34 is still no slouch. Add in the midfield creativity of Youri Tielemans and James Maddison (for now), along with the security of Jonny Evans and Kasper Schmeichel further back, and Leicester look well equipped to at the very least maintain their position of the last two campaigns. The loss of Wesley Fofana to a broken leg is quite a setback, however.
They will have Europa League commitments again this season and will hope to improve upon their last-32 exit from 2020/21. If they do, the workload may prove a distraction if Leicester are in the mix for a top four finish once more. They’ll likely be pushing for the Champions League again but may not quite have the consistency to cross that most significant of steps.
Prediction: 5th
LIVERPOOL
There appears to be plenty of optimism among Liverpool supporters heading into the new campaign. The Reds somehow managed to finish third last term despite some horrendous injuries and results, while Virgil van Dijk is back from his lengthy layoff and the fans will be back at Anfield. Some fluid pre-season displays have also added to the positive aura among many Kopites.
I wish I could share their optimism. Aside from the addition of Ibrahima Konate and the return of long-term injury victims, Jurgen Klopp is working with practically the same squad which struggled for so much of 2020/21. There’s nothing to say that another key player won’t be put out of action for several months like Van Dijk was, while Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane will be missing for some of January due to the Africa Cup of Nations. Indeed, apart from Salah and Diogo Jota, the Reds often struggled for goals last term, with Roberto Firmino just not potent enough at centre-forward.
While Liverpool’s rivals have all strengthened over the summer, the frugal mentality of FSG means that Klopp will again be looking to the same group of players who, let’s face it, peaked in that glorious two-year period of 2018 to 2020. Not even the return of Van Dijk can convince me that the Reds will be in a title battle; instead, it could be another slog just to make sure they preserve their Champions League status.
Prediction: 4th
MANCHESTER CITY
Manchester City ended up winning a third Premier League title in four years – and a fifth in the last decade – in the 2020/21 season, and with a degree of comfort, yet it didn’t quite feel like the all-conquering procession of previous triumphs under Pep Guardiola.
This season’s kit may be an ode to their breakthrough 2012 title success, but the man most associated with that crown, a certain Sergio Aguero, is no longer at the Etihad Stadium, with another link to the trophy-laden 2010s exiting stage left. His departure leaves Gabriel Jesus as City’s only senior centre-forward, and the Brazilian has never looked capable of plundering goals from nothing like his Argentine colleague had done for so long, hence the over-publicised pursuit of Harry Kane. Still, they have landed another much-hyped transfer target in Jack Grealish to go along with the captivating creative talents of Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez. They also boast a formidable centre-back partnership in Ruben Dias and a rejuvenated John Stones.
Guardiola’s side should be in the mix to retain their title, but they can expect much stronger competition than what they swatted aside last term. Also, given their agonising defeat to Chelsea in Porto, the Champions League remains an itch that the manager will be desperate to scratch. Unless they acquire a bona fide centre-forward of Aguero’s level, I reckon they won’t repeat their 2019 trick of successfully defending their Premier League crown.
Prediction: 3rd
MANCHESTER UTD
While some will look at Manchester United’s second-place finish and Europa League runners-up spot as evidence that they still lack trophy-winning quality, it also indicates that they have made renewed progress since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took charge two-and-a-half years ago.
The trophy drought stands at five years, with the wait for another Premier League title entering its ninth season, yet the summer captures of Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane suggest that the Red Devils mean business. The English youngster adds another hugely potent option to their attack, while the French defender should help to shore up a defence which has justifiably had its fair share of critics. The only position where United still seem short of quality is at the base of midfield; get that right and Solskjaer will definitely have a squad capable of bringing silverware back to Old Trafford.
They may have been top of the table back in January and within five points of Man City at one stage in early May, but United didn’t mount a genuine title challenge really last term. That should be different this time around, though, and even if they fall narrowly short on the league front, don’t be surprised if Solskjaer finally removes that trophyless monkey from his back over the next few months.
Prediction: 2nd
NEWCASTLE
Another summer of takeover talk which has ultimately gone nowhere, allied with being the only top-flight club not to complete a single senior signing going into the season’s opening day, may explain why the mood on Tyneside is sombre as 2021/22 begins.
As a disenchanted fan base makes its return to St James’ Park, the much-maligned Steve Bruce badly needs a strong start to the campaign to hold the detractors at bay now that they have a firsthand outlet to make their feelings known. The Geordie has game-changing forward talents at his disposal in Callum Wilson and Allan Saint-Maximin, but elsewhere his squad looks very much like a lower-end Premier League one, hence their familiar struggles at the wrong end of the table. Even if the proposed permanent signing of Joe Willock goes through, it’s hard to see him embarking on the same sensational hot streak as that with which he finished his loan spell at Newcastle back in the spring.
Barring some stunning left-field acquisitions between now and the end of the month, the Magpies can brace themselves for another season of struggle. If the likes of Wilson and Saint-Maximin stay fit, they may have enough quality to preserve their Premier League status, but the Toon Army will have the rosary beads out and praying that neither of those is laid low for a lengthy period of time.
Prediction: 16th
NORWICH
2018/19: promoted in style as Championship winners. 2019/20: relegated without a whimper, losing their final 10 games to finish on a measly 21 points. 2020/21: promoted in even greater style as Championship winners. Now, can Norwich break the famine-and-feast cycle in their latest Premier League sojourn?
The hope is that Daniel Farke and his squad have learned valuable lessons from their last top-flight campaign to make a better fist of things this time around. The loss of Emiliano Buendia will be sorely felt, especially now that they’re back in the big league, although the Canaries seem to have put the money from his sale to good use by bringing in the likes of Milot Rashica and Josh Sargent from the Bundesliga. They’re also set to give the on-loan Billy Gilmour a prolonged run of senior football, the Chelsea youngster showing during Euro 2020 why he is so highly-rated. Teemu Pukki, who was scoring for fun in the early months of their last Premier League season, is still around too.
Norwich fans will probably accept that the goal this season is simply to stay in the top flight. Anything other than a battle to beat the drop would be a surprise, but this squad should be wiser and stronger now than what it was in 2019/20, so the cycle of changing divisions might be brought to a merciful halt by next May. That would do quite alright for the Canaries.
Prediction: 15th
SOUTHAMPTON
It was only nine months ago that a 2-0 win over Newcastle put Southampton top of the Premier League table overnight, but their decline ever since that moment has made it feel like it belongs to a different era. From that high, the Saints ended up in 15th position when the season ended, with a second nine-goal defeat in 16 months thrown into the equation.
Ralph Hasenhuttl’s woes haven’t been helped by the sale of Danny Ings to Aston Villa, thus depriving them of a man who has struck 34 Premier League goals in the last two seasons. Stuart Armstrong has been brought in to fill that void, but whether the former Blackburn man can replicate his Championship form at top-flight level is the burning question among Saints fans. Jannik Vestergaard is also set to move to Leicester, while questions have abounded about the future of talismanic captain James Ward-Prowse, without whose set piece brilliance Southampton would’ve fared even worse last term.
Armstrong aside, the new arrivals don’t inspire excitement, so it’s hard to find reasons to be optimistic for the Saints going into the new campaign. Their form in 2021 has been that of a team fighting against the drop, and unless Armstrong can pick up where Ings left off, a decade-long run of top-flight football at St Mary’s might just come to an end by the summer of 2022.
Prediction: 18th
TOTTENHAM
Tottenham’s recent experimentation with a cautious Portuguese manager did not end well, but Jose Mourinho’s troubled tenure hasn’t deterred the club from trying their luck with Nuno Espirito Santo, albeit that the former Wolves boss was roughly ninth on their managerial longlist, having bungled their way through several other candidates before landing on the 47-year-old.
Mourinho once griped that Spurs are not “the Harry Kane team”, but one can only wonder how much lower than seventh they would’ve finished last term without the Premier League’s top scorer and assists provider. The England captain’s future has been the source of intense transfer speculation in recent weeks, and beyond him and Son Heung-min, it’s hard to identify genuine top-level quality in Tottenham’s squad. They appear to have done good business by swapping out Erik Lamela for young Spanish winger Bryan Gil, but beyond their impressive attacking arsenal they look a rather mundane outfit.
They also have the ‘honour’ of being England’s first participants in the new UEFA Europa Conference League, a competition they’re capable of winning if they truly put their minds to it and which, in truth, may represent their best chance of being in Europe next season. If Kane leaves, even the top six may be well out of reach.
Prediction: 8th
WATFORD
Just like Norwich, they came up in 2015 (but stuck around the top flight for longer than the Canaries), were relegated in 2020 and bounced back a year later. Watford fans will hope that this Premier League season will be more stable than their last, with three managers getting their P45 from the highly impatient Pozzo family ownership.
Xisco Munoz will be acutely aware that winning promotion will count for little if the Hornets start the season slowly – they dispensed with Slavisa Jokanovic six years ago before he even got to the start of the campaign. The Spanish coach has been praised for injecting a strong camaraderie at Vicarage Road which wasn’t there under some of his predecessors, while their promotion was built upon having a very solid defence which they hope will stand to them against top-flight opposition. While Troy Deeney may be getting on in his career, they have used the free agents market well to acquire Josh King, Ashley Fletcher and Danny Rose, but the standout coup is that of Emmanuel Dennis from Club Brugge. Two years ago, the Nigerian ran Real Madrid ragged in a Champions League tie at the Bernabeu, netting twice on the most famous night of his career.
However, based on the evidence of previous seasons, it’s difficult to see the owners keeping faith with Munoz if, as expected, Watford are scrapping to avoid an instant return to the Championship. The fire-and-hire approach didn’t work for them in 2019/20 and, with a far from stellar squad in Hertfordshire, it might not bear fruit this time either. Good luck, Xisco – you’ll need it with the bosses you have.
Prediction: 20th
WEST HAM
This time last year, West Ham supporters were debating whether their team would do enough to avoid relegation from the Premier League. Now, David Moyes is preparing his squad for the dual responsibilities of domestic and Europa League commitments. It’s a remarkable upturn in fortunes, but have they the depth and quality to juggle the workload?
Moyes has developed Michail Antonio into a reliable top-flight centre-forward, but the 31-year-old has a terrible injury record and the Irons have no other natural options in the number nine role. They also won’t have Jesse Lingard, whose goals helped to sustain the European charge in the latter half of last season. Tomas Soucek also proved to be a fruitful source of goals, but they won’t want to be overly dependent on a central midfielder to carry so much of the burden. New faces have been very thin on the ground, so unless some are brought in before the end of the month, Moyes will be reliant on the heroes of 2020/21 to provide adequate firepower to keep them going this term.
With the Europa League added into the mix, it will be a very tall order for the Hammers to repeat their sixth-placed finish. They should have more than enough to avoid a repeat of the relegation scramble of the previous campaign, though, and so long as their squad isn’t too badly ravaged by injury, they’ll likely enjoy a relatively stress-free season in mid-table, a stark contrast to the extremes of the last two.
Prediction: 11th
WOLVES
For the first time since 2016/17, Wolves begin their season without Nuno Espirito Santo at the helm. They were a mid-table Championship side back then, but now firmly established in the Premier League, they’ve again turned to Portugal for Nuno’s successor. Step forward Bruno Lage, who has won the Primeira Liga in his homeland with Benfica.
Last season was the first in a long time that Wolves experienced regression, dropping back to 13th after successive seventh-placed finishes. A big factor in that drop-off was the season-ending injury to main striker Raul Jimenez, who thankfully is back on the football field and will hopefully make up for lost time. Lage will also seek more from Adama Traore, who was sensational in 2019/20 but lost his way last term. The worry is in defence, a position where Wolves have not really strengthened since getting back into the Premier League, but the permanent signing of Rayan Ait-Nouri may help somewhat in that regard. They’ll also have a new goalkeeper in Jose Sa, who played against them in the Europa League for Olympiakos in 2020. Needless to say, he’s Portuguese and a client of Jorge Mendes, seemingly the two main criteria for becoming a Wolves player these days.
The target will be to get back into the top half but that may prove beyond Lage’s current squad, particularly if Jimenez doesn’t manage to rediscover the brilliant poacher’s instinct he had so often demonstrated prior to his head injury. This season could be about baby steps towards stability rather than any great turbo-charge back into European contention.
Prediction: 12th
PREDICTED FINAL TABLE
- Chelsea
- Man Utd
- Man City
- Liverpool
- Leicester
- Arsenal
- Aston Villa
- Tottenham
- Leeds
- Everton
- West Ham
- Wolves
- Crystal Palace
- Burnley
- Norwich
- Newcastle
- Brighton
- Southampton
- Brentford
- Watford
First manager to be sacked: If Newcastle start badly with the vociferous Toon Army back at St James’ Park, Steve Bruce’s position could become untenable. Down south, Ralph Hasenhuttl could also see his goodwill run out if Southampton’s demise continues.
Top scorer: Irrespective of what club he lines out for during 2021/22, it’s hard not to see reigning Golden Boot holder Harry Kane being a contender once again. Injury status permitting, Mohamed Salah looks set to be up there, too, while Danny Ings and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang also tend to reside high up the charts. One new contender could be Romelu Lukaku, who never fails to hit big numbers for whichever team he represents.
Breakthrough boys: Carney Chukwuemeka (Aston Villa), Thierry Small (Everton), Joe Gelhardt (Leeds), Harvey Elliott (Liverpool), Anthony Elanga (Man Utd), Elliot Anderson (Newcastle), Alfie Devine (Tottenham), Mipo Odubeko (West Ham)
Making a good first impression: Leon Bailey (Aston Villa), Patson Daka (Leicester), Ibrahima Konate (Liverpool), Dimitris Giannoulis (Norwich), Cristian Romero (Tottenham), Emmanuel Dennis (Watford), Francisco Trincao (Wolves)
Man, Ball and All 