The Premier League is the top tier of association football in England and has been since its founding in 1992. The league is one of the most-watched leagues in the world, generating an average of 4 billion pounds per season. So, it is not surprising that many people are interested in predicting who will be champion this year and who will finish where. So, I thought it will be interesting to predict how the PL table is going to look like at the end of the season.
First, let’s start with the relegation. I think all three promoted teams will go straight down again and it’s just a matter of who will finish where. According to my prediction, Watford will finish the season in the 20th position. Watford owners are notoriously known for sacking their managers when the going gets tough. The quality of premier league teams is increasing every year and the recruitment done by Watford till now is honestly quite underwhelming. So, apologies to Watford fans but I think they’ll finish last. Many believe that Norwich will once again repeat the story from the 2019-20 season and will finish last. But I believe the experience from their last time around in PL will help them to not finish last. Their coach Farke has made them more solid at the back and players like Gilmour (loan), Cantwell, Gibson and Rashica will be interesting to watch. But ultimately selling their best player from last season, Buendia, will prove costly and they’ll go down. I seriously don’t understand how some fans are expecting Brentford to stay up and do well. Sure, their manager Thomas Frank is good, and they have Ivan Toney who is a really good player. But when you look at their roster, I am finding it difficult to believe that they’ll do better than few PL teams who have been flirting with relegation since the last few seasons.
Burnley have been flirting with relegation for the last few seasons actually and surviving because of their manager. Their transfer window this far has been quite poor, and they will need Sean Dyche and their sturdy defence to come through once more. They need some reinforcements in their team to change the situation before the transfer window closes. Life back in the premier league has been difficult for Newcastle and their fans since getting promoted in 2017. Last season they exceeded the expectations by finishing 12th but I think they’ll fall to 16th position this time around. They have good players to not worry about relegation and if they add Willock before the season starts it’ll be a huge boost for them, and they might finish higher. They’ll do it anyway if Wilson can remain injury-free for the whole season but as we all know it’s highly unlikely.
There was quite an optimism among Southampton fans when Ralph Hasenhuttl joined them a few years ago and rightly so. They exceeded expectations in the first two years, but the last two years have been quite a struggle. With Danny Ings leaving for Aston Villa and Bertrand leaving for Leicester, they are recruiting good prospects, but they might have to fight off relegation risk for one more season before it starts getting better again. Crystal Palace has been the most difficult team to place in these rankings. There are quite frankly far too many unknowns here to place them accurately. Placing them above Newcastle and Southampton will raise many eyebrows for sure but looking at their excellent recruitment, I can’t help but think they’ll do well this time around. Zaha and Benteke looked lively during the whole of the preseason. And yet, I’ll admit that they might finish anywhere between 12th to 18th this season.
Let me know if you agree with these positions or not… I’ll be back with 7th to 13th ranked teams very soon.
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