The 2024/2025 Attacking Football Premier League Predictions
A new Premier League season is upon us. The writer of this article is a Manchester United fan so make of that what you will. With that out of the window, here are my unbiased predictions for the upcoming Premier League season. An explanation is made for each prediction.
But first, if you want more predictions, check out our podcast, where we made even more wild suggestions!
Champion
Is that even a question anymore? Since Pep Guardiola came into the Premier League, Manchester City has won six out of eight Premier League trophies. It took a herculean effort from Jurgen Klopp and Antonio Conte for them not to win the league the other two seasons.
There is neither Jurgen Klopp nor Antonio Conte in the Premier League anymore so Manchester City will win the league by the start of April. Worst-case scenario by the end of April. City repeats for the fifth consecutive time and will keep repeating as long as Pep is their manager. Everybody needs to make their peace with that. The competition is for second place.
UEFA Champions League Qualification
English clubs will do well in Europe this season, giving the Premier League a fifth UCL spot. The four clubs finishing in the UEFA Champions League spots will be Manchester United, Aston Villa, Liverpool, and Tottenham. Their rankings will be as follows:
Second: Manchester United. Erik Ten Hag has finally achieved his lifelong dream by building his Ajax defence in England. The Dutch coach is going into his third season, so he has no excuses not to finish best of the rest. Either finishing second or Erik Ten Hag getting sacked by December, the Manchester United season will go one way or the other.
Third: Aston Villa. Unai Emery is building a monster team at Villa Park. The Villans finished fourth while going deep in the UEFA Conference League last season. They are not going as deep in the UEFA Champions League, helping them rotate and rest in the second half of the season. Aston Villa finished third.
Fourth: Liverpool. Liverpool has a good squad—not as good as their fans like to think—but it is still good to finish in the top 4. Arne Slot will have a good first campaign, guiding Liverpool to a UEFA Champions League spot. This season is when Liverpool fans know how good they had it with Jurgen Klopp.
Fifth: Tottenham. Tottenham will improve on their last season by going from fifth to fifth. They will score more goals by virtue of Dominic Solanke’s signing. They will also keep conceding a lot of goals because Ange Postegoclu does not believe his team should play defence. At least, Tottenham will have their annual trophy of finishing above Arsenal.
UEFA Europa League spots
Sixth and seventh will go to the Europa League by virtue of five Champions League spots. Finishing in the Europa League spots for this season will be Arsenal and Newcastle.
Sixth: Arsenal. Arsenal had two consecutive good seasons, pushing Manchester City all the way. Arsenal have also been lucky with injuries in the past two seasons, having most of their important players fit for basically most of the season. They also improved their squad in places where they were already good enough and ignored places where they needed to strengthen. The emotional toll of pushing City all the way and the improvements of the teams around them will lead Arsenal to finish sixth.
Seventh: Newcastle. Eddie Howe was unlucky with injuries last season. The Law of Averages states that Newcastle should have much better luck this season. The competition this season will be tough but Eddie Howe will manage to get Newcastle back to European competitions. Newcastle did not really improve their squad enough to mount a serious push for a UEFA Champions League spot.
UEFA Conference League Spot
Eighth: AFC Bournemouth. After Adoni Iraola passed his bedding period, Bournemoth have been one of the best performers in the English Premier League. They had a good window. The Cherries replaced losing Solanke with a baby Solanke in Evanilson. Bournemouth still edges Fulham for the final European spot.
Relegation:
The last season have seen the three promoted teams to the Premier League get relegated but this scenario is not happening this season. Actually, None of the three promoted teams will go down although it will be close at times. Brighton, Everton and Nottingham will be the three relegated teams to the championship.
Brighton: Nobody doubts the Seagulls management; they have been shrewd operators since getting promoted to the Premier League. All the risks they have taken have worked out perfectly. Signing young players to develop then sell them have been a perfect strategy. Not anymore, this is the season their risks burn them. A 31-year-old manager in his first Premier League season won’t cut it with such an inexperienced squad. It will be too late when Brighton starts considering a change of a manager and they will stick to their project anyway, this is the way they operate. Unfortunately, this project will take the Seagulls down to the championship.
Everton: Sean Dyche worked his magic with the club last season. The squad is not good enough and Dyche magic will soon run out with Everton like it did with Burnley. Unfortunately, the issues outside the pitch will impact the team leading the historic club down to the Championship.
Nottingham: Nottingham have been escaping relegation since they got up. They have not really improved since they hired Santo, they just benefited from how bad the three promoted teams were last season. The three promoted teams this season look insistent on staying and have been improving their squads. Nottingham have already been subject to PSR point deductions and can not improve their squad as much as the three promoted teams. This is the season they get back into the Championship.
Other Predictions
FA Cup winner: With Arsenal not competing for the league, they will finally concentrate on winning actual trophies and not the trophy of finishing second. They will do it this season, winning their second FA Cup under Mikel Arteta.
Top Scorer: Why is that even a question? Erling Haaland, the best striker in the league for the best team, also takes penalties. Haaland is the is the top scorer with 30 goals this season.
Best Attack: Manchester City. The best squad has the best striker so surely they are going to be the team that scores the most goals.
Playmaker Award: Bruno Fernandes. This is the season where Bruno Fernandes finally wins an individual trophy with Manchester United. The forwards finish the tonnes of chances he creates and Bruno wins the playmaker award.
Golden Glove: The heart would say Andre Onana, especially after Manchester United transfers in defence. Yet Erik Ten Hag says that football should be played without a midfielder, so I am going with Emiliano Martinez. Emery is known for how well he sets up his teams defensively. The Spanish will restore this reputation this season, making Villa the best defence in the league.
Bonus Prediction:
Chelsea. Nobody really knows how many players Chelsea has right now. Who is going to start, who is going to be on the bench? Which Chelsea players even have a place to train at Cobham? Nobody is certain if Enzo Maresca will make it through the season or if he will lose his job by December.
I doubt anyone knows where Chelsea will finish this season. The players quality say in the top six. The chaos around the club say just above relegation places because no way a manager can make one million players happy no matter how much he tries. My prediction is Chelsea finishing 11th but don’t hold it against it against me if I am wrong.
After all, nobody can really predict anything related to Chelsea. The Blues may win the league or get relegated. Chelsea season will be chaos like their transfer windows and everybody is going to be here for it.