Premier League: 2026/27 - Predicting The Unpredictable Top 4

All attempted astute predictions need to begin with a recap of a previous campaign to help craft well-thought-out ideas, observations and intuitions going into the new season. However, going off last season's bizarre outcomes and how the ‘alleged’ top 6 finished, with clubs such as Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and Newcastle all having an underwhelming season, and the uprise in quality and table positioning from sides such as Bournemouth, Brentford and Sunderland, makes this season's predictions fairly tricky to forecast. However, in the spirit of rejoicing over the first weekend back of Premier League football, I’m more than happy to give it a shot.

Coming into this campaign, I believe sides which are up for contention of competing for the Top 4, in no particular order, are Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, Newcastle, Aston Villa and, of course, Arsenal, essentially the modern-day big 8 of English football. Ironically, we rarely see all these teams finish consistently in the top half of the table.

Arsenal - At a first-place finish, I see Arsenal cruising to retain the most ostentatious prize in English football. Arsenal were by far the most consistent and defensively balanced side in the PL last season, despite a fairly convincing tail chase by City. Arsenal this season will likely uphold their less attractive but nonetheless adroit style of football to keep securing regular wins and a lack of losses (I promise I'm not rankling from their success from last season. Jokes aside, Arteta has built a very strong and now experienced side, with strong foundations and a spine, with players such as Raya, Gabriel, Rice, Saka and Havertz, and the brilliant acquisition of a Premier League-proven midfielder in Bruno Guimaraes to bring more stability to an incredibly stable side. Arsenal will also find success, I’m sure, in a big, high-quality squad of players with plenty of super subs, such as Merino, Madueke, Eze, Martinelli, etc. All in all, I see Arsenal being fairly unchallenged this season alone.

Man City - I found personally deciding on who would finish second place most difficult to land on. I feel the loss of Guardiola, who managed the club to 6 Premier League trophies in his ten-year tenure at the club, will be too much to shake off for the players and culture of the club in their first year without him, and of course that's without mention of losing Ballon d'Or winner and the pivot to their midfield, Rodri, departing the club, alongside club legends Bernardo Silva and John Stones. Not only does one feel the loss in quality and experience will be detrimental to on-the-pitch performances, but also the loss in leadership in the dressing room, which I imagine would’ve boded well for the new managerial arrival in Enzo Maresca.

However, with all of this said, and no disguising its relevance, it is definitely worth affirming and justifying that there are a lot of reasons why I believe City will finish second. First of all, the undeniable quality of players in their squad, being Haaland, Dias, Donnarumma, Cherki, Semenyo, a potential resurgence in Foden and a new signing in Anderson, as well as a big squad. Although Guardiola cannot be replaced in too many ways to list, Enzo Maresca is definitely on the right track to replicate Pep as a successor at Manchester City, with not only proven success at Leicester City and Chelsea, most notably getting Chelsea a top-four finish in his first season and winning the Club World Cup and European Conference League. This shows his current pedigree as a manager, coach and tactician.

What I’m sure City fans will want to shed more light upon is how he was the assistant coach in City’s most decorated season ever, winning the treble. This exhibits that he knows the club well, what kind of ethos and football Guardiola was implementing in the changing room and on the pitch, which will give him the upper hand in creating a measured transition into his football and the standard he wants to push into the club.

Chelsea - Call me controversial or don’t for this placement, it’s not lost on me, as an avid Chelsea fan, the woes of our last season. Looking back at last season, it was fair to say it was a season of two halves. Before the Christmas period, Chelsea were in the title race before the disruption which has now been publicly reported of Maresca’s private agreement to join City and leave Chelsea, and the most salient decision to welcome Liam Rosenior as the new head coach of Chelsea, which went down like a lead balloon, a topic which some know I didn’t remain reticent about my feelings towards the hiring of him at the time, as I wrote about it in a previous essay.

So, when you look at last season from a pragmatic standpoint, it really was no wonder we finished where we did. However, that's also not to say there weren’t other problems with being a young side, having underwhelming signings and key players getting injured.

Moving into the new season, I am feeling surprisingly optimistic. Bringing in Xabi Alonso has breathed new life into Chelsea fans, for the first time the board bringing in a proven, out-and-out world-class coach into a club who haven’t hired a manager of Alonso’s pedigree, not forgetting his undefeated title win with Bayern Leverkusen. His pursuit to create ‘mentality warriors’ at Chelsea and develop young players is incredibly refreshing to hear, even bringing in Henderson and Welbeck — both being 35 is unusual but a statement if you can recognise he’s trying to introduce experience and leadership to the team, which is something this club has needed for a long time. I think the emergence of Joao Pedro and continuous growth of Estevao, alongside quality in players like Palmer, Caicedo, Colwill, Fernandez, are capable of producing and playing together for multiple seasons now, and the excellence of new signing Morgan Rodgers creates an exciting prospect of times to come for Chelsea.

Liverpool - Sorry United fans, I can't help but feel the cracks will start to show sooner rather than later with Carrick being made full-time manager, and I think there will be a fall-off in results, opening a spot for Liverpool. Liverpool, like Chelsea last season, fell off and have gone through a big transition this season, bringing in exciting new manager Andoni Iraola, who was unbeaten at Bournemouth in the second half of their season, finishing an astonishing sixth place. There is no doubt that Iraola is a truly talented manager, but taking on a job like Liverpool is a significant jump from Bournemouth and I believe will take time for him to implement his football, especially off a team who are low on self-esteem.

Liverpool have additionally suffered the loss of Mo Salah, Konate and Andy Robertson, which will, I'm sure, feel a huge loss for other players at the club, with only what feels like Van Dijk and Alisson remaining from the old guard of the club, and both of them now ageing. On a positive note, Liverpool's attack does still carry frightening potential, with most being aware of how good Isak and Wirtz are on their day and still maybe transitioning — also not forgetting Ekitike and Gakpo respectively. I also do believe Iraola will be a good fit for Liverpool and believe his possession-based football will complement the players at the club. Finally, my other concern is their lack of depth in midfield and defence after losing Konate and Jones and then bringing in Araujo, who is injury-prone and partial to a red card.

In conclusion, I feel strongly this isn’t perhaps going to be the most competitive season we are yet to see, as I feel a lot of clubs lost a lot of their best players and have new managers, and will be in a transitional period for most of the Prem’s most dominant sides. With that said, that will only make the league more exciting, as it’s gonna see a lot of precarious performances from the top sides and maybe the rise of smaller sides, which makes the league a lot more unpredictable and, justifiably, more interesting to follow this year. It will also be interesting to see who will be the breakout stars and who will be back, for example, will it be Palmer, Foden, Isak, etc.?