2022-23 PL season.

Duty281 wrote:My unscientific guesswork of predictions:

1) City; 2) Chelsea; 3) Liverpool; 4) Arsenal; 5) Spurs; 6) Newcastle; 7) West Ham; 8) Manchester Utd; 9) Brighton; 10) Villa; 11) Palace; 12) Leicester; 13) Wolves; 14) Everton; 15) Southampton; 16) Forest; 17) Fulham; 18) Leeds; 19) Brentford; 20) Bournemouth.

Probably the most difficult PL season to predict as the World Cup will tear everything up form and fitness wise, making all predictions pointless. What that in mind:

City should win the league by a comfortable distance. I think Liverpool will struggle a bit more than anticipated with their poor squad depth, the loss of Mane and a number of key players starting to show their age. Chelsea will rebound after a rubbish season last year blighted by injuries and the off-the-pitch upheaval. Arsenal and Spurs battle for 4th should be tight - Arsenal were two points and one decent goalscorer short of 4th last year, and I think they've made the necessary improvements to make the extra step. Spurs are hugely reliant on Kane and Son staying fit.

The only other team outside of those I can see challenging for top four is Newcastle, and that requires making additions in August and January because they're not there yet. West Ham/United/Brighton don't have the quality.

Villa/Palace/Leicester/Wolves/Everton should all have dull seasons. Won't be worrying about relegation, but nowhere near the European places. Lampard should be dispensed with early on, and it's probably Rodgers' last season with Leicester as well.

Any from Southampton downwards could get relegated, there's not a lot of difference between them, with the exception of Bournemouth who look well off the PL level and are certainties to go down.

Bets I like - 8/13 City to win the league. 6/4 Arsenal making the top four. 8/11 Chelsea make the top four. 12/5 Brentford go down.  And a 12/1 nibble on Jesus getting the Golden Boot.

Plus an 18/1 punt on Howe being the first manager to get sacked. I was wrong about him last season, but Newcastle have a tricky opening to the season - away to Brighton, home to City and away to Liverpool and West Ham in the first 7 games - and a poor start could give the dodgy regime all the encouragement they need to bring in a more fashionable manager.

Duty281 wrote:Luton back in the top flight and in the Prem for the first time.

The play-off final was drawn 1-1, so the stupid penalty nonsense had to be endured, and was eventually settled by some poor Coventry player blazing over the bar on the 12th penalty. Luton deserve to go up because they finished 10 points higher than Coventry, so I think the right result was reached even if the method was wrong. Penalty shoot-outs are so contrary to what football is about.

I'm actually surprised Luton's ground is good enough for the Premier League, but I haven't heard anything about them needing to move/upgrade/groundshare etc. so I presume all is well. Can they stay up? There's a lot of dross in the bottom third of the PL, therefore it's quite feasible.

GSC wrote:
Leicester looks pretty dicey to me. Haven't had that much to spend on a squad that needed fresh faces for a couple of years, can cash in on some players but probably need 10+ in the door

GSC wrote:Yeah it looks pretty brutal next year, a lot of big names down there

Duty281 wrote:Going to be interesting summers for Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham. Tottenham, no European football at all next season, will surely lose Kane. Kane's turning 30 in July and if he wants a chance of some trophies to look back on, he needs to move this summer. But without Kane, and Son seemingly dropping off so much, the top four looks further away than ever for Levy.

Liverpool needed a rebuild last season, didn't do it, and now they need two years worth of rebuilding in one summer, plus they don't have CL football anymore as an incentive. And it's going to be tough for them to get back into the top four. City have one spot locked down, Newcastle have similar resources + CL football so they're only going to get better, United are on the up, and Arsenal got 84 points with a good young core to their squad, so it's unrealistic to see them dropping off. Plus Liverpool have the irritation of Thursday/Sunday games next season.

Chelsea - just 38 goals this season. 38! I believe that is their lowest goal tally in a season since 1923/24, when they were relegated from the top flight on goal average, having scored just 31 in a 42 game season. Get a new striker and get an actual manager, not Frank (or keep him for the comedy), and have the owner intervene less. This isn't America.

As a side note, 36 points would have kept a team up this year, meaning this is the 8th of the last 9 seasons where 36 points was enough. So no more talk of 40 points for survival, 36 is enough.

westisbest wrote:Great season for villa, well since we got rid of that joker Gerrard.
Emery has been a quality appointment.

7th and European qualification.

Couldn’t have really asked for more at the start of the season.
Look forward to see who we sign in the summer.
Also to next season and the European tour.