After a dramatic, surprising but also entirely brilliant Fifa World Cup, the 2018/2019 Premier League season is already upon us. All media outlets seem to say the same thing every year; ‘This season is going to be the best yet.’ So call us sellouts. Say we’re jumping on the bandwagon. They’re both true, but we do really think this season will be IMMENSE. Some might even say it’s going to be the best yet!
Our epic Premier League 2018/2019 season prediction
How it weighs up at the top
Manchester City are absolute dynamite under Pep and their quality will be back again this year for sure. Saying Chelsea have replaced Bakayoko with an upgrade would be a terrific understatement. Going from the former Monaco midfielder to Jorginho and Kovacic is like your mum telling you you’ve got soup for dinner and then pulling out the smiley faces at the last minute. Under Maurizio Sarri they will surely be more of a unit than they were with Antonio Conte.
Arsenal have rid themselves of the Arsene Wenger burden. We have a lot of respect for the man, but he ultimately took the club as far as he could whilst he was at the Emirates. So this season will likely be a transitional period for the Gunners, but with a fresh face who knows? Tottenham, despite not signing a sole, still have a great team and should be up there.
Should Jose Mourinho not self-implode and/or have a meltdown of epic proportions resulting in him ridiculing his entire team, another unsuspecting physio, and his grandmother, you’d expect United to challenge.
Liverpool have kept Mo Salah, and have strengthened in key areas where they were desperately lacking – Loris Karius we feel for you but this is mainly aimed at you. Many are tipping them to challenge City.
Down at the bottom
Further down the Premier League, it’s a different story. Where we are fairly sure the top six will consist of the Big Six come May, the next 14 positions are about as predictable as the lottery.
Cardiff are tipped as many people’s favourites to fall straight back down to the Championship. But last season, recently-promoted Brighton and Huddersfield weren’t given a chance either but they survived the drop. Also, my mate Dave is a Cardiff fan and he said they are resilient under Neil Warnock, so if that’s not a good reason to back the Welsh side this season then I don’t know what is.
Burnley haven’t made too many signings (Joe Hart being perhaps the biggest), and with a potential season competing in Europe they may struggle. Equally, Newcastle United have failed to sign many top players. Rafa Benitez has been very vocal about his disappointment regarding the transfers this summer, with the Spaniard hitting out at owner Mike Ashley for not supplying the funds. They should have enough to survive the drop though.
It really is anyone’s game at the bottom.
Our season predictions
So here it is, our Premier League 2018/109 season predictions. The part where we make ourselves look stupid, undermine our own credibility and generally make people question why exactly they choose to listen to us when it comes to anything with football, let alone boots.
That is, of course, a joke, not the part about football in general but football boots. Our predictions are as good as anyone’s but our football boot knowledge is on point.
But we’ve gone for Man City to win the league.
The Champions League spots in order will be Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham.
Man United, currently amidst a Paul Pogba sage and also with a Mourinho rage imminent, will finish fifth, with Arsenal clinching the next Europa League spot.
Despite of Dave’s input, in fact because of Dave’s input, we think Cardiff City will finish bottom of the league. They just aren’t Premier League quality and Dave’s has given me more losing ‘bankers’ in the past than I believed was humanly possible.
We think it will be Brighton who finish in 19th place. Yes they defied the odds last season, but we feel this year will be different. They’ve had their novelty first season in the Premier League where everything is excited and they give that extra little bit. Now I think that bubble will burst.
Finally, and make sure you take a deep breath for this, we think Burnley will be the third side relegated. Balancing Europe and PL survival is not going to go well. You may laugh, but you’ll see. You’ll all see. Sidenote: We have nothing against Burnley, we love what Sean Dyche has done, but this is based purely off a hunch.
So there you have it, our picks for the season. You may disagree, in fact you’ll almost certainly disagree. So let us know where you think we have gone wrong and why!
