Can Manchester City defend their Premier League crown? Will the three newly-promoted teams secure safety? Which striker will finish the season with the golden boot?
These are the big questions being asked ahead of the new Premier League season which kicks off on Friday night with a London derby as Brentford host Arsenal at the Brentford Community Stadium.
Pep Guardiola’s Man City go into the new campaign as the bookies’ favourites to win the title, according to Oddschecker. But Chelsea’s hopes of winning the Champions League and Premier League in successive seasons are boosted by the arrival of Romelu Lukaku. Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United will also expect to challenge at the top of the table.
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Football pundits across the land have been putting together their picks for the 2021-2022 Premier League season, here we take a look at the predictions and betting odds.
Champions: who will win the Premier League?
Ex-Arsenal star Paul Merson is predicting a four-team title battle with Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea all going for glory. “It’s almost impossible to predict the outcome at this point in time,” he wrote on SportsKeeda. “But I expect Manchester City to come out on top this season.”
Football data experts at Sporting Index have used a “supercomputer” to predict the Premier League table, the Daily Mirror reports. With 87 points Man City are tipped to win the league again while Liverpool will finish runners-up with 76 points, Chelsea third with 76 points and Man Utd fourth with 73 points.
Despite the supercomputer’s prediction, GiveMeSport’s Kobe Tong is backing Chelsea for Prem glory. “Yes, that’s right, I’m calling it,” Tong says. With Belgian striker Lukaku returning to Stamford Bridge Chelsea “officially have the final piece in their puzzle”.
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Eurosport’s Ben Snowball agrees that the “title beckons” for the Blues from the Bridge. He says: “It was against the smaller teams where Chelsea fell short last season, but with the arrival of Lukaku, one of football’s finest flat-track bullies, that should be set to change.”
Former Man Utd captain Roy Keane believes the club record £97.5m signing of Lukaku gives Chelsea the firepower to challenge for the title. Speaking on Sky Sports’s The Overlap, the Irishman said: “[Chelsea have] got energy, new manager, new ideas, and they’ve always had quality. You were looking at the last year or two going without that out and out goalscorer. But Lukaku gives them a great chance.”
Twenty BBC Sport pundits have also put together their predictions for the Premier League top four. City got 13 votes with pundits such as Micah Richards and Mark Lawrenson tipping Guardiola’s side to defend their title. Meanwhile, Chelsea got seven votes with Alan Shearer and Sue Smith among those who are backing Thomas Tuchel’s team.
The bookies have Norwich City as the favourites to go down. However, according to the Sporting Index supercomputer it will be Crystal Palace, Brentford and Watford facing relegation.
CBS’s James Benge also predicts Watford to finish rock bottom. His other tips are Burnley and Southampton. “The extent to which Southampton tapered off from January onwards means that they perhaps ought to be looking over their shoulders,” he says. “Whilst it is hard to shake the sense that another year with little investment in the Burnley squad might be asking too much of Sean Dyche.”
90min’s writers have “crunched the numbers” to predict the final Premier League standings for the 2021-22 season. The “consensus table” has Southampton (18th), Watford (19th) and Norwich (20th) as the three teams to be relegated. Tipping Southampton for the drop, Sean Walsh predicts in his “bonus ball” that the Saints will sack manager Ralph Hasenhuttl “early” and “struggle all year long”.
In recent weeks Spurs and England striker Harry Kane has been linked with a big-money move to Manchester City. Merson believes Kane will win the Premier League golden boot, but “only if he stays at Tottenham”.
Liverpool’s “Egyptian king”, Mohamed Salah, feels like “the logical choice by default” says James Benge on CBS. “Even in what felt like a down year in 2021-22 he scored 22 league goals, just one fewer than Kane.”
Salah has “been there, done it, and worn the T-shirt” while Chelsea’s Lukaku “is back and this time he means business”, says Thomas Ward of GiveMeSport. However, Spurs star Kane is his tip to win the golden boot for a fourth time. “It’s hard to bet against him doing it again.”
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