1. Man City
2. Liverpool
3. Spurs
4. Chelsea
5. Arsenal
6. Man United
7. Leicester
8. Everton
9. Watford
10. West Ham
11. Wolves
12. Bournemouth
13. Southampton
14. Burnley
15. Norwich
16. Brighton
17. Sheffield United
18. Crystal Palace
19. Aston Villa
20. Newcastle
I'm gonna justify some of these:
Winner: City over Liverpool. Why? Can't bet against a team that's taken 198 points out of the past two seasons. Liverpool had a lightning in a bottle season last year and still fell a point short, I will pick City until someone tops them.
Top 4: Spurs and Chelsea over Arsenal and United. Why? Spurs have improved this year and will hopefully have a healthy year out of Kane. Their biggest issue last year was depth, which they've gone a distance to fixing. Chelsea will be approaching this season with low pressure and total fan support. Ultras won't turn against Lampard like they would another manager, and the transfer ban means that Roman will have more patience. Losing Hazard is obviously immensely bad, but the integration of a lot of players into the side could have great results. People are sleeping on us, I think. Why do I take them over Arsenal and United? Arsenal had a great window, I think both the Pepe and Tierney signings are top notch, and Luiz should have a great time pinging diagonals to Auba and Laca. I still have huge doubts over both their defense and midfield, and I think Chelsea are significantly better in both of those areas. United look bad. Ditching Lukaku without bringing in a replacement was stupid - he had a rough year last year, but I look at their squad and I don't see where goals come from. Besides Pogba, I think their midfield is pretty awful and got worse with the departure of Herrera. Maguire makes their backline better, but it's still really poor. They're gonna be really dependent on moments of individual brilliance from Rashford and Pogba.
7-11: Leicester are the best of the rest. A full season under Rodgers should mean a big year from Jamie Vardy, who had 10 goals in 11 fixtures after Rodgers came in in the spring. Maddison is a year older and a year better. Tielemans permanent is wicked dope. Losing Maguire blows but I love their midfield and attack a lot. Everton had a great window and brought in a lot of good talent, Marco Silva has come into himself at Goodison. Everyone always sleeps on Watford and shouldn't sleep on Watford, they look nice. West Ham brought in a bunch of players, some of whom I think are a bit of a gamble. If Haller and Fornals can integrate well, I could see them creeping all the way up to 7th. Wolves will struggle to balance Europe and PL fixtures - Nuno used a small small squad last season, and it'll be a big challenge for him to trust his depth and rotate.
Relegation: This seems like the year where it all falls apart for Palace, just like there were all those years where folks were certain Sunderland would go down. They were way too dependent upon Zaha and Milivojevic last year, and I don't see Zaha having as good a year as he did last year. Aston Villa essentially bought a new squad, which I think will mess up their internal dynamics. They'll start badly and struggle to recover. Newcastle are internally shambolic, Steve Bruce is terrible.
