Premier League football is finally back – so it’s time for our brave, bold and downright bonkers predictions.
Six of our staff across the Daily Star have forecasted how the 2026/27 campaign will unfold, including everything from the first manager to get the sack to the top breakthrough talents. One of us is so sure “every one of my predictions is coming in” that he “needs to ask a bookie to price it all up for me”. Let’s see whether that confidence was well-founded when we publicly praise – or name and shame him – next May!
Admittedly we’ve got a chequered past when it comes to gazing into our crystal footballs. Last year in the 2025/26 edition, one of us even claimed Everton would win a trophy. And don’t mention all the Florian Wirtz for Player of the Season shouts. But credit to our writers who saw Sunderland’s meteoric rise coming. And we all knew Ruben Amorim would get the boot! So how will our savvy scribes get on this time around? Read below and you be the judge.
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Will Schofield
Premier League winner: Arsenal
Champions League spots: Chelsea, Man City, Aston Villa, Liverpool
Surprise package: Sunderland (for all the wrong reasons)
Relegated: Coventry, Ipswich, Hull
Player of the season: Martin Odegaard
Young breakthrough talent: Brian Madjo
Top goalscorer: Erling Haaland
FA Cup winner: Man City
Carabao Cup winner: Arsenal
Champions League winner: Real Madrid
First manager sacked: Sergej Jakirovic
Bold/outrageous claim: Leeds United will miss out on Champions League football on the final day of the season
Arsenal and Mikel Arteta will go back-to-back, but this season their trophy haul won’t be limited to the Premier League, as I think they’ll also prove too strong in the Carabao Cup. The Gunners need to come out of the blocks early with all their title rivals having a question mark hanging above their heads.
It will be a chastening first couple of months for Enzo Maresca at Manchester City – but City are City, and they will end the season strong, even picking up the FA Cup.
In my opinion, Leeds have put all the pieces together for an incredible campaign. Daniel Farke proved he can cut it at the top level last season, and his Leeds team will raise some eyebrows when they find themselves in the battle for European football.
Adam Cailler
Premier League winner: Liverpool – by 10,000 points. I joke. Arsenal. They’ve strengthened from a position of strength, while everyone else seems to be in turmoil.
Champions League spots: Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs
Surprise package: Coventry
Relegated: Everton, Hull, Ipswich
Player of the season: Virgil van Dijk. The man is on a mission to return to the form of 2-3 years ago.
Young breakthrough talent: Rio Ngumoha or Johan Manzambi
Top goalscorer: Erling Haaland or Alexander Isak – outside bet, Igor Thiago
FA Cup winner: Liverpool
Carabao Cup winner: Liverpool
Champions League winner: Paris Saint-Germain
First manager sacked: Oliver Glasner
Bold/outrageous claim: Aston Villa will finish 17th.
Cameron Winstanley
Premier League winner: Arsenal
Champions League spots: Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United
Surprise package: Nottingham Forest – Oliver Glasner will take them back into Europe
Relegated: Hull, Ipswich, Sunderland
Player of the season: Declan Rice
Young breakthrough talent: Shea Lacey
Top goalscorer: Erling Haaland
FA Cup winner: Manchester City
Carabao Cup winner: Chelsea
Champions League winner: Bayern Munich
First manager sacked: Regis Le Bris (second place Gary O’Neil)
Bold/outrageous claim: Arsenal will break the record as the earliest title winners in Premier League history and Manchester United will finish as the league’s top scorers.
Arsenal will be too good to stop. Mikel Arteta’s side finally got their taste of silverware and the Premier League will be wrapped up in record fashion again. The chasing pack in the Champions League could finish in any order, and we could have a mouth-watering run in again.
Sunderland are yet to spend any money in the transfer window so far and their time in Europe will see them drop into deep trouble in the league. Regis Le Bris, for some reason, was under pressure last season and he could face the chop in the opening weeks if it starts badly.
If Michael Carrick can prize the purse strings loose from Sir Jim again to sign a new striker to rival Benjamin Sesko, then United could outscore anyone, and they might need to with that defence. But 19-year-old attacker Shea Lacey can become a regular after a promising pre-season.
Manchester City’s lack of a title race will see them go all in on the FA Cup, and Chelsea have no Europe to worry about, giving Xabi Alonso the perfect chance to win the first silverware of the season.
Andrew Jameson
Premier League winner: Arsenal
Champions League spots: Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea, Aston Villa
Surprise package: Coventry
Relegated: Hull, Ipswich, Brighton
Player of the season: Declan Rice
Young breakthrough talent: Anan Khalaili
Top goalscorer: Erling Haaland
FA Cup winner: Chelsea
Carabao Cup winner: Liverpool
Champions League winner: Barcelona
First manager sacked: Oliver Glasner
Bold/outrageous claim: Michael Carrick will be gone by February, to be replaced by another stopgap manager who ends up getting the job full-time, until his own sacking within eight months. Keep the cycle going.
Arsenal have the squad and the belief now to ‘go again’, which is a dreadful phrase we should be hearing plenty of. The promoted sides, bar Coventry, look like relegation fodder. I’ll shove Brighton in with them because they’ve lost some key players and there were a few rumblings before they turned it around at the end last season. Plus I’m a Palace fan.
I’m not enthralled by any of it really. I think this will be a season when some of the recent upstarts (Villa and Newcastle spring to mind) are put back in their boxes due to a frustrating cocktail of unfair transfer restrictions and seemingly unlimited money for the traditional big boys.
My own team Palace could go either way under Pierre Sage but here’s hoping for relative Premier League safety and a deep run in the Europa League. We can all dream of another trip to Germany for the final in Frankfurt.
Rich Brown
Premier League winner: Arsenal
Champions League spots: Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd
Surprise package: Leeds
Relegated: Hull, Coventry, Fulham
Player of the season: Antoine Semenyo
Young breakthrough talent: Rio Ngumoha
Top goalscorer: Erling Haaland
FA Cup winner: Man Utd
Carabao Cup winner: Spurs
Champions League winner: Paris Saint-Germain
First manager sacked: Sergej Jakirovic
Bold/outrageous claim: Aston Villa will plummet and Nottingham Forest will soar
Deep down, no one in the UK wants Arsenal to succeed yet again. But it feels increasingly likely. Manchester City are set for a transitional season as they adjust to life without Pep, and while Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United will also likely improve, Mikel Arteta’s set-piece merchants are clearly the run-away favourites.
It doesn’t look like a vintage City team (much to this writer’s disappointment) but even with a new manager and the loss of the best midfielder in Premier League history, there’s still enough quality for a comfortable top-four finish.
After coming on strong at the back-end of last season to secure safety with a few games to spare, Daniel Farke’s squad have all the tools to kick on. The signings of James Trafford and Harry Wilson inject some proven Premier League quality into the side and they’re showing the level of ambition needed to sneak into the top 10, and possibly Europe.
I really fear for Fulham. They appear to be a club without any discernible direction or vision. Alvaro Arbeloa is a huge risk for a team projected to be in the bottom quarter of the table, and they lack the marquee signings to convince anyone they’ll be comfortable.
There had to be at least one overtly ambitious pro-City prediction and here it is. Semenyo was absolutely spectacular after joining the Blues halfway through last season. Enzo Maresca’s system looks perfectly suited to Semenyo’s skillset, and he could very easily end up with more than 10 goals and 10 assists this season.
Despite spending hundreds of millions, and looking likely to bring in two Man City stars in Savinho and Omar Marmoush, it’s hard to know exactly how good Spurs will be. Which means they’ll inevitably win the Carabao and finish 7th.
Villa have the extra games the Champions League entails and are haemorrhaging their best players. Emery is a quality manager but can only go so far with a squad stretched to the bare bones.
Forest, meanwhile, were so lucky to survive last year, but for Evangelos Marinakis’ many faults, he’s ambitious – and so is new manager Oliver Glasner. Losing Elliot Anderson obviously hurts but Morgan Gibbs-White is the heartbeat of that side and they’ve invested cleverly.
Neil Docking
Premier League winner: Liverpool
Champions League spots: Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United
Surprise package: Liverpool
Relegated: Fulham, Ipswich, Hull
Player of the season: Alexander Isak
Young breakthrough talent: Trey Nyoni
Top goalscorer: Alexander Isak
FA Cup winner: Arsenal
Carabao Cup winner: Manchester City
Champions League winner: Paris Saint-Germain
First manager sacked: Alvaro Arbeloa
Bold/outrageous claim: Arsenal not winning the league!
We can’t all predict Arsenal to win the league, can we? That’d be dull. I’ll edit this on Sunday when Isak gets injured and Liverpool lose at Newcastle.