The next five months will decide so much for teams in the English Premier League. Who’ll win the league, who’ll qualify for the Champions League and who will be relegated to the EFL Championship.
Who will win the league may be something of a moot point. Barring season-long injuries to Virgil Van Djik, Sadio Mane, Mohammed Salah and Roberto Firmino, Liverpool have the league title sewn up, 13 points clear at the top with a game in hand.
While Liverpool have previously blown four English Premier League leads they held on Christmas Day, it seems highly unlikely that they’ll do anything other than romp home for their maiden Premier League title, won at the 26th time of asking, 30 years after their last English title.
Champions League places
Who else will join Liverpool in next season’s UEFA Champions League? It’s impossible to believe that Manchester City will miss out. However short of Liverpool they’ve been so far, a lot of that is down to a combination of no injuries for their title rivals and an abundance for them to deal with themselves. Without Aymeric Laporte for almost the entire season so far, and shorn of Vincent Kompany in the summer, missing out on Harry Maguire to their neighbours has already doomed them, but they should have plenty to make a runner-sup position.
Leicester City may have punched above their weight in terms of the title race, but their talented young squad does not look out of its depth overall. Well capable of scoring goals for fun, and with the added bonus of having a ready-made replacement for Harry Maguire in the similar shape of Caglar Soyuncu, The Foxes look assured enough to cement that third position.
The fourth position is the real challenging one to pick, and while Ole Gunnar Solskajer has his young United charges playing some outstanding football at times and Chelsea are capable of the same under Frank Lampard, we think Jose Mourinho’s nous in games where Tottenham Hotspur don’t play so well will eventually see them over the line. It will be very close.
Relegation battle
While some clubs are starting to look completely safe, such as Newcastle and Everton, others are looking over their shoulder. Could Burnley be put into panic stations come season end? Will Bournemouth face a battle to avoid the drop? Could Arsenal really be plunged into a relegation dogfight? The answers to those questions are no, no and no.
Brighton look too expressive to avoid a sweat, while Aston Villa are screaming for consistency. Norwich and Watford are capable of beating the best, with both clubs triumphing at home against Manchester-based opposition already this season but look porous at the back to say the least.
With the battle for survival looking like it might be decided on the final day, here’s where the real value can be had, both on straight relegation odds and bets such as Southampton to finish above Bournemouth, which we’re hoping will turn into a nice nest egg for our descendants by the end of May.
Whichever way you’re hoping the remainder of the English Premier League season will go, it’s bound to go the opposite. Football’s cruel like that.
Here’s our prediction for how the final English Premier League table will look at the end of the season:
1 – Liverpool
2 – Manchester City
3 – Leicester City
4 – Tottenham Hotspur
5 – Manchester United
6 – Chelsea
7 – Wolves
8 – Arsenal
9 – Everton
10 – Southampton
11 – Newcastle United
12 – Sheffield United
13- Crystal Palace
14 – Burnley
15 – Bournemouth
16 – West Ham
17 – Aston Villa
18 – Brighton
19 – Watford
20 – Norwich
