7 Bold Predictions for Premier League Clubs in the 2023-24 Season
The time has come for the curtain to rise on another Premier League campaign.
All eyes will be on the chasing pack as they look to dethrone Pep Guardiola's juggernaut Manchester City. Despite being challenged by Arsenal and Liverpool in recent years, the Etihad Stadium side has conquered all comers.
However, there's more to the Premier League than its top sides. The relegation battle will be just as captivating with newly promoted outfits such as Luton Town and Sheffield United attempting to survive the challenging 38-game campaign.
With that in mind, the B/R World Football staff came together to look ahead to the upcoming season and provide bold predictions for the campaign ahead.
There is no need to focus on Liverpool's shortcomings last campaign. After, arguably, the most disappointing season of the Jurgen Klopp era, things have changed dramatically at Anfield.
Gone are former club captain Jordan Henderson and fellow midfielders James Milner and Fabinho (along with Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain). Also gone is Klopp stalwart Roberto Firmino.
Virgil van Dijk now wears the captain's armband. The Trent Alexander-Arnold hybrid positional experiment sparked some new ideas. Incoming midfielders Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai have been added to aid an attack that, when healthy, could be as fearsome as we've seen in some time.
And healthy they are. Diogo Jota and Luis Díaz are fit after injury-plagued turns a season ago. Darwin Núñez and Cody Gakpo are fully engrained in the system now. And whichever rotation Liverpool opts to feature, Mohamed Salah is the constant.
It may seem outlandish that the three-time Premier League Golden Boot winner can wrestle things back from Erling Haaland as the league's top scorer, but with the supporting cast around the Egypt international, there is potential for another 30-plus goal return like the 2017-2018 performance.
The Reds sported a plus-46 goal differential that season, with both Firmino and Sadio Mané hitting double digits in the league as well. The vast amount of talent surrounding Salah can still have success with him going above and beyond in the goal-scoring department.
With the UEFA Europa League simply not being the Champions League, the Reds are in a unique position to truly focus their efforts on ending Manchester City's three-year run atop English football.
This may not be the most complete squad Klopp has sent out in his time on Merseyside, but this could be a group that puts a lot of balls in the back of the net.
Taking care of business in the games they should win, and rising to the occasion against top competition, Liverpool's sole positive of missing out on the Champions League could become the catalyst for their run at a second Premier League title in the last five years.
And, yes, Salah can steal that Golden Boot in the process.
—Wes O'Donnell
Make no mistake about it: Arsenal are back as a top club in the Premier League.
After years of toiling in mediocrity, the Gunners stuck with their process and saw themselves in the thick of a title race against Manchester City last season. Young stars such as Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and William Saliba showed glimpses of a bright future ahead.
To be among Europe's elite clubs, though, you have to do it year in and year out. And there are reasons to doubt Arsenal.
Sure, Declan Rice will add bite to the midfield, but was Kai Havertz a necessary purchase? And, depending on where Mikel Arteta employs him, will he score enough goals?
The biggest concern is up top at the No. 9 position. In a league where even the slightest slip could end your title race, not having a striker who can be called on consistently might be Arsenal's fatal flaw.
There's no doubting the quality of Gabriel Jesus as a player. The Brazilian is an industrious striker and adds a needed element of graft to the Gunners attack. But it is his availability that is the biggest concern.
The 26-year-old is already facing time out due to a knee injury and the options behind him currently—Havertz, Eddie Nketiah—leave a lot to be desired.
There's also the question of if Arsenal can continue to overperform as they did last year. According to Understat, the Gunners outperformed their expected point total by 11.47 (72.53) and their expected goals by 11.49 (76.51).
XG and XPTs aren't perfect stats, but they do provide information on if a team is overperforming, or getting lucky. According to the stats, the Gunners were.
With the added pressure of Champions League football, it's asking a lot for Arteta's men to repeat their exploits of reaching 84 points.
-—Lucky Ngamwajasat
- City won 28 out of a possible 38 games in the Premier League (73% win ratio).
- Erling Haaland scored a phenomenal 36 goals in his first season in English football to win the Golden Boot, notching six more than runner-up Harry Kane.
- Kevin De Bruyne had a league-high 16 assists and picked up his third Playmaker of the Year Award.
- Pep Guardiola's side had the highest average possession percentage in the league (65.2 percent).
All-conquering, treble-winning Manchester City and their robot striker from another dimension sealed the Premier League title with three games to spare last season.
While the Citizens perhaps would not have anticipated Arsenal would challenge them so strongly in the hunt for a third consecutive domestic league title, it was still fairly comfortable in the end—a draw with Brighton & Hove Albion and a loss to Brentford to close the campaign had no impact on their title lift.
City also only lost five games in their march to the three-peat, with Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Brentford (twice) being the only teams to defeat them.
They won't be so difficult to beat in 2023-24.
A physically and emotionally draining season that also saw the FA Cup secured for the seventh time and the elusive Champions League title finally clinched will catch up to City, and the prediction here is they'll lose six games or more before Christmas Day.
Scheduled away fixtures against Arsenal (October 7), Manchester United (October 28), Chelsea (November 11) and, perhaps surprisingly, Aston Villa (December 5) have disappointment written all over them.
Meanwhile, a meeting with a resurgent Newcastle United (August 19) just three days after the UEFA Super Cup final against Sevilla in Greece looks a tricky task, and back-to-back matches against Liverpool (November 25) and Spurs (December 2) will surely lead to at least one loss.
City played 60 games last season in a campaign that also had a World Cup sandwiched in the middle. There will be some tired legs going into the new league year, and the aura of invincibility won't be quite as strong in the upcoming season.
Six losses is the minimum we can expect before Santa climbs down some chimneys.
-—Leo Collis
The final stages of the last several Premier League campaigns have either been a coronation or a two-team tussle. That all changes this season.
It hasn't been since 2013-14 that we've had three teams fully in the title race, but at least that many will be viable contenders right up until the closing moments in 2023-24.
My colleagues have ably covered why Manchester City's dominance will wane, Arsenal won't be as potent and Liverpool will bounce back. But I see two more clear candidates for improvement in Chelsea and Manchester United, leaving us with five clubs that don't have all that much separating them.
The case for Chelsea being better is pretty simple: They could hardly be worse after somehow finishing 12th last season. But after a very busy summer, the Blues have a much more coherent squad and a proven manager in Mauricio Pochettino, which should see them back among the EPL elite.
United are set to more fully realize Erik ten Hag's vision with smart additions in the transfer window. A ball-playing goalkeeper in André Onana and additional quality in the midfield in the form of Mason Mount will help them in possession and buildup, while a promising No. 9 in Rasmus Højlund will lead to more goals. They're ready to take the next step.
Now, a five-team title race is tempting to predict, but that may cross the line from boldness into madness. One of these teams won't be able to keep the pace, and my bet is it will be Chelsea, as there's just too much distance to make up from where they ended last season.
But the other four will fully be contention come May, setting up the most wide-open finish we've seen in years.
All that said, though, it will probably still be Manchester City lifting the trophy when the season is done.
-—Ben Chodos
After making it to the Carabao Cup final last season and losing 2-0 to Manchester United, Newcastle's long, long wait for a major trophy continues....until this season, that is.
That's right, this will be the year when the Magpies lift some silverware worthy of their ascending stature in world football. Fueled by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the north-east club has been adding quality talent to its squad and is primed for an even bigger year ahead after an impressive fourth-place finish in the Premier League last season.
The likes of Sandro Tonali ($76 million signing from AC Milan, a record for an Italian player), Harvey Barnes ($48 million from Leicester City) and Tino Livramento ($41 million from Southampton) have been brought in this summer to provide youth and creativity to an already burgeoning side.
Under Eddie Howe's guidance, this upcoming campaign reeks of "we're one of the big boys," and that mentality includes a deep run in at least one of the competitions the club is taking part in.
The Champions League is the biggest and probably least likely for a run, but Newcastle could look to the FA Cup or the EFL Cup to slake their thirst for silverware.
The way things are shaping up with the squad and the investment that's likely to be available in January, you wouldn't put it past this group to topple the "Big Six" and claim a first major trophy since 1955).
-—Shane Evans
A sleeping giant awoken from its slumber? Without the injection of a huge ton of cash? Aston Villa might just be the most impressive club in the Premier League right now, a side that has gotten itself firmly together since Steven Gerrard was sacked in October 2022.
Make no mistake about it, Unai Emery did so well when he came in that it's easy to forget Villa were teetering on a relegation fight last season. They set a new club record for consecutive games in which they've scored, and Emery pushed the team from 15th to the European spots and ran the top two close in the form guide.
The Spaniard has always been a smart tactician and a pragmatic manager who knows how to overachieve with the lesser-fancied squads he's worked with. Although he proved a little David Moyes-esque in charge of bigger clubs (Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain fans won't remember too many good times), Villa is the perfect project for him to excel.
It bodes well, then, that the Midlands club has recruited extremely well over the summer. Take an already talented squad that is full of individuals better teams would love to pluck away, then add Moussa Diaby, Pau Torres and Youri Tielemans. Nobody would have questioned it if any of these names joined a Champions League contender; they are three signings to really underline the ambition and intent at Villa Park.
So with that, Villa should be looking to push the top four as far as possible. We saw it with Newcastle last season, who despite their massive reserves of cash, actually reminded everyone that great coaching and signings that prioritise the right personnel rather than star power will make all the difference.
Villa are bubbling. All the pieces are in place. If one of the traditionally big sides isn't sprinting from the off, they might just be caught.
—Nick Akerman
Everton have had a rough go of it in the Premier League in the last two years.
The Toffees have come close to being relegated in consecutive seasons, leading many to predict that they may face the same fate this year.
However, being an eternal optimist, I'll buck the trend and declare that Everton will find a way to avoid another strenuous relegation battle this season.
I don't foresee them pushing into the top six of the Premier League or anything, but I do think they'll do better than many fans and pundits expect.
The Blues are heading into their first full season under Sean Dyche, and he can give them the stability the club needs after a couple of years of uncertainty on and off the pitch.
The manager's pragmatic style of football will complement the squad he's slowly building at Goodison Park.
Regarding signings, the Toffees have had a relatively quiet summer transfer window. Nevertheless, they have acquired a few players who could help them avoid relegation.
One noteworthy addition is the loan signing of winger Arnaut Danjuma, who is expected to bring some much-needed attacking improvement in the final third. And Ashley Young will provide experience and quality depth to an Everton team looking to stay up this year.
With these additions, as well as a squad already boasting talented players such as Amadou Onana and Abdoulaye Doucouré, I can see Dyche maximizing Everton's potential and steering them to a comfortable finish slightly above the relegation zone.
—Alex Windley
