Our Premier League pre-season predictions revisited

Pre-season predictions have a habit of making us look foolish. As we approach the halfway stage of the Premier League season and the new year, we’ve decided to look back at what we’ve got right – or more importantly wrong – until now.

Our Premier League pre-season predictions revisited

Player of the Season

Almost all of our writers opted for an Arsenal player as the season’s finest, with shouts for Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice.

Odegaard and Rice as yet to hit the heights of last season with injuries playing their part, while Saka has shone but is facing an extended spell on the sidelines.

It’s difficult to argue against Mohamed Salah as the Player of the Season so far, following a sensational season from the Liverpool winger. The ‘Egyptian King’ has become the first player in Premier League history to reach 10+ goals and 10+ assists before Christmas.

Best transfer signing

Again, off the mark here.

West Ham’s summer business looked promising on paper but it’s not turned out to be the case as the Julen Lopetegui era has struggled to get going. Niclas Fullkrug and Jean-Clair Todibo were highly-coveted and brought excitement but neither have made the desired impact with Fullkrug in particular struggling.

Another shout, Amadou Onana, has done well at Aston Villa in fairness.

The real winner is tough to call but a number of defensive additions have caught the eye. Nikola Milenkovic is our winner after a fantastic impact at Nottingham Forest, with honourable mentions for Dean Huijsen (Bournemouth) and Maxence Lacroix (Crystal Palace).

Biggest transfer flop

Pedro Neto earned plenty of votes from us in this category and while the winger has failed to set the world alight at Chelsea, he’s played his part in an impressive campaign for the Blues to date.

There has certainly been bigger disappointments across the board. Joshua Zirkzee, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Eddie Nketiah have all failed to live up to their price tags at this point.

Golden Boot winner

Unsurprisingly, it was a clean sweep for Erling Haaland in our pre-season predictions.

Back-to-back Golden Boots and a staggering 63 goals in 66 league games across his first two seasons with Manchester City made him the odds-on favourites. The wheels might have fallen off for the champions of late but Haaland remains right in the running despite a drought by his high standards.

He’s two behind Mohamed Salah in the race to finish top scorer.

Read – The favourites to win the Premier League Golden Boot

Best young player

Kobbie Mainoo, Yankuba Minteh and Archie Gray all earned nominations here and each have shown flashes of their huge potential this season.

In our humble opinion, Ryan Gravenberch has been the standout young player in the league having become an integral part of the Liverpool side. The 22-year-old, however, is ineligible to succeed Cole Palmer as the PFA Young Player of the Year by a matter of weeks.

Of those in the required age bracket, Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers is arguably the favourite as things stand. The 22-year-old has been exceptional for Unai Emery’s team in a breakout year, while teammate Jhon Duran, Nottingham Forest’s Elliott Anderson and Manchester United’s Amad Diallo have caught the eye.

Ranked – The best Premier League kits we’ll see in 2024/25

Biggest fall from grace

Finally, some success!

There was a shout for Manchester City, though perhaps no one quite envisaged this decline, while we also hinted at potential teething issues for Julen Lopetegui at West Ham. The underlying data hinted at over performance from West Ham last season and the Irons have struggled this time around.

One call for Mohamed Salah can be ignored…

Surprise package

Credit to the nomination for Nicolas Jackson.

We backed the much-derided Chelsea forward to prove people wrong this season and it’s fair to say the noise around the Senegalese striker has subsided. Nine goals and three assists in 16 league games is a healthy return for a forward who only turned 23 in the summer.

Calls for a Kalvin Phillips renaissance at Ipswich and Southampton to be best suited to survival were a little wider of the mark…

Premier League Champions

A clean sweep for Arsenal from our writers, who believed before a ball had been kicked that this was the year for the Gunners after two agonising near misses.

The North Londoners are far from out of the race, but trail Liverpool by six points having played a game more. There’s work to be done if Mikel Arteta’s men are to end their 21-year wait for a Premier League crown.

Top four

Unsurprisingly, not one of our writers predicted Nottingham Forest to be in their top four. In fact, the Tricky Trees were actually tipped for the drop by one of our own!

None of our team had Chelsea in the top four either after the chaos of recent campaigns, but the Blues have shown real signs of progress so far this season.

Spurs, included in all of our pre-season predications for Champions League football, are 11th, while Manchester City are also a shock omission from the top four as things stand.

Bottom three

Plenty of predictions suggested all three promoted teams will head straight back down. It’s happened just twice in Premier League history, including last season, but the growing gap between the divisions makes it a real possibility again.

Southampton are already well adrift at the bottom, while Ipswich have failed to win at home all season. Leicester are just outside the drop zone as things stand.

Suggestions that Brentford and Nottingham Forest could head to the Championship look fairly inaccurate as we head into 2025…

First manager sacked

Four managers have been sacked this season with Erik ten Hag, Steve Cooper, Gary O’Neil and Russell Martin all dismissed.

None of our writers had Ten Hag as first to leave after the summer’s show of faith in the Dutchman from Manchester United. However, there was a shout for Cooper, second out of the door, given his Nottingham Forest connections and a tricky challenge at Leicester.

Enzo Maresca has proven plenty wrong at Chelsea…

Champions League winners

Real Madrid, supercharged by Kylian Mbappe’s arrival and with an unrivalled history in Europe, were the common consensus before a ball had been kicked.

The holders, however, have struggled to get going with Mbappe yet to catch fire. Currently 20th in the standings, Real Madrid are unlikely to secure automatic progress to the last 16.

Liverpool lead the reformatted group phase, with Barcelona, Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen, Aston Villa and Inter Milan having all impressed.

Read – Liverpool top at Christmas but will they win the title?

See more – Five of the greatest Boxing Day Premier League games

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