B/R Expert Bold Predictions for the 2025-26 Premier League Season
The start of a new Premier League campaign is just hours away.
Liverpool cruised to a 20th league title last season with surprising ease, but this year's campaign is shaping up to be much more competitive with the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea all significantly strengthening this summer.
At the other end of the table, newly promoted Sunderland, Leeds United and Burnley face long odds to stay in the top flight. Will they manage to survive?
To answer that question and more, B/R Football's Leo Collis and Nick Akerman provided their expert predictions for the upcoming season.
Disagree with their takes? Submit your thoughts now in the comments section of the app.
Who Will Win the Golden Boot?
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Leo Collis: It will be a battle of Scandinavian strikers at the top of the Golden Boot charts in 2025-26, featuring two from Sweden and one from Norway.
One of the Swedes might be hindered by a transfer saga that could keep him out of the first few fixtures, leaving him with some work to do to catch up to the others.
Alexander Isak's standoff with Newcastle United signals he's played his last game for the club. Assuming there isn't a dramatic U-turn with the Magpies and a likely switch to Liverpool, or elsewhere, isn't confirmed by the end of August (the transfer window closes on September 1), he could miss at least three games.
Erling Haaland wasn't quite at his formidable best last season, and while he'll up his scoring rate in 2025-26 compared to the previous campaign, his ambitions for the Golden Boot will be scuppered by his alarming susceptibility to the injury bug.
Viktor Gyökeres, on the other hand, is a much sturdier athlete, and despite the issues associated with getting to grips with a new team in a new league, he'll hit the ground running in the English top flight with Arsenal. Defenders won't quite know how to handle him, which will give him a distinct advantage in the final third.
For Sporting CP in Portugal last season, he scored more than a goal per game. While he might not have such a hit rate in his new home, he'll still bag a bundle and ultimately claim the Premier League's scoring title.
Nick Akerman: Mohamed Salah’s performance in the Community Shield defeat to Crystal Palace perhaps removed some boldness from this prediction.
Add in his drop-off at the backend of the last campaign, and there's genuine doubt as to whether he will be able to get close to the 29-goal haul that topped last season’s Golden Boot chart.
My pick this year is for Haaland to bounce back and to break the 30 barrier again. His "bad" season still saw him score 22 times in the division. That's just by default, with Manchester City going through their worst spell in recent history and the striker missing eight games through injury.
Gyökeres will perform exceptionally well. Arsenal had a lot of chances and having someone to finish them will improve Mikel Arteta's team.
The manager's loyalty to Kai Havertz may chop into the Sweden international's playing time, especially if the Gunners are winning, so there's potential for the forward to come off early when he should be adding to his numbers.
Which Club Will Win the Premier League?
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Leo Collis: These are bold predictions, right? OK, Chelsea.
After billions spent on an obscene amount of players, there are signs that a coherent squad might be forming under the guidance of Enzo Maresca.
The UEFA Europa Conference League and the FIFA Club World Cup might not be the most prestigious of trophies, but silverware is silverware, and the Blues are starting to get a taste for it.
While the quality of the Club World Cup wasn't quite at the top level due to scorching temperatures and the competition coming at the end of a long club season, the Blues still looked mightily impressive in the final against Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain.
The London side finished fourth in the Premier League last season, but there's more familiarity between manager and squad after a full season together, and most of the new recruits have already had time to get comfortable after the Club World Cup-winning campaign.
If they can avoid a slow start after their exertions in the United States and little time to rest following the 2024-25 season, Chelsea can use that familiarity to take advantage of a fairly open title race and steal a march in the opening months.
Nick Akerman: It's perhaps not bold to suggest Liverpool will win the title.
Then again, they have never retained the Premier League, so doing so would be a historic moment for the club that has signed a mouth-watering array of world-class talent in Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez.
An argument for Liverpool winning the title again can be found here. Arne Slot essentially reached the summit with a few tweaks to the Jurgen Klopp formula that served the Reds so well during his tenure.
With this summer's outlay and increased expectation, we're waiting to see a Liverpool side that will destroy plenty of teams. Added depth at centre-back is crucial, though.
Which Clubs Will Qualify for the Champions League?
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Leo Collis: Assuming we don't get another situation in which six English sides head to Europe's top club competition next season, let's just pick the usual top four.
Chelsea are my ambitious pick for league winners, so that's one slot gone. To fill the other three: Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City (in that order).
Arsenal have bought well and should keep things close at the top of the table, but I just don't see them getting over the hump.
Liverpool could take a small step back this season while integrating new signings and working under a new system.
City, meanwhile, have lost a bit of their terrifying aura, and Pep Guardiola appears increasingly flustered.
It will simply be a reshuffle of the 2024-25 top four.
Nick Akerman: I fully agree with Leo's selection of clubs on this one. However, I’d tinker with the placement slightly: Arsenal in second place, Man City in third, and Chelsea in fourth.
Last season, we had a number of surprise packages pushing to make the Champions League. Although more English clubs may qualify, I don't see the likes of Newcastle, Nottingham Forest or Aston Villa making the top four.
The battle for Europa League places could be a classic when you consider how strong so many of the Premier League clubs are. Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Brighton and potentially Crystal Palace or Fulham will all be vying to secure a competition they could go far in. Exciting stuff.
Who Will be Best Transfer from Summer 2025 Window?
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Leo Collis: Gyökeres might top the scoring charts and drag Arsenal to within touching distance of the title, but he won't be as transformative to his club as one particular player will be to theirs.
His efforts might not be enough to deliver a second consecutive Premier League title for Liverpool, but Florian Wirtz will justify his huge transfer fee and instigate a culture change at Anfield.
The Germany international will become the team's new focal point, with Mohamed Salah taking a back seat despite the huge contract he was handed to stay at Anfield.
While Gyökeres should be a huge hit in his first season and maybe one or two more, 22-year-old Wirtz will be a crucial part of the Liverpool setup for the better part of the next decade.
It might not result in immediate success, but when we look back in a few years at the impact of this summer's signings, it will be Wirtz who stands out as the most important.
Nick Akerman: I'm a big Tijjani Reijnders fan. The Dutch midfielder is all-action in the best way possible: He will add goals, energy and linking quality to everything Manchester City do.
Rodri's continued injury problems may force Reijnders into a more defensive output at the start of the season, but once the Spaniard is back, he can be let off the hook to do what he does best.
This kind of signing is important in a transitional moment for the club. As noted, I don't see Guardiola lifting the Premier League trophy this year. Instead, he’s bedding in the players who will do so in the future, as we've already seen with Omar Marmoush.
Something interesting is starting to simmer in a City squad that still needs more legs and younger stars.
Who Will be Worst Transfer From 2025 Summer Window?
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Leo Collis: Pound-for-pound, Arsenal's $70 million-plus acquisition of Noni Madueke looks the most baffling of this summer.
It's not entirely clear what the plan is for the 23-year-old. Is he an expensive backup to the oft-injured Bukayo Sako? Will he be shoehorned in on the left wing, a position he has only played a handful of times in his career? Will he be a jack-of-all-trades, filling in at a number of attacking berths depending on need?
After a few seasons at Chelsea in which he played well but not spectacularly (he only started 40 games out of 76 across the last two seasons), it's fair to wonder why the Gunners dropped such a huge sum of money at the Blues' feet for the England international.
Madueke can certainly prove me wrong, and Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is capable of demonstrating why he gets paid millions to manage a football club and I just throw judgements from behind a screen, but I just don't see the logic behind this transfer.
Nick Akerman: Newcastle's £95 million outlay on Anthony Elanga and Jacob Ramsey is quite remarkable.
If it's strength in depth ahead of Champions League football, I get it. This is a squad that already boasts the considerable quality of Anthony Gordon, Harvey Barnes and a much-improved Jacob Murphy on the wings.
Alexander Isak going AWOL and Callum Wilson's exit means a big-name striker must be added to Eddie Howe's options. Once that's sorted, he will also need another quality back-up.
Context is everything when it comes to transfers. If the striker issue was sorted, spending a bunch on two players who don't significantly improve the starting XI would be more acceptable.
There's certainly room for Elanga to take Murphy's spot and Ramsey to play a gut-busting central role if they're in form. But the Magpies have paid top dollar to find out.
Which Clubs Will Get Relegated?
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Leo Collis: It would be easy to pick the three promoted clubs to go down, as that has happened in the last two seasons.
But with Tottenham and Manchester United finishing in 17th and 15th, respectively, last season (albeit with a fair points cushion), it's clear the Premier League isn't quite as comfortable for some clubs as it once was.
After a summer of upheaval and more still to come, I'm worried about Brentford's prospects.
The club finished 10th last season, but the loss of their manager, captain, top scorer and starting goalkeeper isn't a great situation, and the player exodus might not end there.
After the Bees' fifth consecutive season in the top flight, I think they will be heading back to the Championship.
A similar situation is playing out at Bournemouth, with top talent (including three of the club's starting back four) exiting the Vitality Stadium.
While manager Andoni Iraola has proved to be a top tactician, we're in bold predictions territory, so let's say the Cherries' season will go sour.
That leaves one spot left on the Championship Express, and I think it will be one of the three promoted sides.
All have armed themselves well for the battle to come, with plenty of players arriving to try to keep the Premier League dream alive.
Unfortunately, Burnley are lacking that bit of quality compared to Leeds United and Sunderland, and I don't think the Clarets have enough to stick around for another year.
Nick Akerman: I agree with Leo's reading of Brentford and Bournemouth, although I think the latter will still be a Premier League team next summer.
Brentford have lost the foundation of what made them successful. That can be so dangerous and is a reminder of the Portsmouths and Blackburns of old, where one relegation could kick-start something far more catastrophic.
It’s pretty straightforward after that. Burnley and Sunderland don't have the quality to compete at this level, despite some decent signings for both.
Leeds' explosiveness will see them do just enough to maintain their place in what will be a tight battle to stay up.
Wild-Card Prediction
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Leo Collis: How about Mohamed Salah scores and assists fewer than half the total of what he achieved last season?
The Premier League Player of the Season scored 29 and provided 18 assists in 38 games in Liverpool's title-winning campaign, tying the season record for goal contributions held by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole.
But despite those numbers and the crucial role he played in the Reds' success, he saw an alarming drop-off in form in his last nine league games, scoring just twice and providing one assist.
There are mitigating factors. Liverpool had won the Premier League with four games to spare, and the 33-year-old had played practically every minute up until that point.
But with Liverpool's squad undergoing a rebuild and Wirtz set to play a pivotal role in the buildup play, the Egyptian might become a little lost on the right wing.
To be fair, though, I predicted something similar before the 2024-25 campaign and look what happened.
Nick Akerman: I'm a bit worried Nuno Espirito Santos' tremendous success at Nottingham Forest will come back to haunt him.
The former Spurs manager put up a valiant fight for a Champions League place last year, eventually finishing seventh and in the Europa League. He is working under a loose-cannon owner in Evangelos Marinakis, who may well expect a repeat of last year's success despite the tougher conditions of having to manage a gruelling European campaign.
Nuno's response to Marinakis angrily entering the pitch in May seemed like a man who knew how quickly he could be booted out the door at the City Ground.
"Football is emotions," the Forest manager said, per ESPN. "It's difficult to control, especially when we had so much expectation today." Hmm.
Marinakis then followed it up with a statement saying: "We are extremely proud and close to Nuno and the team, and we must all celebrate the historic achievements of this season."
That gets serious side-eye from many of us, like a vote of confidence before a manager gets punted when things go bad.
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