Now that the Euro 2024 tournament has come to an end, European football is beginning to look forward to the forthcoming domestic leagues. And while Spain — specifically Real Madrid — are showing that they have the best teams in Europe, when it comes to all-out excitement, there’s nothing that can match England’s Premier League.
With the best players, managers, and, arguably, support, the Premier League has routinely been labeled the best league in the world for some time now. And next season promises to be no different.
With that in mind, we thought it’d be a good idea to come up with a host of predictions about what the Premier League may have in store in the forthcoming campaign. Let’s take a look.
Haaland to Be Top Goalscorer
Manchester City will be confident they can make it five titles in a row thanks to the sheer number of goals they score, and a big chunk of those goals come via Erling Haaland, their Norwegian superstar, who scored 35 and 31 goals in his first two seasons at the Etihad. Can he do it again this time around? A quick look at sports betting odds certainly suggests so — Haaland is the clear favourite to be top goalscorer next season, well ahead of Liverpool’s Salah in second place. If the Norwegian once again proves to be a goal machine, then any team looking to overhaul Manchester City will have to be virtually flawless throughout the campaign. And the signs are worrying — for other teams at least — that Haaland might just be on course for his best-ever season. He didn’t compete at Euro 2024, so he’ll return fully rested, and, at 24, he’s about to enter the next phase of his development.
Liverpool to Do Better than Expected
It’s never easy when a club loses an iconic manager. Just think of what happened to Manchester United when Sir Alex Ferguson retired. Given the importance of Klopp to Liverpool’s success in recent years, there are many pundits predicting that the Merseyside team may struggle to compete at the highest level in Arne Slot’s first season.
But there’s every reason to believe that those fears may be unfounded. After all, there’s plenty of evidence that Liverpool are unlikely to fall off their perch in the same way Manchester United did in the post-Ferguson era. Klopp has left the club in an extremely healthy position, as a quick glance at the young and exciting squad will show. Plus, Arne Slot plays a similar style of football to Klopp, so, it’ll likely be a case of ‘evolution’ rather than ‘revolution’. Don’t be surprised if Liverpool are showing some signs that they’ll threaten to win the title.
Arsenal to Once Again Have a Great Season
It took a while for Mikel Arteta to show that he was the person who could take Arsenal back to the summit of English football. Due to Manchester City’s dominance, Arteta hasn’t actually won the title yet, but no one’s doubting that he has the potential to win the Gunners the league for the first time since 2004.
Whether they can do that next season is unclear. However, there’s little doubt that if anyone’s going to overtake Manchester City, it’ll be Arsenal. In any case, the Emirates faithful have been waiting a long time since they’ve last been able to dream of glory, but those days are unquestionably back.
Manchester City Will Win the League
And yet, with all that being said, it would be foolish not to predict that Manchester City will end up with the title once more when May rolls around. They’ve been the best team in the country by a long distance for years now, and there’s not much to suggest that they won’t continue that trend for as long as Guardiola is their head coach.
On that note: there have been rumours that the forthcoming season might be Guardiola’s final campaign as the Manchester City boss. That’ll be good news for rival teams when the 25/26 season rolls around, but it’s an ominous warning for the 24/25 season. You might think that the desire to succeed is slightly less intense in a team that’s won four Premier League titles in a row, but if this really is the Catalan manager’s last year in England, then he’ll absolutely want to end it as the champion.
Manchester United Will Show Signs of Progress
It has been a strange couple of years at Old Trafford. Erik ten Hag has, essentially, been continually under pressure, which was sometimes justified, sometimes not. Even after he won the FA Cup against Manchester City in May, the consensus was that the Manchester United hierarchy was looking to replace the Dutchman. In the end, that didn’t happen, and ten Hag will be in charge of United for the upcoming season.
And there’s every chance that the good times might be about to return to Old Trafford. It was often forgotten last year, but the team does have a lot of young talent. Rasmus Højlund is getting better, and is only 21; Alejandro Garnacho is already a superstar in the making and is only 20.
If they can both continue to improve and the club’s other key players can get it together, then Manchester United might just be more of a threat than they have been in recent years.
Will our predictions be correct? There’s only one to find out — come back in May to see how we did!
