My 2015-16 Premier League predictions

A year ago I wrote my first ever season predictions. They’re something that every football fan mentally makes at the beginning of the season, but few write them down and look at them at the end of the season. That’s what I did, and you can read my initial predictions here and the blog I wrote evaluating them at the end of the season here.    Well now it is that time of the year to make predictions again, and after the mediocre showing of last season I hope I can do better this season. There will be more categories for me to predict this season compared to last season, with who will go up from the Championship being added to the usual categories.  

Who will win the title?

I think that this season will be the toughest title race for years and four teams will be battling for the title. I said this last season, before correctly predicting that Chelsea would win the title, but this season I think the title race will actually be even closer than ever. I currently can’t see anything that splits last season’s top four. Chelsea will of course be strong, but they haven’t really done much to their squad. They replaced Cech and Drogba with Begovic and Falcao respectively, but I think they just need something else. Winning the title is hard, but retaining it is even harder and as Manchester City showed last season just making squad additions and not changing your starting XI a bit isn’t the way to keep the trophy. Speaking of Manchester City, they’ve made one big first team signing, with Raheem Sterling joining them. He’ll definitely make a difference to them, but they need a new defender to win them the title. Their cross city rivals also need a defender and maybe a player to take the striking burden off Wayne Rooney. Arsenal need players as well, namely a defensive midfielder and a striker, but they could do with what they’ve got. Based on current squads I’ve got an idea of who will win the title, but I want to wait until the end of the transfer window to properly decide. Once the window closes, I’ll make a decision. 

Top four? 

Who I think will get top four seems to be pretty obvious as I predicted four teams to fight for the title. Last season’s top four will be this season’s top four in my opinion, and despite both Spurs and Liverpool making some shrewd signings it won’t be enough. Spurs and Liverpool will both fight though, but their best bet for Champions League football must be winning the Europa League.  

Who will go down? 

This season’s relegation battle will probably contain many of the familiar faces, with Sunderland, Aston Villa and Leicester the relegation contenders from last season who will suffer again this season. I don’t think that those three will go down though, but I think Leicester are the most likely of that trio to go down this season. I think it will be the Foxes, Watford and Norwich to go down, with the only promoted team to stay up to be the newcomers Bournemouth. Few have predicted them to stay up, but I think that they have the quality, especially in their manager Eddie Howe. They’ll struggle but I think their fairy tale can defiantly continue into 2016-17.  

Who will win the Golden Boot?

If he stays fit all season then I think Sergio Aguero will definitely be top goal scorer. He is the closest thing the Premier League has to a true top class striker and he won the award last season despite his injuries. Costa and Sanchez will challenge, and I expect goals from new boys Troy Deeney and Callum Wilson of Watford and Bournemouth respectively. Rooney could do well this season as well, but he’ll definitely need a top striker to pressure him.     Who will win Player of the Season? 

The cynics reading this will say that my prediction for PFA Player of the Season this season was made because I’m an Arsenal fan, and you may partly be right. If he doesn’t suffer from second season syndrome or burnout, and I don’t think that he will, then I think Alexis Sanchez will be the most worthy candidate for the PFA Player of the Season award this season. Honestly, I think he was unlucky not to win it last season but I can understand why Eden Hazard did win the award. He’s a great player, but Sanchez was outstanding last season and if he continues that form next season I see no reason for him not to win the award. If Aguero continues his form as well he could challenge for the award, and Cesc Fabregas may recapture his first half of last season form to stake his claim for the award. 

Who will be promoted from the Championship? 

Away from this season’s Premier League, who will join them for 2016-17? I think that Derby will definitely go up, they are arguably the strongest team in the division and they should have gone up in both of the last two seasons but a play off final defeat and poor form towards the end of the season cost them. I think that under Paul Clement they should go up and they deserve to be playing in the Premier League. I think that Hull are the only one of the relegated teams who will produce a strong enough assault on the Championship title to go up. They lost a few of their top players but they have retained some and made some surprisingly good signings. Many are predicting play off final losers Middlesbrough to go up this season but I think a play off hangover will cost them, like how it costed the last two losing play off finalists. Both Watford and Derby failed to be promoted the season after losing the showpiece final, and I think that Boro will suffer the same fate, I do hope that Aitor Karanka’s men can prove me wrong though. I think the final promotion place will be filled by Wolves, as they complete a dramatic rise after such a dramatic fall. I expect Nottingham Forest to have a good season as well, maybe the playoffs with Brentford and Ipswich in the top six as well.  

Premier League surprise package? Obviously one of my surprise packages has already been mentioned with Bournemouth staying up probably being a surprise to many. Another team that I think could surprise is Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace. Last season I predicted another Pardew side to be the surprise package, and before Pardew left they were in the top half after recovering from a shaky start. I think Pardew can steer his Palace side to a top half finish and high calibre signings like that of Yohan Cabaye can definitely help them. Newcastle could challenge for a top half finish as well, and if reports that they will add Charlie Austin to the squad is true then the could maybe even challenge for a Europa League place.