26/27. Here We Go.

Right. Season twenty-six, twenty-seven. New clubs, same question. Can you beat me.

Three promoted sides this summer. Coventry City, who won the Championship at a canter. Ipswich Town, automatic. Hull City, who needed penalties to get here. I have done my research on all three. Two of them will go straight back down. One of them will surprise everyone. I know which one. You will find out when I publish my GW1 picks.

West Ham gone. Burnley gone. Wolves gone. I am not sad about any of them. Wolves had no plan. Burnley had no defence. West Ham had no reason to exist in the top flight since about 2019. The Premier League is better without all three.

“I have been wrong before. I will be wrong again. But I will never be vague.”

Now. The big news. Mohamed Salah has left Liverpool. Nine seasons, a generation, everything that club built in that era goes with him. Do not make the mistake of writing Liverpool off. They won the league without him two years ago and they can compete without him now. But the first three or four weeks of the season, until they find their new shape, they are vulnerable. Mark it down. I am picking against Liverpool in August.

Bernardo Silva and John Stones both out of Manchester City. The deepest squad in the country just got shallower. City will win the league again. I am not changing that prediction. But they will drop points early while they adjust. That is a window. Most people will back City in August. I am not most people.

Arsenal. The difficult second album. Third time as favourites, third time they have to prove they can win it. I have been hard on Arsenal in the past. Not this year. The squad is good enough. The question is whether the manager keeps his nerve when it matters. If he does, they win it. If he does not, City wins it. That is the whole season in one sentence.

I am going on the record now. Title: Arsenal. Top four miss: Spurs. Relegated: Coventry, Hull, and one of the newly promoted sides. Top scorer: the striker from the team you least expect. I am not telling you yet. Earn it.

Season opens August fifteenth. Picks out the Friday before. His reasoning, his record, his confidence. Yours to beat. Let us go.