Arteta sack despite no title tip, Man Utd ignored and Delap for Golden Boot – pre-season predictions revisited

Matt Stead 25 May 2026 11:20 AM

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta with the Premier League trophy

Mikel Arteta was not sacked this season

Not a single F365 soul backed Arsenal to win the title, nor Manchester United to finish in the top four. But Nuno was absolutely nailed.

The 2025/26 Premier League season is done, and the time to revisit our pre-season predictions is upon us.

They are, as ever, an unadulterated, shuddering mess. But from some more than others.

As is traditional, tell me who will win the league.

‘Not Arsenal. Not having that,’ said an adamant Winty, who was one of three Manchester City backers alongside Stead and Watson.

There were as many shouts for Liverpool (Ford, Williams and Oldham can hang heads in shame), but far worse came from tips for sodding Chelsea.

Soutar was completely fooled by the Club World Cup. Nicholson systematically ruled out every other challenger, suggesting the continued involvement of long-proven, failing nearly man Mikel Arteta would hold Arsenal back. Oh, Johnny…

And the rest of the top four, in order. Which nobody ever gets right.

And nobody did. There was not a single tip for Aston Villa, nor in fact Manchester United. Ruben Amorim really did drag expectations through the floor in his year at Old Trafford, while Unai Emery worked miracles after that summer and start.

Every single combination included Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea. Bloody fools, the lot of us.

Three picks for relegation please.

Everyone did get at least one; god bless Scott Parker and Burnley. But beyond that it isn’t great.

Gold stars for Nicholson, Williams and Soutar for sensing Wolves had screwed up royally. Oldham, too, for predicting West Ham to go down.

Funnily enough, no-one mentioned Spurs. There was plenty of misguided doom-mongering around Europa League-bound Sunderland, Leeds and some particular Bees. As Watson wrote: ‘I don’t see how Brentford can lose everyone without a significant drop-off, and it’s a similar story at Bournemouth.’

It’s still a bit of a mystery but there both are in the top half above Chelsea, the Cherries preparing for a European campaign.

Which club will be a pleasant surprise?

Four of us were reeled in by Jack Grealish and an Everton side which really ought to sack David Moyes. Winty backed them to finish in the top eight. Tickers tipped them to be ‘surprisingly watchable’. They did not and were not.

Nicholson (Leeds), Watson (Manchester United) and especially Williams, who liked the look of Sunderland’s ‘impressive signings’, all fare well. Soutar breaks even by backing Brighton.

And then there’s Stead:

‘It has been an absolute delight to laugh at them all summer but Newcastle will rise from the cuck chair and excel on the pitch, if not the boardroom, with another top-five finish.’

Idiot.

Who will win the Golden Boot?

Best not to overthink this one. Six of us didn’t, knowing it is now the legal property of Erling Haaland.

But the actual Liam Delap, Johnny? The bloke had four times as many bookings as goals. At least the Watson-supported Viktor Gyokeres finished in the top seven.

And then there’s Stead:

‘Alexander Isak stays, quickly realises it might not be the best idea to entirely starve oneself of competitive football in a World Cup year and has his Luis Suarez season before getting that move.’

Idiot.

Which new signing will have the greatest positive impact?

Points for Joao Pedro (Winterburn, Soutar and Oldham), as well as probably Gyokeres (Watson and Williams) and Hugo Ekitike (Nicholson).

Ford had something good going with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall for a while before that late Everton drop-off, while Tickers had it accidentally and absolutely bang on with Joao Palhinha, expecting the scorer of some vital Spurs goals to stop them conceding an extra ten ‘just by cutting things out at source’.

And then there’s Stead:

‘Lucas Perri will remind Leeds fans that keepers can be good. Tijani Reijnders and Rayan Ait-Nouri sort myriad Manchester City problems.’

The f*** was he smoking?

And which one will turn out to be a massive flop?

There were some assorted silly shouts for Ekitike, Sesko, Gyokeres, Madueke and Mbeumo. The worst was probably Rayan Cherki (Soutar); the best? Watson bloody well knew Alejandro Garnacho wasn’t worth Chelsea’s hassle.

Who will be the biggest bloody bargain?

Not sure quite why Stead (Jhon Arias is going to be a sensation at Wolves) and Nicholson (Forest getting Angus Gunn on a free) are in a freezing cold take-off, but here we are.

Fair play to Williams, who saw Brentford’s long-throw vision for Michael Kayode.

Who will be named the PFA Player of the Year?

Who indeed. Certainly not Rodri, Cole Palmer or Florian Wirtz.

No-one predicted Bruno Fernandes, but if someone could superimpose Tickers’ fate onto his prediction, Declan Rice’s face saying “it’s not done”, that’d be great.

First manager to leave their Premier League job?

Vitor Pereira (Stead) was fourth. Parker (Nicholson, Watson, Soutar and Oldham) was 11th. It has been quite the managerial merry-go-round of a season.

Nicholson does also lose those points for saying Arteta would go after Parker.

Silly, too, from Winty, Ford and Williams going for Andoni Iraola, Keith Andrews and Daniel Farke respectively. They are all better than that.

But this is absolute no-notes brilliance from Tickers:

‘Nuno Espirito Santo. Mr Marinakis is on one right now, positively aglow with main character energy, and the off-field shenanigans cannot mask that Forest ended last season in pretty ropey fashion. And have been honking in pre-season. They only managed eight points from their final nine Premier League games last season – and it wasn’t that tough a run-in either. Start this season anything like the way they ended the last with Marinakis in his current mood to move fast and break things, and Nuno is very quickly in very big trouble.’