How The Premier League Looks for Season 2022/23

The next football season starts in just 2 months time, as it tries to shimmy its way around the World Cup in Qatar in November. As such I feel now is the perfect time to outline which teams will be in which league when things get underway again in August.

South Coast
Brighton and Hove Albion, Southampton and Bournemouth

Having secured promotion back to the top table in the final weeks of the season, at the first time of asking, Bournemouth will be looking to avoid dropping straight back through the trap door again.

Brighton have shown great promise under Graham Potter, but a lack of cutting edge in-front of goal remains an Achilles heel that must be addressed to maintain their top flight status long-term.

Southampton have been a nailed-on mid-table finisher every season since their ascension to the league for the 2012/13 season. However, they are also as certain to deliver one dreadful performance that sees them mauled by as many a 9 goals to nil. Who will be the team to maul them like that this season?

North-East
Newcastle United

The flood of money that flowed in from Saudi Arabia in the middle of the 2021/22 season was not only enough to rescue the Magpies from their relegation scrap, but also to finish up just 2 points outside the top 10. With a full summer to reinforce their squad and for Eddie Howe to train his team in his ever exciting and effective tactics the pride of the North-East have the chance to become a true powerhouse of the beautiful game. The current top teams had better be wary of them.

Yorkshire
Leeds United

Having managed to pull off a miraculous escape on the final day of last season they will look to push further up the table next season. Whether they will be capable of this without their fabled saviour Marcelo Bielsa remains to be seen. If Jesse Marsch can can get the fans onboard they could be a real force to be reckoned with.

North-West
Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City

The loyal blues of Merseyside were key to their teams survival at the end of last season and they will demand much more from their team in 2022/23. Lampard may be the man to lead them up the table, but if results go against him in the early weeks he may find his fate at Goodison Park to be the same as Benitez’s last season.

Across Stanley Park things look far rosier for the Red Merseysiders, despite their failure to complete the unprecedented quadruple in the dying days of last season. It does look to be a difficult summer in prospect for Klopp and his team though, with both Salah and Mane rumoured to be on their way to pastures new for next season. If they do leave then both Jota and Luis Diaz will have the weight of the world on their shoulders. How they deal with this and who is brought in to support them is crucial to whether Liverpool’s brilliant run of seasons will continue or come to an emergency stop. The capture of Darwin Nunez from Benfica is an excellent start to their summer business.

The task for Man U’s new manager, Erik Ten Hag, is far more daunting than any other manager in the league. He must stabilise and rebuild a collapsed giant of the game whilst under the immense pressure of the fans to provide this miraculous turn around in fortune within months. Such a miraculous turn of events normally takes years to achieve.

Man City are the undeniable kings of the Premier League with 4 titles in the past 5 seasons and with the addition of Haaland to their ranks for the new season few would bet against them winning the title again. The real challenge for City is to find a way to translate their domestic form into success in European competitions.

The Midlands
Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest

Since their earth-shattering title win 6 seasons ago Leicester have drifted back into mid-table obscurity. Despite the best efforts of Brendan Rodgers and Jamie Vardy this looks to be where they will stay for the foreseeable future. They may challenge for European qualification in the upcoming season, but if they do it will be for the lower competitions. Champions League qualification appears to be well beyond them, but then so did the title all those seasons ago.

Wolves have a tried and tested formula, it has worked for them for many seasons now so they’re sticking too it. If they wish to move up from the morass of mid-table mediocrity a few tweaks to the formula may be necessary.

Aston Villa have done very well in the seasons since their most recent return to the top flight. Their history in both the top tier and in European football is undeniable, they have the passionate fanbase that could easily fill Villa Park 3 times over to prove it. The glory days of this brilliant club may have been back in the 80’s but with Steven Gerrard now comfortable in the dugout and with the brilliant job he achieved at Rangers in mind, perhaps the glory days will be returning to Villa Park again soon.

Talking of glory days returning to the Midlands it is brilliant to see Nottingham Forest returning to the top flight for the first time in the 21st century. Having been lucky enough to have visited their City Ground towards the end of last season I can personally attest to the incredible support their fans give the team and to the beauty of their ground. Any Premier League fans who are lucky enough to visit this gorgeous ground on the banks of the Trent will know how lucky they are to be there when they arrive. I hope they manage to survive their first season back at the top table and can continue to dine there for many seasons to come.

London
Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, West Ham United, Crystal Palace, Fulham and Brentford

The capital city of the nation contains 7 of the teams for the new season of the Premier League and this number is far higher than it has been for many seasons.

Arsenal are one of those teams and having missed out on Champions League qualification in the dying weeks of last season they will be extremely anxious not to miss out again in the coming season. The failure of 2021/22 was made worse by the fact that it was their North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur that qualified for that illustrious competition in their place.

For their part Spurs will be buzzing after securing their return to the top European competition for the first time since reaching the 2018/19 final. To have done so at the expense of the Gunners and stolen from them the joy of celebrating St. Totteringham’s day is simply the cherry on that delicious cake. Clutching defeat from the jaws of victory is synonymous with Spurs to the point where being ‘Spursy’ is a phrase that has entered the common parlance of football fans, Spurs will be on a mission to prove that this season was not simply a flash in the pan and in doing so consign the idea of being ‘Spursy’ to the dustbin of history.

To say that Chelsea have had a tumultuous season is to understate it dramatically. They have had to ride out the effect of sanctions being imposed on the club, due to Roman Abramovich’s links to Vladimir Putin, including a short ban on selling tickets. Unable to make any match day income from shop sales or programmes and unable to renew players contracts. Despite this turmoil and the takeover coming too late to allow them to sort out the contracts they still managed to finish the season in 3rd place. With the new owners now in place and a full summer window to rebuild their squad just what they will be able to achieve in the new season is a scary prospect.

West Ham United have seriously overachieved in the 2021/22 season with not just a 7th place finish in the league, that secures them a place in next season’s Europa Conference League, but also a stupendous run to the semi-finals of the Europa League to their name, only losing to eventual winners Eintracht Frankfurt. This brilliant performance has secured David Moyes’ place in Hammers folklore and if he can deliver another European challenge this season and qualify for a 2023/24 European competition then he will only be beaten in that folklore by the team that won the World Cup in 1966.

With so many teams for the new Premier League season hailing from London it is shocking that only one of them is located south of the River Thames. Crystal Palace are that team and under Patrick Viera they have become a bogey-team for many of the clubs above them. Wilfred Zaha remains their talisman for the coming season and if Viera can continue to improve on those around him then a move up the table, from their 12th place finish in 2021/22 is certainly on the cards.

The bouncing between the top 2 divisions that Fulham appear to have mastered is something that many of the teams they steamrolled in the 2021/22 Championship season would love to replicate. However, for their fans it must be becoming extremely tedious to endure and any way that they can find to exit the cycle this season will be gratefully accepted by their beleaguered fans.

Brentford finished an awe-inspiring 13th place in the table in their first season back in the top division since 1946/47. To say that this has been ecstasy to bear witness too is the understatement of the millennium. From the opening day win against Arsenal at the new stadium through the 3-3 draw with Liverpool in the same location, to the 4-1 destruction of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and the 2-1 comeback win at Goodison Park, this season has delivered some amazing memories that will stay with me forever. Retaining the services of the peerless Christian Eriksen for next season will be crucial to ensuring theses Canaan days continue for the ‘Bus stop in Hounslow’. As I will be a season ticket holder for the Bees for the 2022/23 season I hope that the Canaan days do continue and that I will be able to enjoy many glorious days following the Bees for a long time to come.