2025-26 EPL Preview

There was an interesting debate on whether Rashie is a ManU legend or not. My take is he is a (city of) Manchester legend, but not a Manchester United legend. He grew up in Manchester. By his own recollection he was in the Stretford End when Rooney scored the bicycle kick goal. He came up through the academy. He was the link between the old guard Fergie days, the Zlatan, Pogba, Mata, et all days, and the current struggles. He shoulders more than his share of the blame for the current struggles. If you are an academy product and make more than say 100 appearances for your club, you might not be a legend, but you are in rarified air. I can understand being salty toward him, now. But in time, history will remember Marcus Rashford fondly. Probably not this decade, but eventually. Probably.

Burnley, Brighton and Bournemouth are getting relegated. In fact, Sunderland is the only club whose name doesn’t begin with the letter B who is even in danger. Sooner or later all three will be back. Wrexham isn’t getting promoted. They’ll finish 9th in the Championship. Fulham, Everton, and Brentford will all flirt with relegation, but ultimately stay up. You can rearrange them a little, but those seven are the bottom third of the table. I am fully expecting a competitive EPL, but there is no way ManU and Spurs have historically bad seasons two years in a row.

Leeds, West Ham, Wolves, Crystal Palace, and… wait for it… Tottenham Hotspurs are mid table to lower mid table. Arrange them in any order you like. Spurs minus Son and plus a new manager are as mid as you can get. Leeds is a dumpster fire of a club with a dumpster fire doused in gasoline of a fan base. They’re still resting on laurels that are older than most of their squad. West Ham have a proud history of overachieving, which I expect to continue. Wolves and Palace usually punch above their weight class, and I think their supporters have reason to be optimistic.

Everton, ManU, and Aston Villa will all be good, but not that good. Everton is a wild card. They’ve underachieved for what seems like ten years. They could be good; they could be awful. Part of me just wants the Merseyside Derby to not suck. Aston Villa had one for the books last year. They’ll be talking about it for generations. Rashford is at Barcelona, not Villa. Villa would have been better off keeping him, even if it would have been expensive. You don’t let quality like that slip through your fingers. But they did. Rashford’s attitude and the weight of unrealistic expectations led to his departure from Manchester United. Sad story. Not the first lad to not live up to the hype. He’s going to crash out of Barcelona, hard. I kind hope he goes to MLS next. But I’m biased. I also do not understand why ManU spent so much money on talented but not world class players this summer. They have a few bigger names, but GK is still a huge problem. Somehow, they have the same coach, I fully expected him to resign. Bro’s on the hot seat, regardless.

And now we reach the muddled up top. Kevin de Bruyne is at Napoli. We saw Haaland’s goal total drop like an anchor when Kevin was not on the pitch. I fully expect this trend to continue. Haaland may even win golden boot, but he’s not banging in like 40 or whatever. Even if they overcompensate in January. Forest and City are not qualifying outright for the 2026-27 Champions League. City are going to have a new manager by then, too. In American football terms, Erling Haaland is Randy Moss and his quarterback is???

My surprise 4th is Newcastle. They don’t deserve it. They haven’t built a roster to be that competitive. I don’t think they are the darlings of anyone else’s EPL preview. Hell, I think they’re going to add at least three players in the January transfer window. I don’t think they have staying power as a powerhouse. They have money to burn. Nobody is expecting much out of them. Time to put up or shut up. I’m optimistic based on a hunch and their spending power.

Chelsea won the Club World Cup and the pointless bragging rights that go along with that. I could see them winning the FA Cup, League Cup, or one of the other lesser cups, too. And finishing third. They have plenty of good players. They aren’t going to dust off the corpse of Didier Drogba, and they don’t have a game changer on that level. You can’t win the EPL without a guy who brings that little or lot of something extra to the table. They have like fifty talented players on their roster or on loan. But they don’t have THAT guy. They just don’t. So, third is all the better they can do. Even if they add the next Drogba in January, that’ll be great in a year or two, but not enough to put them over the top this year. Sorry Chelski, but you ain’t it.

Across London we have the runners up. Arsenal also ain’t it. But they are close. I hope the title race isn’t decided until the last weekend. Only the Gunners come up short. They’re great on paper. I’d even throw ten quid on them. I could actually see them adding defense to make a late charge. Really, that’s the only way they’re going to have a chance. Defense wins championships. But defense added late in the game often doesn’t gel or click right away. I still think they are better building from the back and preventing goals rather than trying to add a top striker and finishing more chances. Paper tigers don’t win trophies.

I hate Liverpool. They’re also on a collision course with manifest destiny and going to win this year. Mo Salah’s lost a step. More, honestly. Other teams still have to defend him. Virgil was never that good to begin with. He’s still probably enough. Whatever weaknesses they have they will address in January. I don’t want them to win. I can’t stand their fans. I just can’t imagine them not taking the title. It hurts. But, I’ve also been wrong plenty of times. Hopefully this is one of them.