After the 2022-23 Premier League season wrapped up at the end of May, all eyes were immediately on next season’s competition.
The season will kick off on August 12 when newly promoted Burnley will host treble winners Manchester City.
Clarets boss and City icon Vincent Kompany will face the toughest of tests in his first game in charge as a Premier League manager in what is sure to be a great opener.
It is no surprise that Pep Guardiola’s Man City side are once again the favourites to win the league in 2023/24, according to Premier League odds.
After the greatest season in the club’s history following their treble win, it is very hard to see beyond City once again and that is before they have even made any moves in the transfer market.
Of course, the only narrative is not just who will win the league but also who will succumb to relegation, get into Europe, have a down-season etc.
Let’s take a look at five predictions for the 23/24 Premier League season.
Spurs’ underachievement to continue
Life at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium has been mediocre at best since their Champions League final loss to Liverpool in 2019.
Five months after that game, Mauricio Pochettino was sacked as manager of the club after a poor start to the season with Jose Mourinho taking over.
He lasted for a season and a half and three managers later, Spurs are yet to experience any real success since that night in Madrid.
Chairman Daniel Levy has now hired Ange Postecoglou, coming from Celtic in the SPL. The jump from Scottish football to the EPL has proven to be a tough one for coaches.
Most recently, Steven Gerrard joined Aston Villa from Rangers in 2021 and found himself unemployed just over a year later.
It also seems that their all-time leading goal scorer Harry Kane could be on his way out of the club as Real Madrid’s interest in the striker is increasing.
Chances of Champions League football seem extremely slim, and fans may have to settle for a Europa League place at best.
Chelsea back near the top
Ever since Todd Boehly completed the purchase of Chelsea in July 2022 no club in world football has spent more than them on players.
They have parted ways with over £500 million to bring in the likes of Enzo Fernandez, Wesley Fofana and Mykhaylo Mudryk along with controversial bumper, long-term contracts to circumvent financial fair play rules.
Despite this, they had an extremely disappointing season after sacking Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter who succeeded him.
They finished 12th with Frank Lampard overseeing their final run on a temporary basis.
It is now Pochettino who is tasked with pulling Chelsea back into the Champions League positions and beyond.
The Argentinian qualified for Europe’s biggest tournament in four out of his five complete seasons at Spurs and he should manage to do so upon his return to English football.
Luton to be relegated
Luton’s journey to the Premier League is a Cinderella story for the ages.
Just nine years prior to their playoff win over Coventry, they were playing non-league football.
That kind of progression is extremely rare in English football and is a testament to how well run the club has been over the last decade.
However, the Premier League is a whole new challenge and as we have so often seen, the clubs promoted from the Championship can often struggle.
Their current crop of players have only 15 top flight appearances between them, most of them coming through minutes off the bench for the likes of Cauley Woodrow and Dan Potts.
Experience is key to survival in the Premier League and unless Luton can do something major in the transfer market expect them to be in the bottom three come May next year.
Brentford to struggle
Ever since their promotion in 2021, Brentford have been one of the feelgood stories of the league.
They comfortably secured safety in their first season and then recorded their first top-half finish in 22-23.
While coach Thomas Frank has proven his worth, the quality of the teams around them is likely to improve and they are also likely to have more spending muscle than The Bees.
Brentford will also be without star striker Ivan Toney for a large chunk of the season following his ban and now look set to lose keeper David Raya to Spurs.
While they should be just about good enough to avoid relegation, their progression so far since being promoted will start to tale off in 23/24.
Newcastle are real contenders
It was always going to be hard giving manager of the season to anybody who wasn’t Pep Guardiola, but Newcastle boss Eddie Howe was in with a real shout.
After taking over at a club in disarray in November 2021, Howe steered The Magpies comfortably away from relegation before they were bought by the Saudi PIF.
Although they now had more spending muscle, Howe recruited sensibly in the summer and resisted the urge to splash the cash on shiny new toys.
They would eventually finish 4th, qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in 20 years.
They will now be able to attract higher quality players and with Howe at the helm they can be real challengers for Pep’s City side in 23/24.
Luton wont be bottom three, no chance. Decent enough players and a few cheap but decent signings will be more than enough for the mercenary, Everton. Palace, Wolves etc