Transfer window now closed, it’s time to try ‘n’ predict how this season is gonna play out.
As usual, I’d never do this piece until the main transfer window closes due to the obvious fact that teams can either strengthen or get weakened by incoming & outgoing players – that’s the reason for any delay you might query in such a prediction piece.
Firstly, my predicted end-of-season league standings:
1st Arsenal
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2nd Manchester City
3rd Chelsea
4th Liverpool
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5th Manyoo
6th Brentford
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7th Nottingham Forest
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8th Tottenham Hotspur
9th Brighton & Hove Albion
10th Sunderland
11th Leeds United
12th Hull City
13th AFC Bournemouth
14th Newcastle United
15th Aston Villa
16th Fulham
17th Everton
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18th Crystal Palace
19th Coventry City
20th Ipswich Town
Notable points about that predicted, final table for the 2026/27 season, starting with us:
- Goalkeeping department:
I’m going to say that the situation is about the same as last season.
I was certainly not happy to see James Trafford go out permanently - I think that’s a big mistake considering the potential future he has ahead of him. I would have much preferred that he go out on loan to a Premier League side for a season and then reassess the situation.
I certainly get it from the player’s viewpoint – he left with two domestic cup medals, which is fantastic for both him and our club, but I’m sure there’s part of him that must feel let down, even slightly betrayed, by Manchester City Football Club.
So, we’ve swapped youth (23) for experience (34). Geronimo Rulli has bags of experience at very good levels of football both domestic and international. I’ve seen his footage online and he looks very good indeed – a more than suitable back-up to Gianluigi Donnarumma; plus being a potential, domestic cup keeper for the next two seasons.
When you balance Trafford’s achievements and youthfulness against Rulli’s achievements and vast experience; I’d have to conclude that our goalkeeping department is about as strong as it was last year. However, for me there is a caveat in that Donnarumma’s performances did slide over time last season, in my humble opinion, and the Community Shield performance from the 6’ 5” Italian international left me with a bit of a frown on my face, I have to be honest. It’s been better since but we’ll see.
- Defensive department:
Gone are the largely injury prone pair, Nathan Ake and John Stones (plus Manuel Akanji now on a permanent transfer after his loan finished), and in comes last season’s loanee, and already well respected youngster, Vitor Reis (Reis is pronounced “Heis” or “Hays”, in case you didn’t know and would like to).
Other than that, there’s been no changes and I would suggest that the defence is about as strong as it was last season.
When you look at our options at left-wing back as well as central defence, it looks really quite strong and, for me, in Marc Guehi and Abdukodir Khusanov in particular I think we have a crackin’ central partnership. Long may they both stay fit. 👍
Last season saw Matheus Nunes’ best season for us as right-wing back – a solid 7/10 from me over the whole season. However, I still think that this is our weakest area in defence that [still] needs back-up / expertise coming in.
Still, for this part of my blog posting, I don’t see any weakening nor strengthening in this department compared to our last campaign.
- Midfield and wing department:
Losing Rodri and Bernardo Silva should lead to the conclusion that we have been weakened for the campaign ahead. However, following recent and rapid transfer activity I now say, “No”. Is it about the same as 2025-26? Again, I say “No”.
I look at a midfield that contains the options / combos of Bouaddi, Anderson, Kovacic, O’Reilly, Fernandez, Foden, Elias and Cherki and when I ask myself the question, is that better than last season’s midfield, Mr Blue chews-daze writer? My answer is, “Yes it is”. And when you stick the wings onto that midfield that includes the aforementioned Elias plus Ndiaye, Doku and Semenyo then…wow! What a setup!
Of course it’s going to take some time to properly settle to how the manager wants it to you but despite the loss of Rodders and Bernardo, there’s some awesome talent there and a great balance of defensive, attacking and central / box-to-box; all with some serious attacking flair on the flanks.
- Striking department:
I suppose having lost our one and only secondary striker - and that’s what Omar Marmoush was when you’ve got Erling Haaland in your squad – and you don’t replace him, it’s easy to say that we’ve been weakened in the striker department.
However, with the creativity and goalscoring threat that I’ve just mentioned, not wishing to forget Gvardiol and Nunes either who sometimes contribute that way, I think we have enough goal threat-options whenever Halland is not able to play. I actually believe that Antoine Semenyo has the physique and finishing ability to perform as a Number 9 and, indeed, I think I’m right in saying that he did for Bristol City and Bournemouth on occasions.
Additionally, whenever Erling isn’t available, if Enzo Maresca can pull off a 4-6-0 / 4-5-1-0 formation like Pep used to do many seasons ago then with that attacking wealth that we have at our disposal in midfield / the wings, I can see that working very well too.
I do believe that we’ll do very well this season.
🔩 We clearly still need to tighten the bolts more at the back but I think we’ll be a little more solid defensively over the whole campaign.
🦶⚽ We could do with cutting out some of our sloppy passing in midfield too but I'm sure that will have been spotted and will be fixed.
With the talent we have in the squad in advanced areas - plus a manager who likes to play a system almost identical to what most of these players have been used to, albeit more direct down the flanks - it does bode well for the future.
Moving on…
…but just before I do and for the record:
I started to prep this piece, which I don’t release until September for reasons already explained, way back in mid-July and it was a few weeks later, in early August, that articles started to appear online regarding how many new managers are starting in the Premier League this season. In other words, I swear that I haven’t simply jumped on those and spun my own version. 🙏😇😊
Right…
I don’t give seasons “titles” because that would be just weird. However, I am seeing this campaign ahead as, ‘A manager’s season”.
TOP 6 IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER:
- Arsenal: I was, initially, going to say that The Gunners could suffer champions ‘second season’ syndrome. A lot of ex-players often say that it’s very difficult to strike again straight away the following season; possibly for a variety of reasons. In addition, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are already renowned for their in-season wobbles over the years and as a City fan, I’m hoping that they may just wobble too many times trying to defend their crown.
However, I just think with extra quality reinforcements in the summer, last season’s champions of England will do it again…but I think that we’ll push ‘em all the way once again.
- Brentford: No new manager for The Bees but the way they applied themselves last season after they lost their entire Management Team and so many important players was to be applauded.
As a plus point for them this season, they just fell short in their last campaign (9th) to get into a European competition this season (8th or higher) and, therefore, with them carrying on their good work with a very good start in 2026-27 AND with no European games to…“get in the way”, I can see them finishing in a stronger league position this time round.
- Chelsea: A side with plenty of spending power have got themselves a very good manager indeed. I can see the new guy steadying the ship, which their fans are desperate for, and they’ll run all title challengers very close indeed.
I see ‘em having a really good season and, in fact, for a side that has been so inconsistent in recent seasons, I see far more in the way of consistency this season; making them one of the threats for the league title.
- Liverpool: In my opinion, they too have grabbed themselves a very good manager indeed and one who will be relishing the chance to mold a set of higher-class players to his liking, with no disrespect intended to a very good set of players he left behind at Bournemouth.
However, ask any Liverpool fan if their happy with the summer transfer window and you’ll be hard pressed to find one who is being genuine if they say, “Yes”. They’ll do well, in my opinion, but not well enough to keep the majority of Merseyside reds happy.
- Manchester City: A very good manager with experience of two English leagues and trophies to his name. In addition, not only does he know the club so very well from two previous spells with us, his style of play is so like his predecessor; so much so, in fact, that he was once labeled, “Pep Lite”. He even looks a lot like him!
He is the product of a hard-working family - his father is a fisherman of 50 years and that graft is the driving force behind his successes…just like a certain Catalonian manager we know!
He carries a Guardiola like football-perfection obsession and he also has, apparently, an amazing ability to keep everyone in the squad bonded – he’s a proper player’s coach.
In addition, he is not only adopting a side packed with talent but he has the bonus of managing young but experienced players who will have just gained an absolute wealth of extra footballing knowledge having played a big part with their respective clubs in the recent World Cup; particularly the English ones who have faced such amazing talent themselves.
We’ve also added to those existing players in a big way, as I’ve already mentioned.
As the summer progressed and players arrived and departed from all 20 clubs, there’s been some movement in my table above, I can tell you. 🥵
At one point, I had us down as finishing 4th. I nudged us up to 3rd but in the last few days, I’ve put us on Arsenal’s coattails once again.
- Manyoo: First full season in charge for a manager who did rather well, it has to be noted, as interim boss last season. I can only see improvement from his side who he will finally have full control over, personnel wise. They’ve added quite well in midfield, I think.
All that being said, they’ve got a pretty ropey defence and from their opening game in particular after, which, I spoke to a red who had watched it; the manager clearly still has a lot to learn about how to get the best out of his players.
They’ll win, they’ll draw and they might go on half-decent little runs. However, I believe they’ll have too many loses over the whole season that will dent any title hopes.
Perhaps a domestic trophy might be on the cards for the team from Trafford this season.
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I had originally included Tottenham Hotspur in my ‘top six’ spotlight but I’ve since changed my mind. This is what I wrote:
Battered, bruised and on their third manager in less than 12 months. Reaction? Like a fair few other clubs, ourselves including, they’ve spent big in the summer! Despite their shocking start, I believe that they’ll start to click and I expect far more from The Lilywhites this season than last.
Since that write up, I’ve had a little rethink with Spurs currently standing on just 1 point from a possible 9 with zero goals, 5 conceded and some of their fans already having doubts regarding some of their summer signings; Savio and Marmoush included.
I still believe that they’ll start to gel and move up the table but my original prediction of a 5th place finished has dipped to 8th, which I’m betting most Spurs’ fans would be more than happy with right now.
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Back to the manager thing and Nottingham Forest also have a new good fella who did very well with Crystal Palace; Bournemouth have a new German bloke at the helm who has managed some big German sides, Crystal Palace have brought in a new French guy, Fulham have themselves a new Spanish boss while Newcastle United were the most recent to make changes in that department with the acquisition of Matthias Jaissle.
We also have three new [promoted] managers who are in the Premier League this season for the first time with their current, respective clubs (a nod there to Frank Lampard who has been a Premier League manager before with both Everton and Chelsea).
WOW! That’s a LOT of managerial change in the top flight to start off this season, don’t you think? Just 7 teams who start with permanent managers in the Premier League that they had at the start of LAST season in the Prem. 😮
Some of the rest…
At first, I had Frank Lamard’s blues as the only promoted team to stay up, such was their points dominance at the top of their league last season. I’ve been watching football long enough to know that it doesn’t always work out that way 🙄 and it appears as though it’s not. They are yet to score a league goal and have now leaked 5 in 3 or 7 in 4, if you include a cup game. It’s a long way to go but that’s not good. I’ve put ‘em second bottom to Ipswich who I fear will yoyo yet again.
Palace have started ever so slightly better than I thought they would with a crucial 2-3 away win at Fulham at the weekend. However, with both a managerial change and losing SO many key players, I just can’t see them surviving this season. They have extra games in Europe once again this season too.
Everton’s lack of summer recruitment has angered and is of huge concern to their fans but I think they’ll JUST have enough about them, experience wise, to survive. They’re used to a good scrap down near the bottom and that’s meant with respect.
Fulham’s new manager will have tough debut in the Premier League but once their young recruits learn to adapt, they should have enough quality to have another go next season. Villa have had their squad torn apart in the summer and with European football to contend with also, I think they’re really going to struggled compared to last season.
City and the cups?
Finally, here’s how I think we’ll do in the other three competitions:
League Cup - Quarter Final.
F.A. Cup - Final and, therefore, possible winners.
Champions League - League phase only, I’m afraid. That’s one hell of a group stage draw that we’ve pulled. I hope I’m wrong, of course, and our manager does have some pedigree in Europe. 🤞
To ‘sign off’…
Some of the things I’m looking forward to seeing? Some of these I already have - as I say, I have to start this long piece before the season starts.
1. Our new midfield develop into a real force once again.
2. Phil Foden come back to his best after three bizarre, largely underperforming seasons. I don’t think Pep could have been any more supportive but, perhaps, a change in manager will somehow help the 26-year-old put aside whatever it is that’s blocking out his wealth of talent from shining through once again. There was only so much one boss could say to him in three years to try an’ get through whatever barriers there are surrounding Phil. Perhaps, over time, a change of voice and perspective will help him. 🤷♂️
3. Vitor Reis incorporated into our defensive unit after a season out on loan. A perfect, young, no-need-to-spend replacement for the departed Ake and Stones. I hope he gets some domestic cup starts at the very least.
4. Ayyoub Bouaddi blossom into a very fine player. He looks class and mature beyond his years.
5. The big personality players that we now have all getting along in a larger-than-usual sized City squad. 🤞
6. A section of City fans finally giving their heads a good enough wobble to stop the, ‘Pep’s gone’ panic and ‘We’re all DOOMED’ thing. I’m not talking young fans either. 🤯 Almost coming to tears or, in one case I witnessed, actually TO tears when we haven’t battered sides 17-0; even though we’re a half-new-build side just getting going with a new manager / management team. WTaF!?
7. Our lads and girls playing in our new kits.
8. The new stand / tier in full operation. And a big ‘well done’ to our club, by the way, for introducing a £10 per ticket for every home game to those residents who live around the stadium. 👏👏👏👏👏…
What I’m NOT looking forward to is the highly likely increased number of Sunday fixtures we’re going to see, even more so than the last few seasons We might have to face some Friday and Monday night games too, I dunno.
It won’t just be us, of course, but with the increased number of Premier League sides who qualified, last season, for Thursday night European fixtures this season; whenever we’re due to face one of those sides in the league they’ll be simply no choice but to play on Sunday afternoon or Monday night. 🤬
Thank you, as always, for taking the time to read, especially such a long piece. 🙏
