Bold predictions for Chelsea and the Premier League in 2020/21

Who will be the surprise Premier League team of the season?

Vansh: Everton. Carlo Ancelotti has been linked with a number of players, and it looks like he means serious business this season. Over the past few years, Everton has lost its shine and hasn’t really been able to challenge the top sides. However, with signings like James Rodriguez and Allan, Everton are ready to challenge for the Top six again!

Scott: Leeds. I hate saying it, and I don’t believe they will be quite as successful has Sheffield United were this year, but they will not struggle to stay up, liking finishing around 10th.

Varun: Southampton with a top half finish provided Liverpool don’t buy half the squad in January.

Matthew: Southampton

Gabe: Everton. It feels weird predicting Everton to be genuinely good, especially given the mediocrity of the club in recent … I don’t know … decades? The Toffees bring something different to the table this year. With a plethora of incredible new signings, Don Carlo Ancelotti at the helm and some slip ups from the big six, Everton could finish a lot closer to the top four than people imagine.

Nate Hofmann: Newcastle (with or without a morally uncomfortable Saudi Arabian takeover)

Nathaniel Kay: Leeds United

Wilfred: Fulham. Arguably the worst performers of the three promoted sides with probably the best squad, and definitely the best striker. If they can get a Fikayo Tomori on loan, expect them to survive comfortably with a few scalps along the way.

Michael: Leeds

Olaoluwa: Leeds United. Leeds would be a thorn in the side of many top teams this season. This would be made more interesting by their new signing Rodrigo. A lot has been said about Marcelo Bielsa by many and he will have a lot to prove, especially after losing out on Premier League football by Lampard’s hands last season. Leeds will be that team that stay compact, steal goals, nick wins and be very difficult to break down.

Abhishek: Everton. Carlo Ancelotti is building a formidable side under the radar. This Everton team will challenge for the top four positions before setting for a Europa League place. They will give some of the big hitters a bloody nose more than once this season.

Kevin: Sadly this falls on Leeds United

Charlie: Arsenal. Good manager and solid signings, don’t be surprised if they grab fourth.

Vishnu: Brighton. They have all the right tools to be the team with one of the best backlines.

Barrett: Leeds or Arsenal. Leeds, though I am not supposed to as a Chelsea supporter, I just massively like as a culture and team. Arsenal have done some really good business and I believe in Mikel Arteta.

Oliver: Leeds. There is a grit about them which will see them finish 12th.

Yi Hao: As much as we all hate them, it would seem that Arsenal’s rebuild under Arteta has gained quite the momentum. With the signings of Gabriel and Willian and more importantly, their success in getting Aubameyang to extend his contract with the club, Arsenal have the building blocks necessary to fight their way back up the league table. In Arteta, Arsenal has a good manager who has shown sufficient tactical nous to win his side two pieces of silverware in just his first 8 months in charge. With all that in mind, the Gunners could yet prove themselves to be outside favorites to land a spot in the top four come the end of the 20/21 season.

Travis: Southampton. Ralphampton. Viva la Ralphaloution.

Who will be the first manager sacked this season?

Vansh: Dean Smith. Aston Villa managed to stay up last season by a whisker. They could be relegated this season and Smith might be sacked midway.

Scott: Dean Smith. Villa will struggle early and they will not hesitate to fire their manager.

Varun: Steve Bruce.

Matthew: Slaven Bilic. After being provided with almost no funds to improve a mediocre squad, Bilic’s West Brom fail to win any of their first seven games and the Croatian is swiftly shown the exit door before Halloween.

Gabe: David Moyes. In addition to having the toughest schedule out of the gate, West Ham is an absolute mess. The Irons struggled to stay up last season, leaving it down to the wire and surviving by the hair on their chinny chin chin, However, they won’t be as lucky this season. A poorly run club for the better part of the last decade, West Ham has been in decline ever since it sold Dimitri Payet and it will reach rock bottom next season. The Hammers haven’t really done anything to change up their squad, only selling a promising youngster and potentially offloading Declan Rice in the coming weeks. As things stand, West Ham is doomed and thus, so is Moyes. A man who prides himself on his ability to win did all he could last season to keep the club up, which he managed, but it’s a ticking time bomb. A few weeks into the season, West Ham will sit bottom of the table and sack Moyes rather than purchase new players because that’s how idiotic the club’s board is. Sorry, David Moyes; you’re a stand-up guy, but you’ll win the sack sweepstakes this season.

Nate Hofmann: David Moyes, no question. You know what isn’t any fun? Having David Moyes as your manager. He’s capable of providing two things: uninspiring football and a pessimistic attitude. Why West Ham elected to bring in football’s answer to Nietzsche is beyond me; why they’ve decided to do it twice is well beyond the collective comprehension of mankind.

To be fair, Moyes is mostly a victim of circumstance. His career trajectory was thrown into eternal chaos the minute he was selected to succeed Sir (ugh) Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in 2013. His short stint at Old Trafford kicked off a solid seven seasons of various levels of incompetence for United—for which we owe him a great deal of gratitude—but his reputation as a manager was irrevocably stained as a result.

His less-than-triumphant return to the London Stadium didn’t do much to reverse the fortunes of the club last season. He succeeded in staving off relegation in large part due to incredible acts of charity by Manchester United and, sigh, Chelsea in the last few weeks of the season. It’s also worth noting that the Hammers have a brutal early run of fixtures. After kicking off their season against Newcastle, they face Arsenal, Wolves, Leicester City, Tottenham, Manchester City and Liverpool all in a row. It’s plausible that they’ll stagger into November with zero points. Even if they manage a shock result or two, Moyes is a sitting duck. It’s an impending calamity that should surprise absolutely no one.

Nathaniel Kay: Dean Smith. After selling Jack Grealish and receiving a hefty sum, Aston Villa fail to learn the lesson from last season and recruit poorly. They bring in two attacking midfielders to try replace their captain, but they fail to score or assist in their first eight league fixtures. Dean Smith tries to steady the ship by reverting to a three-man defense, only to be struck by injuries in all the wrong areas. After a fifth consecutive defeat at the hands of Leicester City, Smith gets the sack.

Wilfred: Roy Hodgson. Hate to do it to a man so impressively bilingual, but I can see last season’s spring-summer slump continuing into September and beyond, leaving Woy with no way out. Thing is, he’ll be back at West Brom by February, following Slaven Bilic’s inevitable crash and burn.

Michael: David Moyes. Poor, poor David Moyes. Since his days leading Everton to unexpected success, his reputation hasn’t been pristine. He’s failed nearly everywhere he’s gone, and his second spell at West Ham nearly ended in a disastrous relegation. I think West Ham will bounce back from last year’s awful finish, but if the Hammers get off to a slow start in the league, it won’t be surprising to see David Moyes the first manager sacked. They have an incredibly difficult run of matches from Match weeks two through six, and an embarrassing loss to either City or Liverpool could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Olaoluwa: Dean Smith. Smith has come close before and with the teams around them strengthening, Villa might not have enough about them to put together a decent run of form, to which Smith will be sacked and John Terry will be appointed head coach. Aston Villa were far from impressive last season and it only looks like it’ll get worse for them this season.

Abhishek: David Moyes. Like Thanos, West Ham sacking a manager in the first half of the season is, quite frankly, inevitable. Unfortunately for him, David Moyes is no Iron Man, so he can’t quite save himself from the axe. West Ham will be languishing in the bottom five from the start, with teams coming to the London Stadium and thwacking them like a pinata filled with three points. This will become boring after a while and the owners will put Moyes out of his misery around December.

Kevin: Dean Smith at Aston Villa teetered on the brink last season before Coronavirus delayed the finish. With John Terry waiting in the wings for his first managerial role, a few poor results will see him given that chance at Villa Park at Smith’s expense.

Charlie: Scott Parker. Fulham had the largest budget in the Championship by a distance yet only just managed to get promoted. The football they played was turgid at times but they generally had enough individual quality to win them games. But players like Aleksander Mitrovic who could make the difference in the Championship won’t be able to do it alone at this level. Fulham will struggle to score goals and despite Parker firming up their defense last season they will still leak goals when faced with more sophisticated attacking threats. Add on to this the fact that Fulham have had almost no time to prepare for this season due to their promotion coming via the playoffs and all in all it’ll will be a pretty miserable start to the season for them with Parker fired before Christmas.

Vishnu: Slaven Bilic. West Brom are the kind of club you see promoted to the premier league every two-three years and then get relegated soon. Last time Bilic was in PL, he was sacked after a run of poor results. With both their history combined, he could be the first to go.

Barrett: Steve Bruce or Jose Mourinho.

Oliver: Have we had a year recently where there was a single firing and every manager who started one season then started the following one? If that is the case it won’t be this year as Steve Bruce at Newcastle will be the first manager to get the sack. It’s a difficult question this, as none of the big clubs are going to sack their managers and the smaller clubs want to keep their managers as it’s their identity. Shaking it up midseason in the Premier League is a very fine line if the replacement manager isn’t called Roy Hodgson. That is where Newcastle comes in, it is by no means a small club and most would likely think of it now as a big club of the past, apart from the Geordies, but it’s a bit of a shambles up north. Newcastle will just survive the drop, but Bruce is headed for the chop.

Yi Hao: The club is in a mess, the new owners are hated, most of their signings have been huge flops and the squad is still hugely reliant on their veteran players. West Ham’s failings on and off the pitch have caught them with them spectacularly in recent years and have cumulated in last season’s relegation scare. With the root problems yet to be solved, do expect David Moyes to bear the inevitable brunt of the club’s failings and be given the boot just two months into the new season, leaving the club in an even greater limbo and Declan Rice convinced that a move to Chelsea is the only way to kickstart his career proper.

Travis: David Moyes. The time for Moyes to remain the West Ham manager was the last time they sacked him. Going back to him shows how the club is really just throwing things at a dart board and hoping it sticks. The Hammers to be winless by October when Moyes is finally given his marching orders.