Premier Predictions (Week 01)

Drum Roll ....  🥁

Here we go again the Premier League is back, so if anybody is still interested here we go with the 16th NBTF Premier Predictions competition (2025-26 Edition).

Hopefully the regular players will be back and anyone reading this blog is welcome to join in at any point, just let me know a name and club supported so I can give you some colours.

Another season of re-arranged on various days for TV games over the season. 😠

T&C's - Usual rules apply
3 Points for a correct score, 1 Point for a correct result.
Predictions League will be decided on weekly wins first, if 2 or more people share a weekly win that will be classed as a draw, if at the end things are still level the total points for the season come into play.
Predictions in the comments please  😀     
Obviously predictions will only count if they are made before the kick offs, please try and post the whole set at once (but I won't enforce it as these Friday night games catch everyone out including me).
All 380 Premier League games will be covered, plus sometimes FA Cup games and the League Cup Final will be included to make up weeks where there are many postponements due to those games.

Prizes - Just the admiration of everyone who plays

Can't solve the comments problem? so if your comment does not post straight away don't worry it should be in my comment moderation box as it assumes a lot of posts are spam.
Will publish as soon as I check.

Here we go  👍

Week 1 - Friday 15th August to Monday 18th August
1 game on Friday night, 5 games Saturday, 3 on Sunday and one on Monday

*
Liverpool v Bournemouth
*
Aston Villa v Newcastle
Brighton v Fulham
Sunderland v West Ham
Tottenham v Burnley
Wolves v Man City
*
Chelsea v Crystal Palace
Nottam Forest v Brentford
Man Utd v Arsenal
*
Leeds v Everton


Good Luck All  😀

Europe

England have nine teams in Europe this season

Champions 🙄 League - Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Tottenham
Europa League - Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest.
Conference League- Crystal Palace

Palace being relegated to the Conference league due to the multi club ownership rules, which seem to be a problem for a lot of teams nowadays with big business buying up teams on all continents.

Probably a good thing for Palace as they must stand a better chance against the lower ranked teams in Europe. West Ham and Chelsea making it look easy 😁

Could be a great chance for teams like Man Utd, West Ham, Fulham and Brighton to get high in the table with all those others having to play the extra games and midweek travelling all over Europe?

Premier League 2025/26

Premier League 2025/26

My opinions of the upcoming season 😀
Lots of money spent by the big clubs to make sure they stay relevant, after Man Utd and Tottenham just about stayed out of relegation trouble last season.

Liverpool running away with the league last season, they were consistant while other big teams had seasons to forget.

Arsenal
Two seasons in 2nd place, less impressive last season with injuries hitting them hard.
Not sure if Gyorkes is the answer to their striker problem but they needed someone.

Aston Villa
Have probably over achieved in the last two seasons, but should be top half

Bournemouth
Smaller budget so needing to sell to survive, looked good at times last season but losing a chunk of their defence might cause problems?

Brentford
They have been impressive in the last couple of years, but losing manager Frank and star players Mbuemo, Norgard and probably Wissa will weaken them badly.
Doesn't look good for them this season.

Brighton
A revolving door of players in and sold at profit seems to work for them, I guess mid table looks a safe option.

Burnley
Meanest defence last season should have meant they stood a chance this season, but a big change of personnel means they are starting from scratch.

Chelsea
Very impressive in the World Club cup, enough players to cope with any fatigue from that.
Even with Champions League this season should be near the top.

Crystal Palace
If they manage to hang on to their star players they could be alright this season, but added pressure of Europe on a small squad could be bad news?

Everton
The Moyes effect improved them last season, but can't see them being anywhere near top half.
New ground might have an effect?

Fulham
Not much happening at Fulham, solid team mid table team.
Never an easy choice to predict a Fulham result.

Leeds
Looked good last season, but the step up won't be easy. Will do well to stay up.

Liverpool
Big spending in the summer, both full backs replaced with attacking options.
Will hope the really big signings will show up in English football, but a lot will depend on Salah as usual, if he's on pre-contract form they will be up there but looked a shadow after that.
Losing Jota, Diaz and Nunez might be a problem.

Man City
A big overhaul of the team underway, if the players brought in knit together they could be challenging again? will be top 4 and challenging if Haaland finds his shooting boots again.

Man Utd
Lots of money spent, but some really good signings like Cunha and Mbuemo should help.
Fernandes still the main man and No Europe might be a blessing
Make or break for Amorim who managed to make them worse last season.

Newcastle
Hard to get your head around why the richest club in the world and in the Champions league can't attract players? a lot depends on if Isak stays?

Nottm Forest
Over achieved last season, can't see it happening again this season. Mid table at best.

Sunderland
Expect a season of struggle for them, don't know much about them

Tottenham
Somehow salvaged the season last year with the Europa League win, so promptly sacked the manager.
Thomas Frank in for a short term bank boost, a few decent signings but the pressure of Champions league will probably mean they will be aiming at mid table.

West Ham
Potter not really improving much last season, the away form was better but ran out of ideas at home.
A lot will depend on the fitness of the strikers, Fullkrug and Wilson spend a lot of time injured.
Hope for the best, but not seeing it at the moment.

Wolves
Losing Cunha a big blow, but they did look good after the change of manager last season so should be OK

Really hard to do a prediction for this season with so many unknowns? 🙄

Obviously the title should be one of these - Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City or Chelsea
Man Utd have the players, but will Amorim's tactics de-rail them?

Relegation most likely to be 3 of these - Sunderland, Leeds, Burnley, Brentford, 

Everton, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth or West Ham 😢

Season Opener

Crystal Palace win the Community (Charity) Shield on penalties after a 2-2 draw.
Liverpool's new signings making a great start with Ekitike and Wirtz combining for the first goal, and looking like they were going to blow Palace away at first.
Liverpool's overrated CB Van Dijk giving away a penalty to get Palace level.
Frimpong (yiddle-i-po) scoring a freaky goal for 2-1 at half time.
Best thing for Palace was Kamada's injury which brought Hughes on, as he and Wharton took control of midfield and they got a deserved equaliser.
Should have won it in normal time as VAR decided MacAllister's blatant handball wasn't a penalty?
Penalties were Women's Euro's standard with 5of the 10 missed, although goalie off the line doesn't seem to count for Liverpool.
Anyway a good game, which made a change from the usual season opener.

Fantasy Football 2025/26

Finally managed to login to FPL Fantasy Premier League and set up a team and re-started the "Nothing Better Than Football" League 😀

Code for joining if anyone wants to is : biy5yk  or the Auto Join link below

https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/biy5yk

 

Have done the Telegraph one as well - Code to join that is : BEIPWQX7

Update

New Premier League season just 10 days away

Charity Shield and UEFA Super Cup in the next week.

Trying to sort out my Fantasy Football but that's becoming a problem.

Like to use Firefox but the new FPL website doesn't seem to work with it?

Managed to create a team using a different browser, but it was all over the place making it hard to see what you were doing, not vey user friendly.

Haven't tried my Telegraph one yet, no doubt they've changed that as well for the worse.

Summer series finished, Man Utd winning and the addition of Mbuemo and Cunha seems to have made them a better team. West Ham grabbing 2 wins from their 3 games so maybe it's not all doom and gloom although outplayed in all 3 games?

West Ham signing Callum Wilson 10 years too late, I like him but his injury record is pretty awful so expect hime to miss half the season.

Strange decision to leave Antonio out of the squad? he has comeback from his car crash injuries and played for Jamaica in the US this summer and banged in 2 goals in 45 minutes for the Under 21's last week.

The "big six" have carried on buying anyone they can with mega money being splashed out.

Premier predictions will be back sometime next week if anyone still reads this 😀

Women's Euro's

England won it 😀

As usual making hard work of it with extra time and penalties, they certainly give you some drama.

Spain on top for most of the game, but not turning the possession into real chances.

One header taken in the first half, Russo equalising in the 2nd half (I like Russo she does all the hard work upfront usually on her own).

England improved a lot when Chloe Kelly came on for the injured James.

Lucy Bronze not having her best game but not surprising after revealing afterwards she had played the whole tournament with a leg fracture (echoes of Stuart Pearce) 😀

 

After the Sweden Q/F win on penalties where they won 3-2 despite missing 4 penalties, I wasn't feeling confident.

Our first penalty was missed, A strange affair as Beth Mead scored despite slipping but the ref ordered a re-take for a double touch. They must have changed the rules for this competition as when Alvarez did it for Athletico Madrid in the Champions League the goal was disallowed and no re-take given?

The re-take was saved, then Spain scored, England made it 1-1 then Hannah Hampton made 2 great saves then Williamson missed but so did the next Spain player.

Leaving it up to Chloe Kelly to hit the winner again as she did in the last Euro's.

Late July Update

Still here 😀 So a quick round up of footie related matters

Transfers - It seems the so called "big six" are making sure they stay the big six, with star players from the rest of us upstarts all being lured to them.
Players like Cunha, Mbuemo, Kudus, Pedro, Alt Nouri, Kerkez, Delap and others.

Women's Euro's - Final is tonight England v Spain
Haven't watched much of it mainly a few second half's, which as an England supporter has been the best way with the penalty missing contest against Sweden, and the late late show vs Italy.
Wish them well but Spain do look like the class of the competition.

Credit to my son who travelled around 3,000 miles from LA to New Jersey to watch West Ham v Man Utd last night, shame Areola had a mare and we lost 2-1.
A good experience though, and his girlfriend's parents live in New York so not just a football trip 😉

World Club Cup

Well that's over 😁

Hate to say it (as a West Ham fan) but Chelsea were really good.

Totally dominated the previously unbeatable PSG and maybe could have won by more.

Shame Trump tried to ruin the victory celebration, as we all know he thinks he's the only thing that matters 🙄  Anyway found a picture without him

New season starts in less than 4 weeks with the Charity Shield (or English Super Cup as they seem to be calling it now?).

My son has tickets for West Ham v Man Utd in New Jersey in 2 weeks, so if there was a Summer break it's just about over.

Summer Stuff

World Club Cup
Chelsea make the final on the quiet coming through a couple of Brazilian teams.
After Man City's shock loss to the Saudi's and Inter going out they avoided the bigger names.
Think I've only seen one Chelsea game on Channel 5 so can't say if they are looking good.
PSG thrashing Real Madrid to make the final after beating Bayern Munich.
Paris have probably been the best team in the world since January so Chelsea will need a top performance.

Women's Euro
Not watched much of this so far, saw some of the England game yesterday and bits and pieces of other games.
Looks like they have Premier League VAR, with really slow decisions and shirt thickness offsides 🙄

Transfers
Over £1.6 billion already spent.
Money flowing from all the usual suspects, Chelsea already spending £280m +
Liverpool £223m, Man City £118m, Arsenal £80m, Tottenham £75m, Man Utd £71m

Not sure what is happening with West Ham?
5 first teamers let go, apart from the Contractual obligation to buy Todibo no one else in.
Now it looks like we're selling Kudus for a knockdown price, with him dropping down the league to play for bloody Tottenham? 😠
Looks like Sunderland will have competition for 20th place.

Club World Cup

Club World Cup now down to the last 16
A handful of decent games so far with a couple of shocks.
South American teams started well but both Argentine teams out, the four Brazilian teams all through.
Man City the only team with 3 wins, and did look good in the Juventus game.
Chelsea through despite a loss to Flamengo.
Bayern Munich, PSG, Real Madrid, Inter Milan all potential winners.

America proving it probably isn't the best place to hold a world cup.
Poor pitches, bad weather, poor crowds at many games, silly player introductions.
No Man of the Match, now Superior player of the Match 🙄
Stadiums with stupid names "we're on our way to the Camping World Stadium"
Games played at midday in 90f+ temperatures.

Home of the brave? "thunder storm ten miles away, stop play run for cover"
Six games so far stopped for weather delays, although I haven't seen any rain on the pitch.
Chelsea last 16 game taking nearly 5 hours to complete.

To be continued

Summer Break

The June / July break for English teams (except Chelsea & Man City)

Many transfers already happening, Chelsea & Man City stocking up for the WCC, Liverpool spending big to hold on next season.
Man Utd and Arsenal being linked with everyone but not getting anything done.

Shock news was Ange Postecoglou getting the boot after upsetting the Trophy room cleaners who had to clear 17 years of dust from the cabinet.
Shame that Thomas Frank has left the safety of Brentford to drop down the league to take over at Tottenham, hopefully for him the pay packet and redundancy package will make it worth it.

Might watch some of the WCC as some being shown on Channel 5 at stupid O'clock.

End Of Season

Football season is over? .... so just 94 games to go, all taking place in Trumpton over the next month.

World Club Cup & CONCACAF Gold Cup 

Will be a good test to see what happens ahead of next year's World Cup?

Obviously teams competing should be able to bring fans to watch them?

Haiti are in the CONCACAF tournament but Trump has banned visitors from there this week.

Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras are also in it, so are the goon squads going to start arresting them as well 😕

Iran have already qualified for the World Cup next year

If fans (and maybe even teams) are not allowed entry to the States maybe they should move it to  another country

 

Fantasy Leagues 24/25

This year's NBTF Fantasy League Tables

 

Fantasy Premier League (FPL)

 

 

A win for Tommy who is a French Arsenal fan, and has been a regular in my League for the last 6 years.

So congratulations to him 😀

Overall a bit of a drop off this season with only 7 players in the top 10% (was 15 last season).

I ended 7th  (if I hadn't made transfers in the final week I would have been 5th) 🙄

Paul was 35th, and occasional reader Dave J was 39th (he had Ivan Toney all season?)

Telegraph Fantasy Football (TFF)

Congratulations to Dave R with a top 1000 finish to win this season.

A pretty rubbish season for me considering there were only 5 people actually playing myself, Dave, Sean, John with 5 teams each and one from Colin.

Might give this a miss next season? see how I feel in August

 

Predictions 2024/25

The full information predictions table for the 2024/25 season

 

Win for Paul with 8 wins from 38 weeks of predictions

Strong end from Paulo but ran out of weeks

My defence of the title was pretty awful, only 4 wins which included 3 in a row in weeks 19-21

All of us left in the shade for points by professional predictor Chris Sutton

Although if I included guests (Sutton, Model etc) in the weekly competition it would have been a win for Paulo, 6 of his 7 wins were over everybody. In my 4 wins I only won outright in one of those weeks.

Premier Predictions (Week 38)

Here we go with the final games of the 2024/25 season
All games on Sunday 16:00 kick off
Just positions 3 to 8 to decide, Man City need a point and Newcastle need a win to guarantee top 5, Villa need a win and hope Chelsea drop points.
So Forest v Chelsea is the big one, even a Forest win might not get them Top 5.

The prediction competition like the Premier League is now just a battle for 3rd place 😧

Last nights football, Southend on their way to Wembley to play former Premier League Oldham.
Europa final was pretty dire showing why these 2 teams are so low in the League, only goal when Luke Shaw handballed it into his own net, watched all the replays and couldn't see a touch by Johnson?
Gutted that Tottenham won, but couldn't see Man Utd scoring if they played all night, they were awful.

Interesting season with many of the big names (Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd) winning nothing, Liverpool get a 2nd Premier league, Crystal Palace and Newcastle winning cups and even serial losers Tottenham and Harry Kane winning trophies 😑

Still some football to come after this
Chelsea in the Conference league final on Wednesday v Real Betis (West Ham connection, Pellegrini, Fornals, Adrian)
Champions League Final next Saturday, Inter v PSG
New World Club Cup + CONCACAF Gold Cup starting mid June in America (if the players can get through customs?).

Anyway after all that here's Sunday's games 😃


Bournemouth v Leicester
Fulham v Man City
Ipswich v West Ham
Liverpool v Crystal Palace
Man Utd v Aston Villa
Newcastle v Everton
Nottm Forest v Chelsea
Southampton v Arsenal
Tottenham v Brighton
Wolves v Brentford

Good Luck All  😀

Premier Predictions (Week 37)

Week 37 - 2 weeks to go
An elongated week with 10 Premier League games and the FA Cup Final

2 games on Friday, 1 on Saturday, 5 on Sunday, 1 on Monday, 2 on Tuesday

(Friday 19:30 - that is 11:30am Canada time for Biopunk's sake) 

 

The Man Utd and Tottenham games moved forward due to next weeks Europa League Final

Two English teams making the final possibly because there were no Champions League drop-outs this season as there has been in previous seasons?

The Crystal Palace and Man City games moved due to both being in the Cup final on Saturday.
FA Cup Final (90 minute score to count only)

In the Euro places battle Chelsea and Villa are at home to the two Euro finalist probably fielding weakened teams so should win, putting the pressure on those above them making the Arsenal v Newcastle game pretty important.


Aston Villa v Tottenham
Chelsea v Man Utd
*
Crystal Palace v Man City (FAC)
*
Everton v Southampton
West Ham v Nottm Forest
Brentford v Fulham
Leicester v Ipswich
Arsenal v Newcastle
*
Brighton v Liverpool
*
Crystal Palace v Wolves
Man City v Bournemouth

Good Luck All  😀

Premier Predictions (Week 36)

3 weeks to go, 5 games On Saturday, 5 games on Sunday

Just the battle for European places to play for.
Liverpool v Arsenal should have been a title match, but now Arsenal need 3 points to guarantee Champions league.
Europa and Conference league qualifiers gets confusing as FA Cup and League cup winners qualify ahead of 8th place unless they finish in Top 5 ?? 😕

Fulham v Everton
Ipswich v Brentford
Southampton v Man City
Wolves v Brighton
Bournemouth v Aston Villa
*
Newcastle v Chelsea
Man Utd v West Ham
Nottm Forest v Leicester
Tottenham v Crystal Palace
Liverpool v Arsenal

Good Luck All  😀

Premier Predictions (Week 34 + 35)

Week 34 and 35 almost overlap, so this is a double bill

I've included the 2 FA Cup S/F to make up the numbers (90 minute score to count), the final game is not until Thursday.
Euro Semi Finals this week as well involving Arsenal, Man U, Tottenham and Chelsea
The title and last relegation place should be confirmed, so just the European places to fight for.

Week 34
6 games on Saturday, 3 on Sunday, 1 on Thursday

Chelsea v Everton
Brighton v West Ham
Newcastle v Ipswich
Southampton v Fulham
Wolves v Leicester
Aston Villa v Crystal Palace (FAC)
*
Bournemouth v Man Utd
Liverpool v Tottenham
Man City v Nottm Forest (FAC)
*
Nottm Forest v Brentford

================================

Week 35
1 game Friday, 4 games Saturday, 4 games Sunday, 1 game Monday

Man City v Wolves
*
Aston Villa v Fulham
Everton v Ipswich
Leicester v Southampton
Arsenal v Bournemouth
*
Brentford v Man Utd
Brighton v Newcastle
West Ham v Tottenham
Chelsea v Liverpool
*
Crystal Palace v Nottm Forest

Good Luck All  😀

Premier Predictions (Week 33)

Week 33 - Six weeks to go
Extra games this week with 2 re-arranged games
5 games Saturday, 4 Sunday, 1 Monday, 1 Tuesday, 1 Wednesday

Relegation - Southampton down, Leicester and Ipswich could be down this week
Title - Liverpool still need 6 points, but probaly less
Europe - Arsenal pretty safe, 5 teams chasing the 3 other Champions League places

2 big games for Aston Villa this week, Forest not looking so safe now.

Brentford v Brighton
Crystal Palace v Bournemouth
Everton v Man City
West Ham v Southampton
Aston Villa v Newcastle
*
Fulham v Chelsea
Ipswich v Arsenal
Man Utd v Wolves
Leicester v Liverpool
*
Tottenham v Nottm Forest
*
Man City v Aston Villa
Arsenal v Crystal Palace


Good Luck All  😀