Premier Predictions (Week 09)

Friday night start this week, Plus 4 games on Saturday and 5 on Sunday
None for the Euro teams had too far to go, so should all be fresh.

Friday West Ham go to Leeds and will need a massive improvement on Monday's performance.
Wolves have a chance of their first win at home to Burnley.
Sean Dyche gets an away game at Bournemouth to start so can't see it making much difference this week.
The other games look quite tight to call.

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

Good Luck All  😀

Premier Predictions (Week 08)

Back after another International week

England joining those other big nations who have qualified like Cape Verde, Uzbekistan, Jordan and Iran in Trumpton next year 🙄
Premier league has 7 games on Saturday, 2 on Sunday and 1 on Monday.
West Ham having 2 midweek games (Monday & Friday) either side of more European fixtures.

2 North-West derbies this week and 2 London derbies.
No doubt all the big 6 scouts will be at the Palace v Bournemouth game.


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


Good Luck All  😀

Summer Transfers 2025

Time for my annual pet project, where the Premier league cash was splashed this summer.

Spending up this season to a record £3.4b, with £1.98b received
Liverpool were the big spenders this year which was surprising as they had spent very little last season and won the league, Chelsea as always spent big but also received big money.
Arsenal spent a lot to try and climb the extra position, but received little back.
The promoted teams all spending around £100m each to try and stay up, and so far they have a chance.

One thing I've noticed is that the "big six" thing has been more obvious this year, if any player does well for the others they have been snapped up by one of them (e.g Mbuemo, Cunha, Kudus, Isak, Eze, Pedro). Already talk that Bournemouth's Semenyo is wanted by Chelsea.
Also that Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City have mastered the art of selling untried youngsters for huge transfer fees, whereas Arsenal, Man Utd and Tottenham haven't.

Don't really understand all this PSR stuff? every season sees the "big" clubs spending huge amounts without problem, while "wannabe" big clubs like Newcastle and Villa have to sell before they can buy.

Anyway it's all monopoly money 🙄
Politicians and press demonising anyone that receives a few quid of taxpayer money, while Football and big business squander Billions and use every trick in the book to avoid paying taxes.
Stick them all in a giant Musk rocket and fire them into the sun 😠  .... oops off on one then
Back to the matter in hand 😃

The Chart:
(Info based on the best sources I could find, includes squad and youth players).

 

 

 

Total Spend - £3,403,770,000
Most Players In - Nottm Forest 20, Burnley 16, Sunderland 16
Most Players Out - Chelsea 41, Brighton 40, Aston Villa 40
Most Money Paid - Liverpool £461.5m, Chelsea £365.32m, Arsenal £265.5m
Most Money Received - Chelsea £337.2m, Bournemouth £217.21m, Liverpool £207.2m
Largest Profit - Bournemouth £83.61m, Brighton £64.38m, Brentford £58.4m
Largest Defecit - Arsenal £255.2m, Liverpool £254.3m, Tottenham £163.25m

Largest Fees Paid (Over £50m)

Alexander Isak [Newcastle – Liverpool] £125m
Florian Wirtz [Bayer Leverkusen - Liverpool] £116m
Hugo Ekitike [Eintracht Frankfurt - Liverpool] £82m
Benjamin Sesko [RB Leipzig - Man Utd] £73m
Nick Woltemade [Stuttgart - Newcastle] £73m
Luis Diaz [Liverpool - Bayern Munich] £65.5m **
Bryan Mbeumo [Brentford - Man Utd] £65m
Xavi Simons [RB Leipzig - Tottenham] £65m
Viktor Gyokeres [Sporting Lisbon - Arsenal] £64m
Matheus Cunha [Wolves - Man Utd] £62.5m
Eberechi Eze [Crystal Palace - Arsenal] £60m
Joao Pedro [Brighton - Chelsea] £60m
Martin Zubimendi [Real Sociedad - Arsenal] £60m
Dean Huijsen [Bournemouth - Real Madrid] £59.5m **
Illia Zabarnyi [Bournemouth - Paris St Germain] £57m **
Jamie Gittens [Borussia Dortmund - Chelsea] £55.5m
Anthony Elanga [Nottm Forest - Newcastle] £55m
Mohammed Kudus [West Ham - Tottenham] £55m
Yoane Wissa [Brentford - Newcastle] £55m

 

Predictions Table

 The full info table so far

Premier Predictions (Week 07)

Sandwiched inbetween a full European week and an International week it's Week 7 of the Premier League.

Starts Friday night at Bournemouth, then 4 games on Saturday and 5 on Sunday.
Arsenal v West Ham? the Hammers have won the last 2 games at Arsenal while getting stuffed at home by them, no idea?
Sunderland doing much better than expected go to Man Utd who are doing much worse than expected.
Chelsea and Liverpool both having "wobbles" could be tight.
Sunday's games should all be close affairs? Man City go to bogie team Brentford, Palace's unbeaten record to be tested at Everton.


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

Good Luck All  😀

(hopefully Bio and Gibbo turn up this week)

Premier Predictions (Week 06)

Week 6
7 games Saturday, 2 on Sunday, 1 on Monday
Another Euro week coming up so player rotation expected for those.

Tricky game for Liverpool at Palace who are 17 games unbeaten.
Arsenal go to Newcastle, West Ham take on Moyes on Monday?


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

Good Luck All  😀

Premier Predictions (Week 05)

With all the wall to wall football nowadays it's hard to believe it's only week 5 of the season
7 games on Saturday, 3 on Sunday

Mersey derby to start, late winner expected.
Chelsea go to Man Utd, more pain for Amorim?
West Ham haven't won at home to Palace for 7 years so unlikely to start now 😔
Arsenal v Man City used to be a big game, but unless Haaland has one of those days it looks like a home win.
Villa at Sunderland, Emery badly needs something.


Liverpool v Everton
Brighton v Tottenham
Burnley v Nottm Forest
West Ham v Crystal Palace
Wolves v Leeds
Man Utd v Chelsea
Fulham v Brentford

*
Bournemouth v Newcastle
Sunderland v Aston Villa
Arsenal v Man City

Good Luck All  😀

Premier Predictions (Week 04)

Internationals over for a few weeks, England 2 wins but after struggling to a 2-0 win over Andorra, they turned in a great performance away to higher rated Serbia.

Premier league back with 8 games on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday.
Two London derbies, Chelsea go to Brentford on Saturday night?
Will the last result be a false dawn for West Ham? great result last game but have been awful at home under Potter.
Manchester derby on Sunday, both teams unpredictable.
Nuno paying the price for losing to West Ham, big Angie back for the trip to Arsenal.

Transfer windows still open in Saudi and Turkey so some players might still be going, but the players coming in is now sorted.

10 teams play midweek in the Champions League and the League Cup


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

Good Luck All  😀

Premier Predictions (Week 03)

Due to next weeks International break it's just A 2 day weekend this time 😀
6 games on Saturday, 4 on Sunday.

West London derby to start at 12:30
Big game on Sunday with Arsenal going to Liverpool (2 of only 3 100% teams), injury jinx already hitting Arsenal so who knows?
Man Utd's multi million pound players were outplayed by Grimsby so a good chance for Burnley?
Only West Ham and Wolves are pointless after 2 games, and sadly I can't see us getting anything at Forest 😒

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

Good Luck All  😃

Premier Predictions (Week 02)

Another 4 day weekend 🙄
1 game on Friday, 5 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday and 1 on Monday.
7 teams won last week, and 4 of them meet this week.
Good starts for 2 of the promoted teams.


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

Good Luck All  😀

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.