The 2026-27 Premier League campaign is almost under way, with Arsenal set to begin their title defence at home to newly promoted Coventry City on Friday.<\/p>\n
With the opening fixture drawing nearer, Opta\u2019s supercomputer has delivered its latest projection for how the table may finish next May. Arsenal remain the strongest favourites to retain the crown, sitting top of the predicted standings on 73.45 expected points and a 40.62% title chance.<\/p>\n
Manchester City are projected to be Arsenal\u2019s closest challengers. They are forecast to finish second on 67.01 expected points, with a 19.60% chance of lifting the trophy. Liverpool, in their first season under Andoni Iraola, are placed third on 61.49 expected points and a 9.16% title chance.<\/p>\n
The numbers suggest a six-point gap between first and second, which would leave little room for a final-day scramble at the top. Instead, the forecast points toward a title battle that is limited to two teams.<\/p>\n
Beyond that, the model expects Manchester United to finish fourth on 59.03 expected points in a full season under permanent manager Michael Carrick. Aston Villa are projected to edge Chelsea and claim fifth, while Chelsea are tipped to finish sixth and return to the Europa League. Newcastle are backed for seventh, with Tottenham eighth despite their record-breaking transfer plans.<\/p>\n
Brighton and Bournemouth are forecast to occupy ninth and 10th respectively, leaving them in the mix for Conference League qualification if the available European places fall that way.<\/p>\n
At the other end, Opta\u2019s numbers leave all 20 clubs above the traditional 40-point safety line. Hull are predicted to finish bottom on 40.18 expected points, while Ipswich and Coventry are also placed in the relegation zone positions. The outlook suggests Everton, Brentford, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace are in the lower half, but with relegation odds below 20%.<\/p>\n
The overall projection still leaves seven clubs with some risk of being involved in the fight against the drop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Opta\u2019s latest forecast backs Arsenal to retain the Premier League title ahead of Friday’s opener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,172],"tags":[1754,1162],"class_list":["post-18642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics-stats","category-epl","tag-2026-27-fixtures","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}