Premier League Midseason Recap

By: John Mahler ‘24 Contributor

The Premier League has been full of surprises this season with Fulham, a promotion team, currently in 7th, to the surprise of Liverpool and Chelsea sitting at 9 and 10, respectively, in the table. The biggest shock however is probably Arsenal sitting in first with the clear favorites, Man City in second, so today I will go over what the EPL title race is shaping up to look like and my predictions.

The top 6 are Arsenal, Manchester City, Newcastle, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspurs, and Brighton. Man City and Arsenal are most definitely the two favorites to win the title but you cannot count out the clubs like Manchester United and Newcastle. Manchester United has been in very good form recently, winning the last 12 games at home, so there is still a chance they could win the title. Newcastle has made some very good signings and is surprisingly in third place in the EPL with only 1 loss the entire season.

With Manchester City winning the title last season and making a very good signing of Earling Haaland, they were the favorites to win the title, but Arsenal has made a surprising rise to first place in the league. Arsenal has a very impressive 50 points way through the EPL season and if they can keep up that pace then they will certainly win the title. However, it might not be that easy because Arsenal still has to play Man City twice, Liverpool, and Chelsea. If they are able to win both games or one of the games first Manchester City then they will most likely be able to win the EPL title as well. Therefore Manchester City must be focused on the two games first against Arsenal as they will be the deciding factor as to who wins the World Cup.

Now for my predictions–I think that Arsenal will be able to win the EPL title because they have an amazing 50 points halfway through the season and have made some good signings recently. Arsenal also have played extremely well throughout the season, and Manchester City just got rid of their star left-back or right-back, João Cancelo.

By: Luke Essig ‘24 Contributor

The Premier League is the most intense soccer league in the world. Teams fighting for a spot in the Champions League, Europa League, or to even win the entire competition. But there is not a chance for glory for every team, however. The three teams that are at the bottom of the Premier League table at the end of the season are relegated to the second tier of English soccer, the Championship. Teams battle to avoid the relegation zone for entire seasons at a time, but this season in particular there are plenty of teams who could end up down playing second tier soccer next season.

The current relega- tion zone consists of AFC Bournemouth in eighteenth place with 17 points, Everton in nineteenth place with 15 points, and Southampton in twentieth place also with 15 points. Bournemouth, with four losses in their last five games, take on surprising sixth place Brighton and Hove Albion. Everton have won only one point out of a possible fifteen from their last five games and take on high flyers and top of the league Arsenal next, in newly appointed manager Sean Dyche’s debut for the team after firing legendary Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard from their manager role. Southampton, who have only won four games this season, play eighth place Brentford. Led by free-kick master James Ward-Prowse, Southampton’s team is full of potential, but they seem to not be able to put it together. The young core of center back Armel Bella-Kotchap, midfielder Romeo Lavia, and forward Samuel Edozie may help them stay up.

Sitting slightly outside the relegation zone are Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Leeds United, West Ham United, and Wolves. If any of the current three were to escape the relegation zone, the most likely to go down from this group would be Wolves. Tied on points with Bournemouth, they have great players all around but have not been able to get it going this season. They brought in legendary striker Diego Costa and Atletico Madrid striker Matheus Cunha on loan in hopes of kickstarting their attack as they have only netted twelve goals this season, the lowest in the Premier League.