Premier League: Round 1 Predictions

Well then, after a couple of short months and a summer that hasn't really existed in terms of weather here in the UK, the Premier League is back and Burnley will kick us off against Manchester City tonight!

Football never really goes away of course as in addition to the ongoing Women's World Cup which has been an excellent tournament, there's the constant transfer activity across the world. I'm not always a huge fan of following all of the speculation as there's definitely too much of it but I must admit that even for the modern day standards, this morning has been a crazy one for transfer news ('Kane is actually going and Liverpool have bid *how much* for Caicedo!?').

For the new season we also have a brand new football-dedicated app which is very exciting and some of you may already be reading this on Superbru Football! If you haven't download it yet, check it out (it should now be appearing in the Google Play Store as well as the App Store) and good luck with your opening predictions of the season.

Here are my thoughts on each Round 1 game.

Burnley vs. Manchester City

Burnley should be a really interesting watch this season and I'm excited to see how Vincent Kompany approaches this game after getting battered in the FA Cup meeting between these two last season, but realistically it would be a big surprise to see anything other than an away win. City don't always start strongly but they should be at a high enough gear to win at Turf Moor following last weekend's Community Shield game. Burnley 0-2 Manchester City

Arsenal vs. Nottingham Forest

This should be similarly routine for Arsenal who were of course the other team involved in the Community Shield, eventually winning on penalties, while Nottingham Forest were absolutely dreadful away from home last season. I think Forest will do OK in this campaign overall but they have a horrible opening run of away fixtures and they're very unlikely to get anything at the Emirates. Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest

Bournemouth vs. West Ham

This is the first pick of the season that will see the Superbru community fairly evenly split in my opinion and I think I'm leaning towards Bournemouth since their should be a bit of a buzz around the Vitality Stadium with a new manager and some new players involved. I might be getting a bit overly carried away with how quickly Andoni Iraola can implement the kind of intensity we saw from his Rayo Vallecano team, but he's had all of pre-season to work which is a positive whereas West Ham are finally making moves in the window to replace Declan Rice but have left it quite late. They may only start hitting form in a few weeks' time? Bournemouth 2-1 West Ham

Brighton vs. Luton Town

Considering Brighton's excellent transfer strategy of bringing in really good players while taking monster fees from bigger clubs for their existing players has continued, there's no reason to think that their strong on-field performances can't carry on in 2023/24 as well and this is a fairly kind opening fixture. Luton's squad doesn't look like it's strong enough to survive at this level but plenty of teams have surprised us before so I'll be watching them closely in these first few weeks. Brighton 2-0 Luton

Everton vs. Fulham

Tough one. Fulham are the stronger side in my opinion but they've had a difficult summer and it's hard to tell whether or not to believe Marco Silva when he says Aleksandar Mitrovic is '100% ready' for this game and whether the Serbian is committed to another season amid interest from Saudi Arabia. Everton need to get a new centre forward in before you can feel comfortable picking them to win a game but they should be competitive in almost every home match they play this season and with an opening day Goodison Park crowd behind them they might edge this? Everton 1-0 Fulham

Sheffield United vs. Crystal Palace

Like most people, I worry for Sheffield United this season. The Blades were likely to struggle anyway before this summer's transfer activity played out and while Iliman Ndiaye's departure for Marseille was a huge blow that was still fairly understandable, selling Sander Berge to Burnley is the sort of transfer that makes it look as if you want to go straight back down. I'm slightly torn between a draw and an away win for this game as I don't think Palace will be quite at their best without Olise but the Eagles should still be strong enough considering the home crowd is unlikely to be full of optimism. Sheffield United 1-2 Crystal Palace

Newcastle vs. Aston Villa

Two teams that will be very hard to beat this season and I'm looking forward to watching them both but with home advantage Newcastle are surely favourites here, particularly since Villa's record at St James' Park is poor. There are plenty of exciting new signings to keep an eye out for in this one - I'm keen to see how Sandro Tonali, Pau Torres and Moussa Diaby get on in the Premier League. Newcastle 2-1 Aston Villa

Brentford vs. Tottenham

As I touched on in the intro, it sounds like Harry Kane really is about to actually leave Tottenham and even though I think the timing makes sense for all parties, it is obviously still a massive problem for Spurs. The optimism surrounding a new chapter under Postecoglou softens the blow a little, but this is a tough opening match for Tottenham and even though I'm predicting a draw, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a home win. Spurs still have plenty of attacking threats through the likes of Heung-min Son, Richarlison and now James Maddison but they've been used to Kane holding everything together for a long, long time and Brentford rarely lose at home. Brentford 1-1 Tottenham

Chelsea vs. Liverpool

When you look at the previous meetings between these two, a 0-0 pick feels like a free Exact, yet picking that scorleline still seems incredibly risky when you look at just how stacked Liverpool's squad now is in terms of potential goal scorers. Chelsea will be better this season because the only way is up after last year but goals could still be a problem now that new signing Christopher Nkunku has a long-term injury. When you also consider that Liverpool have now reportedly snatched main transfer target Moises Caicedo from them, it feels as if the Reds will finish comfortably ahead of Chelsea this season as defensive midfield was the one area where it seemed Jurgen Klopp had a real problem.

Caicedo is unlikely to have an impact on this game though (besides mind games and the odd chant between fans) since as of Friday he still hasn't even had a medical, and I think it will be another tight match between these two teams. Chelsea are always tough to beat at the Bridge and there'll be a strong atmosphere for Pochettino's first game in charge so I'm going with a draw but hoping there's a couple of goals this time! Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool

Manchester United vs. Wolves

Finally, we have Manchester United vs. the team who may well take the award for most wasted summer of all as Wolves come into this one having hired Gary O'Neil as their new manager just days before this opening fixture. I'm pleased that O'Neil already has another opportunity in the Premier League as he did really to keep Bournemouth up last year but if you're a Wolves fan the fact that Julen Lopetegui wanted to walk away is obviously pretty concerning and if the more expensive players within the current squad don't step up this season, there's a problem as it doesn't seem like Wolves are in a position to bring anyone new in.

I think Man Utd will be strong this season and they should begin with a win here. They're probably still an experienced centre forward away from being title challengers, but the rest of their team looks very good in my opinion. Manchester United 3-1 Wolves



Good luck with your own Round 1 predictions and feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comments!