Seven journalists asked who will finish Premier League top five and qualify(*) for Champions League

Who will end the 2023/24 season in the Premier League top five?

Which quintet will qualify for the Champions League(*)?

(*) As this coming season, ending up in the Premier League top five should be enough to put you in the 2024-25 Champions League competition, as two extra places will be given to the two countries that do best in European competition the previous (2023/24) season.

Now we are set to kick off the new season, The Athletic have asked seven journalists questions about this 2023/24 season.

The most interesting one (question) was…

Predict the final Premier League top five in order:

Joey D’Urso: Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool

Carl Anka: Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea

Ahmed Walid: Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Newcastle United

Nick Miller: Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool

Adam Hurrey: Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool

Sarah Shephard: Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Newcastle United

Jack Lang: Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool

So when it is predicting top four, the votes work out as:

7 Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd

4 Chelsea

3 Liverpool

When it is then predicting Premier League top five, the votes become:

7 Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool

5 Chelsea

2 Newcastle United

I am intrigued by this blind faith of so many journalists and other ‘experts’, that Chelsea will so easily bounce back from the shambles they were last season. Just because they have spent yet more money and got another new manager.

I think Mauricio Pochettino is decent but basically, Chelsea still have a fair number of the dubious characters from last season (and I am not just talking the club’s owners here!), as well as a seriously large turnover of players, yet again.

In this same feature, The Athletic also had the following:

How we think the Premier League will finish in 2023-24

Some 42 of our writers and editors predicted the final order of the 2023-24 Premier League. This table is an average of those predictions:

Our 2023-24 predicted PL table

Newcastle United clearly seen here by the great and the good of The Athletic, as sixth best for the new season, which would put NUFC just one place outside Premier League top five, which would be very cruel if it turned out to also mean just missing out on Champions League by one place.

However, this is only journalists giving us the benefit of their expertise, which is not always the same as what ends up becoming the reality…