English Premier League 2026/27 Outright Tips & Predictions - Arsenal back-to-back; Sunderland to be relegated

Andrew Hendrie

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Last updated: Thu 20 Aug 2026 07:48

Andrew Hendrie 2 hours ago

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Outright predictions for the 2026/27 English Premier League season
Arsenal tipped to defend title; Chelsea to improve with top four finish
Forest backed to surprise and Sunderland set to struggle

English Premier League 2026/27 Outright Tips & Predictions

Arsenal are tipped to make it back-to-back Premier League trophies, with Chelsea improving to finish inside the top four. Nottingham Forest can secure a top half finish under the tutelage of one of the most underrated managers in the world, while Sunderland are backed to struggle after overachieving last term and will do well to avoid relegation.

English Premier League 2026/27 Outright Tips & Predictions
Premier League Winner: Arsenal
Top Four Finish: Chelsea
Top Half Finish: Nottingham Forest
To Be Relegated: Sunderland
Premier League Futures Multi

It's set to be another pulsating Premier League season and Australian football fans have new interest after teenage sensation Lucas Herrington's marquee move to newly-promoted Hull City.

The new season gets underway on Friday August 21 (Saturday August 22 AEST) and we've picked out our best futures bets to be backing, with reasoning outlined below.

Premier League Winner: Arsenal

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With so many of the big clubs entering a transitional period under new managers, Arsenal remain stable and have even strengthened their squad ahead of their title defence.

Bruno Guimaraes will slot into an incredible midfield already featuring Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice, while young Greek winger Christos Tzolis is a fantastic prospect after bagging 29 assists in all competitions for Club Brugge last term. Ezri Konsa is also reportedly heading to the Gunners, with Mikel Arteta's side splashing the cash in a bid to become the new dominant team in England.

There's many question marks surrounding the other contenders. Man City are without Pep Guardiola and looked shaky in last week's Community Shield defeat to Arsenal, while Spanish World Cup winner and player of the tournament Rodri has also departed for Barcelona. Rodri and Guardiola were the brains behind everything at City and that's not something you can replace overnight. Enzo Maresca is already under pressure and it's unlikely Elliot Anderson or Moroccan teenage star Ayyoub Bouaddi - who is rumoured to be joining before deadline day - will be able to fill the void left by Rodri.

Andoni Iraola arrives at Liverpool looking to catapult the Merseyside club back to the top of the ladder, but their squad looks weaker and with Mo Salah moving on, much of Liverpool's attacking threat will fall on the shoulders of Alexander Isak, who has had one good season of football in his career. Man United finished third last season, but now have to juggle Champions League football and that squad just doesn't look ready to challenge for the title.

Aston Villa have also been decimated over the summer, with basically all of their best players signing elsewhere - tall order for Unai Emery to take his club to the next level.

Arsenal have the stability, the core of last season's title-winning squad and have been strong in the transfer window - everything points to the Gunners successfully defending their title.

Top Four Finish: Chelsea

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One club that could potentially challenge Arsenal is London rivals Chelsea.

The Blues were a complete disaster last season, but the upside is they don't have any European football to contend with this term, so the focus is entirely on the Premier League.

Xabi Alonso has proven to be a class manager - he lost just one game at Leverkusen during the 2023/24 Bundesliga season - and he's obviously no stranger to the Premier League after a storied career at Liverpool.

Chelsea have recruited well ahead of this season, signing Morgan Rogers and Maxence Lacroix amongst others, while the likes of Levi Colwill and Estevao were injured for long spells last term and will hopefully enjoy more game time this term.

Cole Palmer should be up for a big season after his World Cup snub - the same thinking could also apply to Joao Pedro. With all of their rivals (apart from Tottenham) juggling European football, Chelsea should view anything other than a top four finish this season as a failure.

Top Half Finish: Nottingham Forest

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I rate Oliver Glasner as one of the best managers going around. He was tremendous at Eintracht Frankfurt as the German club beat Barcelona on their way to Europa League glory a few years ago, while he also delivered Crystal Palace a historic three trophies under his guidance over the last couple of seasons, winning the FA Cup and Community Shield in 2025, alongside last season's Conference League crown.

Now Glasner heads to Nottingham Forest, who finished near the bottom of the pile last term while also going deep into the Europa League and dealing with a whopping four managerial changes, so much like Chelsea, the sole focus is on the Premier League.

Ousmane Diomande arrives in a big-money move from Sporting, while Forest also have lots of funds remaining from their huge Elliot Anderson transfer to Man City, while Morgan-Gibbs White could also still leave, adding more cash to splurge.

Forest are equipped with a balanced squad - Brazilian striker Igor Jesus scored 16 goals in his debut season last term and fans will be hoping he can kick on to bigger heights this campaign - and with lots of other mid-table clubs going through transitional phases or juggling European football (Brighton, Newcastle, Fulham, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa etc), Forest should have enough quality under a proven manager to secure a top 10 finish.

To Be Relegated: Sunderland

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Sunderland overachieved considerably last season - they had an expected points total of 42, but finished with 54 and ultimately secured a spot in the Europa League.

We saw how much Forest struggled last year while simultaneously competing in the Europa League and their squad was much stronger than Sunderland's.

This was years ago, but the point still stands: I remember Ipswich finishing fifth back in the 2000/01 campaign, playing European football the following season and ultimately getting relegated in 18th position - ironically, one rung below Sunderland on the ladder.

Same sort of scenario here - at the time of writing, the only real addition to the squad for this season is 34-year-old fullback Thomas Meunier. The Black Cats had the third-most draws last term (12), while they finished seventh with a -6 points differential (Forest in 16th had a better figure of -3). Sunderland also only managed a total of 42 goals - only relegated Wolves and West Ham, along with Palace, had fewer.

I just think it's a big ask for Sunderland to repeat last season's heroics and the pressure is on. Of the newly promoted sides, Coventry look more than capable of holding their own under Frank Lampard, while Ipswich also look a decent shout to secure safety. Hull have a big mountain to climb, but the point is that two of the three relegation spots look open.

Premier League Futures Multi

Arsenal To Win @ $2.20
Chelsea Top Four @ $1.75
Forest Top 10 @ $2.50
Sunderland Relegated @ $4.50

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Verdict

Our best Premier League outright bets can be found below.

Arsenal

Winners

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Chelsea

Top Four Finish

$1.90 - 2 Units

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Nottingham Forest

Top 10 Finish

$2.70 - 2 Units

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Sunderland

To Be Relegated

$4.50 - 1 Unit

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