AI Premier League Preview 2022/2023
As the new season gets ever-closer, many have begun putting together their Premier League previews (including ours which will be out soon), and even more of us are predicting where each team will finish; who will challenge at the top and who will be battling at the bottom.
With many big transfer moves still to be made, and pre-season performances perhaps skewing opinion before the real thing gets going (we’re looking at you Manchester United), we think it’s still a few days/weeks before we can make our ‘concrete’ predictions.
As humans we are often led by biases and personal feeling towards teams/players/managers, and so we’ve had the idea to remove this, and leave it to technology to predict. Using an AI writing site, we have compiled an AI Premier League Preview including complete league table finish. We have used this site to put together our preview, and obviously there may be errors and mistakes in there, but we have left them in as we didn’t want to influence or impact the writing in any form and will annotate them where required.
So, using only the phrase ‘Premier League Preview 2022/2023’, this is what AI thinks will happen. Don’t forget to head over to Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) and let us know what you make of this, what did the AI get right, what did they get wrong and what are you predicting for the coming season.
AI Preview
Welcome to the inaugural Premier League Preview of 2022/2023.
This season promises to be an exciting one with lots of new teams and players entering the league. Some teams are predicted to finish in the top 4, while others will struggle and be relegated.
Here are my predictions for where each team will finish:
1. Manchester City
2. Liverpool
3. Chelsea
4. Manchester United
5. Arsenal
6. Tottenham Hotspur
7. Brighton & Hove Albion
8. Leicester City
9. West Ham United
10. Newcastle United
11. Crystal Palace
12. Southampton
13. Brentford
14. Fulham
15. Burnley *(Not too sure what happened at this point)
16. Brighton & Hove Albion Reserves *(This would be seriously impressive after the1st team finished 7th)
17. Everton
18. Leeds United
19. Nottingham Forest
20. Bournemouth
Manchester City enter as the defending champions, having pipped Liverpool on the last matchday with a thrilling comeback victory over Aston Villa. Fulham and Bournemouth were promoted with top two finishes in the Championship, while Nottingham Forest were promoted via the playoff.
I think Manchester City will win the Premier League, but I have to say it’s not as much of a foregone conclusion as others make it out to be. Erling Haaland’s arrival is obviously a massive boost for Pep Guardiola, but it’s not the end of it with Liverpool still very much in the running. With the departures of Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling, Manchester City have lost at least 30 Premier League goals between the pair and that could turn out to be a huge problem for them.
Not surprisingly, the bookmakers have made Manchester City favourites to retain the Premier League crown they clinched in such dramatic fashion, coming from 2-0 down to beat Aston Villa 3-2 on the final day and pip Liverpool by a point. Pep Guardiola’s men are 4/7 to lift a fifth title in six seasons.
Manchester City are just far too strong to consider their title challenge will be harmed by a Liverpool now without Sadio Mane and adapting to a system with a more classic number nine. I have a feeling Chelsea might struggle this season losing so many defensive influencers. Arsenal meanwhile look on for a spectacular transfer window but with the least known Fabio Vieira providing the real surprise.
It goes without saying that Manchester City and Liverpool are once again among the usual suspects for the biggest prize, but could there be a surprise on the cards this time around? Manchester United are ready to kick-start a new era under Erik ten Hag, while Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea also look strong under Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel, respectively.
Antonio Conte secured Champions League football for Tottenham Hotspur during his first season in charge and his side are 16/1 to win a first title for 62 years, while Manchester United are 25/1 as Erik ten Hag becomes the latest manager to try to restore the club to its former glories.
I went for Manchester City to win the Premier League and if that were to be the case, I couldn’t look any further than Kevin de Bruyne for the PFA Player of the Year award. He’s the best player in the league in my opinion and has won it twice already, while he produced a handful of sensational performances in the second half of the 2021-22 season to make himself a candidate for the prize before eventually losing out to Salah.
Erling Haaland wins the Golden Boot by multiple goals, Frank Lampard doesn’t last ’til Christmas as Everton boss, Crystal Palace is in the mix for Europe heading into May. Manchester United improves its point total by double digits in top-four discussion to final day, Fulham stays up.
Both north London teams have started the transfer window with intent and I think they will make a few more astute acquisitions. Leeds will have a hard time replacing Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips and could easily go down. I also can see Marcus Rashford having a top start to the season ahead of the World Cup if Erik ten Hag manages him correctly.
Leicester enjoyed a successful season, spending more time in the top four places than any other club; however, three defeats in their final four games, including a home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on the final day, saw them narrowly finish in 5th for a second consecutive season. Having narrowly avoiding relegation the previous season, West Ham United surprised many by finishing 6th, their highest finish since 1998–99. Both these clubs earned qualification to the Europa League for the following season.
Chelsea could be in the title race too with a couple of smart additions, but they’ll have to be consistent over the course of 38 games. Raheem Sterling will give them a massive lift – he’s a talented footballer who can play anywhere across the frontline as we’ve seen over the years for club and country. He has my respect and should have no trouble adapting to Thomas Tuchel’s philosophy at Chelsea, having flourished in the Premier League for Liverpool and Manchester City.
This coming season, Arsenal aren’t given much love in the top-4 race despite just barely missing out. And there’s a sizable gap after the Gunners round out the top six favourites, with Newcastle United, West Ham, Leicester City, and Aston Villa all unlikely contenders.
Erling Haaland is likely to be up there fighting for the Golden Boot, while Gabriel Jesus could relish being the protagonist at Arsenal. The Gunners always create chances, so the Brazilian could be one to watch out for. Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez also has to be up there, doesn’t he? I’m intrigued to see how this lad turns out, because I haven’t seen much of him so far. Is he as good as his price tag suggests? Only time will tell.
City with Haaland just adds more goals to a teams that scores gals for fun. A full season under Conte will help them make top four way ahead of Arsenal and Man United. I don’t think Liverpool will be as good going forward for a few months as Nunez fits in and Salah will have a lot of stress on his shoulders now Mane has left. Nunez has been brilliant finding space in a Portuguese league but this is a better standard of league that I expect he wont hit the ground running just yet.
Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea pick themselves as the top three in whatever order and I’d be shocked if anything else were to happen. I’ll put Manchester United in the reckoning for a place in the top four because they are a massive club, but they haven’t done enough business at this point in time to stand a chance of securing UEFA Champions League football, so it should be between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.
All three newly promoted sides are predicted to be relegated *(Fulham have been predicted to finish 14th), with Nottingham Forest having just a 33 per cent chance of staying up in the upcoming season. Bournemouth are also among the favourites to go down, with the Cherries having only a 35 per cent chance of retaining their Premier League status.
Everton and Leeds United both barely held on to their Premier League spot, with Burnley sent down on the last day. This year, the newly promoted sides are favourites to be relegated, with Bournemouth considered the most likely and playoff participants Nottingham Forest right behind.
Review
Minus a good number of errors, repetition and whatever happened in their 15th and 16th league finish prediction, this is a fairly comprehensive preview of the coming season. I could realistically see the top 13 teams finishing in that exact order and even at the bottom it’s fairly consistent with what many are predicting thus far.
The expanded explanations and previews of specific teams did need cutting down due to repetition of the talk about Haaland, and also a tangent about the 2019-2020 season which didn’t make any sense, but with that tiny edit, the overview of City and Liverpool is quite detailed, even predicting De Bruyne winning the PFA Player of the Year and Haaland claiming the golden boot.
So, overall, I probably won’t be using AI for any future posts anytime soon, but if I ever fancy a day off from writing, it might not be the worst idea, just need to make sure I proofread before posting perhaps.
Don’t forget to keep an eye on those Brighton Reserves this season, they look good for a 16th placed finish.