⚽ Premier League 2025/2026 Discussion Thread ⚽

[TIPSTARS.gg]

Nottingham Forest is playing at home and they have quite impressive performance throughout this season so I think we can't underestimate Nottingham Forest now because on the other hand Manchester City's performance is very bad this season regardless of the motivation of both teams but I think Nottingham Forest and Man City have the same ambition to win the match I slightly favor Nottingham Forest in the match this weekend.
But whatever will happen later will not end the competition for the top 4 because the journey this season is still very long.

Manchester City has a 50% chance to win even playing away because they improved their performance at this time. As we have seen, they won dramatically versus Tottenham and Newcastle. The city is beginning to grow and has found the confidence to get back on the champions' track. While Nottingham, I see a decrease in performance in the last four matches. They lost when they met Newcastle and Fulham and had enough trouble beating Ipswich with a Penalty kick. And maybe The city will begin a new step if Rodri comes in as a starter as he has recovered from injury. This match will be a moment of awakening the citizen to restart their glory days, and be an interesting match if winning with a big score.

Leaning towards a City win for this weekend. Think they'll be especially motivated after the Champions League elimination. Fully acknowledge that Forest has home ground advantage and good form recently though. Will be an exciting match.

[Hewlet]

If we see one of Chelsea and Manchester City out of top 4, which one would it be you think? 

Chelsea's recent form graph is worse because of having 1 more loss than them. But the gap is only one point. Every statistics is nearly the same for these 2 teams actually. It makes the decision harder. But with the squad quality and experience, I'm still favouring Manchester City for it. The season is like a nightmare for them. It is obvious. But I don't think things will come to the point that they won't even qualify for the Champions League. It would be a huge disappointment for the fans for sure.

I think Manchester City have a better chance at the top four ahead of Chelsea. Though both sides have failed to maintain consistency this season but I think Manchester City are better organised and in form than Chelsea are currently that is why I consider Manchester City favorites to finish in top four ahead of Chelsea.

The key distinguishing factor in this two teams is the mentality with which they approach  making it to the top four. Chelsea are not not bold and confident enough to make a statement regarding what they want at the end of the season. They hard the chance of contending for the league but kept calm and gave out loads of points till they've lost our in the title race and are not struggling to get back to top four. The quest to remaining at the top four is now more fierce and open to a lot of teams than even any of them contending for the title which means that any slight causal result automatically takes a team out of the race. Manchester City might have been unlucky this season but if one thing is certain it is that they have there eyes on the making it to next year's champions League. Chelsea is still struggling and might still land somewhere far from top four if they continue playing in this sort of disorganized way. The coming days will give an answer to these but from all indication, Manchester City are going top of Chelsea before the end of the season.

[red4slash]

The easy achievement for Manchester City now is the FA Cup which also gives them automatic qualification to play in the champions league next season if they can win it. At least winning the FA Cup will relieve the team of struggle of fighting for finish top four at the end of the season.

They only need to maintain their current condition by staying in the top 4 it is very enough for them to remain in the Champions League zone next season but indeed if they get the FA Cup trophy as entertainment because for now it is likely that only the trophy they can get then it can be a good thing too in the end especially seeing the club in the quarter-finals this time of course the chance to get a trophy in this season for the FA Cup is very wide open.

The problem is whether their performance will really be maintained like this today now because after all their current condition still cannot be said to be fine even though maybe the focus is now more awake where the EPL and only small competitions like the FA Cup are thought of but for now there is no certain guarantee for Manchester City to get the trophy even though their chances are great and their opposing clubs are also far below them.

[Abu-Naim]

A great performance in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League by all the 3 remaining Premier League teams.
Aston Villa with an away 3-1 win over Club Brugge is now well-positioned for the 2nd leg next week and most likely will go through to the next stage.
Arsenal have absolutely demolished PSV at home by winning 7-1, so next week's game is just a formality.
It all looked like we would have a goalless draw in PSG Vs Liverpool tonight, but the Reds bagged one in in the 87th minute and now have an advantage ahead of the rematch, but the match stats are bit concerning. It looked like a total dominance by the PSG and an undeserved win by Liverpool (but I haven't yet seen the game, so don't know if that's a true reflection of the game).

All the three Premier League teams that qualified to the knockout stage of the Champions League did well in their first leg of the knockout stage, all the teams (Arsenal, Aston Villa, and Liverpool) played away from home and Arsenal trashed PSV with seven away goals while Liverpool was also lucky to secure a win against PSG yesterday and Aston Villa also did well by winning 3-1 away from home, this shows that there is a good possibility of the tree team making it to the quarterfinals because they can all use their home advantages to complete the victory since they have already secured away win which happens to be the most difficult one.

The quarterfinals will be the stage where one of these teams have to be eliminated because if both Liverpool and Aston Villa qualified, they will play against each others and one must be eliminated, and for Arsenal, they will face Real Madrid and the possibility of Arsenal qualifying is also slim because of the Champions experience Real Madrid have.

[mammusu]

Nottingham Forest is playing at home and they have quite impressive performance throughout this season so I think we can't underestimate Nottingham Forest now because on the other hand Manchester City's performance is very bad this season regardless of the motivation of both teams but I think Nottingham Forest and Man City have the same ambition to win the match I slightly favor Nottingham Forest in the match this weekend.
But whatever will happen later will not end the competition for the top 4 because the journey this season is still very long.

Manchester City has a 50% chance to win even playing away because they improved their performance at this time. As we have seen, they won dramatically versus Tottenham and Newcastle. The city is beginning to grow and has found the confidence to get back on the champions' track. While Nottingham, I see a decrease in performance in the last four matches. They lost when they met Newcastle and Fulham and had enough trouble beating Ipswich with a Penalty kick. And maybe The city will begin a new step if Rodri comes in as a starter as he has recovered from injury. This match will be a moment of awakening the citizen to restart their glory days, and be an interesting match if winning with a big score.

Leaning towards a City win for this weekend. Think they'll be especially motivated after the Champions League elimination. Fully acknowledge that Forest has home ground advantage and good form recently though. Will be an exciting match.

Currently the only hope for manchester city to qualify for the champions league next season is to end the season in the top 4 zone, so not only against nottingham forest, of course they should be motivated in every remaining match to win, because to restore the confidence and motivation of the team of course they must at least be able to end the season in the champions league zone later even though this season they are in a slump, both teams will face the match with great ambition and motivation to win, especially manchester city who is starting to rise at this time of course will be able to take advantage of nottingham condition which is slumping with 5 matches without a win, like you, I also believe the match later will be tight and also full of tension.

[Velvet78]

Liverpool played really horrible last night despite the 1-0 win. However this shouldn't be misleading because clearly Arne Slot didn't want to play all his cards. 

In two days, I'm confident that we will watch a completely different Liverpool. A much stronger one. Southampton is a really weak opponent and they will probably hope for not losing with another historical score.    The season is already theoretically over in terms of championship but still nothing is official yet. Therefore I won't expect any complacency from Liverpool until declaring it officially. Arne Slot already has 2 more years on his contract but this incredible season will secure his seat even more than ever.

[Sticky Bomb]

.......................

In my opinion, Nottingham Forest will have a hard time against Manchester City because Manchester City will focus on the Premier League after being eliminated from the Champions League. Although Nottingham seems to be performing well, I think they will lose in the Manchester match this year. If Nottingham Forest gets 3 points, this will become a problem for Manchester City.

After falling from the top of the standings and being eliminated from the Champions League, Pep Guardiola continues to make improvements in the team and deepen the depth of his squad in order to achieve better results at the end of the season and get another ticket to the Champions League. However, the competition in the top 4 positions is a little tighter, so Guardiola and the team must fight harder to be able to finish in the top 4 at least.

Pep is trying, he's having a bad season and he's trying well managing it. His only problem was that while he was in his prime performance, he didn't seek out for Rodri's replacement knowing fully well he's the pivot of his play. Now injured, nobody could fit in and he had no secondary strategy to make up for Rodri's absence.

The match against Nottingham Forest is of course a crucial match, but on the other hand this is also a momentum for Manchester City to be able to shift Nottingham Forest's position in 3rd place in the standings. However, if Manchester City loses or the match ends with a draw, then their position will be shifted by Chelsea, because in week 28 Chelsea is quite favored to be able to win 3 points from Leicester City.

I'm now expecting City to win that match. From my prediction, it's either a draw, or Nottingham wins. They're in a very good form to withstand Manchester city in all ramification, so I'm looking forward to City dropping to the 5th position temporarily if Chelsea succeeds in winning Leicester City.

[SatoPrincess]

Nottingham Forest have so much at stake when they face Manchester City next, they have come a long way this season so I expect even if they will go down it wouldn’t happen without a fight. Manchester City should expect a tough game when they face Nottingham Forest. It’s an all or nothing game for Nottingham Forest because Chelsea have an 85% winning probability when they face Leicester City.

Nottingham Forest, who were at the bottom of the table last year and narrowly escaped relegation, are playing exceptionally well this year. Of course, I think they can give Manchester City a hard time, but to tell the truth, Manchester City will beat them. The wind can turn at some point and until the wind does, this fairy tale will continue for Nottingham. Watching their success this year is truly a wonderful feeling. I am happier when I see teams that have no claim to the Premier League succeed.

This is a huge step up on the side of Nottingham Forest this season, I clearly wouldn’t have expected such performance level but somewhere they have managed to pull off a shocking display and have been able to maintain top four spot this season. When they face Manchester City in the weekend it will be an exciting and thrilling match because both sides will make it hard for either side to get all three points. 

[TastyChillySauce00]

Liverpool played really horrible last night despite the 1-0 win. However this shouldn't be misleading because clearly Arne Slot didn't want to play all his cards.  

In two days, I'm confident that we will watch a completely different Liverpool. A much stronger one. Southampton is a really weak opponent and they will probably hope for not losing with another historical score.    The season is already theoretically over in terms of championship but still nothing is official yet. Therefore I won't expect any complacency from Liverpool until declaring it officially. Arne Slot already has 2 more years on his contract but this incredible season will secure his seat even more than ever.

Hehehehe who cares about Liverpool's bad gameplay? It's fantastic to see them win the game by having 0.27xG and one shoot on target, and this is the beauty of parking bus. They also made PSG's coach, Enrique gets upset with their parking bus. LMAO

You play bad, but you win. This is far better rather than play good, but lost. That's what we called "SlotBall". They know when they must play fully offensive, and defensive.

[MainIbem]

Liverpool played really horrible last night despite the 1-0 win. However this shouldn't be misleading because clearly Arne Slot didn't want to play all his cards.  

In two days, I'm confident that we will watch a completely different Liverpool. A much stronger one. Southampton is a really weak opponent and they will probably hope for not losing with another historical score.    The season is already theoretically over in terms of championship but still nothing is official yet. Therefore I won't expect any complacency from Liverpool until declaring it officially. Arne Slot already has 2 more years on his contract but this incredible season will secure his seat even more than ever.

Hehehehe who cares about Liverpool's bad gameplay? It's fantastic to see them win the game by having 0.27xG and one shoot on target, and this is the beauty of parking bus. They also made PSG's coach, Enrique gets upset with their parking bus. LMAO

You play bad, but you win. This is far better rather than play good, but lost. That's what we called "SlotBall". They know when they must play fully offensive, and defensive.

Hahaha, it was as if Arne Slot got into a tutorial session with Jose Mourinho concerning parking the bus before meeting PSG yesterday, we don't know Liverpool for such strategy, they're a team that plays the high press and attack a lot, mostly. I was suprised seeing them parking the bus against another attacking minded team, anyways it paid off, their performance and strategy they used doesn't matter what matters most is that they got the desired result which is securing the three points. Anyways it was a frustrating game for PSG and I totally understand Enrique's annoyance yesterday, it's very sad to be putting much effort, doing better than the opponent and not getting the desired result, Liverpool might have won but judging from the performance PSG deserved to win, they had much more chances than Liverpool, 27 shots with about 10 on target without any goal is enough to trigger the rage of any coach, however what matters most is finding the back of the net and that's what Liverpool did, all thanks to Elliott.

[Lida93]

Liverpool played really horrible last night despite the 1-0 win. However this shouldn't be misleading because clearly Arne Slot didn't want to play all his cards. 

In two days, I'm confident that we will watch a completely different Liverpool. A much stronger one. Southampton is a really weak opponent and they will probably hope for not losing with another historical score.    The season is already theoretically over in terms of championship but still nothing is official yet. Therefore I won't expect any complacency from Liverpool until declaring it officially. Arne Slot already has 2 more years on his contract but this incredible season will secure his seat even more than ever.

Liverpool beating Southampton this coming weekend isn't anything to go against because Southampton isn't in their level, a struggling side that can't even save itself from the red zone. But  Liverpool playing against PSG a team of their size in the UCL sharply showed how not well invisible they are as they do appear in the EPL going by their awful performance in France on Wednesday night.

Their invisibility and formidable outlook in the EPL comes as a result of how poorly done teams like Arsenal and Manchester city turned out to be in the EPL title race. Arne Slot shouldn't be too comfortable because their performance has exposes a lot of weakness in his style and tactics for a farmers league club to distabilize a so-called EPL table top leaders. What an irony!

[emrecemsan]

Today Manchester United are playing away against Real Sociedad in the Europa League. And only 3 days later they are going to host Arsenal in the PL. It's quite a tight schedule for them. 

Arsenal have more days to rest and get ready for the match. While Manchester United are already having hard days the players will be tired more as well.

What do you think on this matchup at the weekend?    I think Arsenal won't lose. They can actually win after watching how they destroyed PSV.

[TastyChillySauce00]

Liverpool played really horrible last night despite the 1-0 win. However this shouldn't be misleading because clearly Arne Slot didn't want to play all his cards.  

In two days, I'm confident that we will watch a completely different Liverpool. A much stronger one. Southampton is a really weak opponent and they will probably hope for not losing with another historical score.    The season is already theoretically over in terms of championship but still nothing is official yet. Therefore I won't expect any complacency from Liverpool until declaring it officially. Arne Slot already has 2 more years on his contract but this incredible season will secure his seat even more than ever.

Hehehehe who cares about Liverpool's bad gameplay? It's fantastic to see them win the game by having 0.27xG and one shoot on target, and this is the beauty of parking bus. They also made PSG's coach, Enrique gets upset with their parking bus. LMAO

You play bad, but you win. This is far better rather than play good, but lost. That's what we called "SlotBall". They know when they must play fully offensive, and defensive.

Hahaha, it was as if Arne Slot got into a tutorial session with Jose Mourinho concerning parking the bus before meeting PSG yesterday, we don't know Liverpool for such strategy, they're a team that plays the high press and attack a lot, mostly. I was suprised seeing them parking the bus against another attacking minded team, anyways it paid off, their performance and strategy they used doesn't matter what matters most is that they got the desired result which is securing the three points. Anyways it was a frustrating game for PSG and I totally understand Enrique's annoyance yesterday, it's very sad to be putting much effort, doing better than the opponent and not getting the desired result, Liverpool might have won but judging from the performance PSG deserved to win, they had much more chances than Liverpool, 27 shots with about 10 on target without any goal is enough to trigger the rage of any coach, however what matters most is finding the back of the net and that's what Liverpool did, all thanks to Elliott.

Sometimes, a few shoots are enough as long as your club win the game. The essence of football is that you win, you get the trophy. The history will always be writing the winner, not loser.

I only wonder why so many people concerned Liverpool's gameplay. As long as they win, that's fine. I have no problem whether it's good or bad. They're getting close to their target.

[Hanadawa]

Today Manchester United are playing away against Real Sociedad in the Europa League. And only 3 days later they are going to host Arsenal in the PL. It's quite a tight schedule for them. 
Arsenal have more days to rest and get ready for the match. While Manchester United are already having hard days the players will be tired more as well.
What do you think on this matchup at the weekend?    I think Arsenal won't lose. They can actually win after watching how they destroyed PSV.

I think we should be worried about United's form after they played badly in the last few games. They only won 3-2 against Ipswich who are a team in the relegation zone. Honestly it looks like Manchester United are on the same level as the teams in the EPL rankings at the moment. The game against Real Sociedad will be a big challenge for them. United need to win that game to get their confidence back and build a good mentality before playing Arsenal. I think after the big win against PSV at the moment I don't see United being able to give Arsenal a challenge. Yes Arsenal will win that game. Manchester United are not a team that can give them a defeat at the moment.

[Zlantann]

Hehehehe who cares about Liverpool's bad gameplay? It's fantastic to see them win the game by having 0.27xG and one shoot on target, and this is the beauty of parking bus. They also made PSG's coach, Enrique gets upset with their parking bus. LMAO

You play bad, but you win. This is far better rather than play good, but lost. That's what we called "SlotBall". They know when they must play fully offensive, and defensive.

I could remember when Jose Mourinho was Chelsea coach, he was well-known for his defensive style of play. During that period, Arsenal and Manchester United were playing beautiful football, but Chelsea won the League even with their rugged playing pattern.

Who cares about ball possession or shots on target. The main determinant of the success of a team based on winning games. PSG enjoyed the best moments in the match but failed to perform the main task, which was scoring a goal. I believe Arne Slot studied PSG and ascertained that packing the bus would be the best strategy. Guess what, it worked all thanks to Alisson Becker.

[Juse14]

.........................

Pep is trying, he's having a bad season and he's trying well managing it. His only problem was that while he was in his prime performance, he didn't seek out for Rodri's replacement knowing fully well he's the pivot of his play. Now injured, nobody could fit in and he had no secondary strategy to make up for Rodri's absence.

Not only the midfield that lost its creativity, the back line is also considered less solid in maintaining the defense. Currently with the arrival of Khusanov and Reis, Manchester City's back line has improved slightly, but not the midfield.

expecting City to win that match. From my prediction, it's either a draw, or Nottingham wins. They're in a very good form to withstand Manchester city in all ramification, so I'm looking forward to City dropping to the 5th position temporarily if Chelsea succeeds in winning Leicester City.

Lately, Nottingham Forest has started to lose its consistency, they have failed in 3 consecutive matches. Where they had to lose to Fulham and Newcastle, while when facing Arsenal they were only able to get a draw. However, even so, in this match Nottingham Forest will appear as the host, and I also regret that the biggest possibility of this match will end with a draw, and both teams will share points in this match.

[Felicity_Tide]

Let's have a look at the fixtures of this week...

The biggest game of the week seems to be Manchester United - Arsenal. 



Arsenal have been quite dominant against them in the league for a while. They won their last 4 head-to-heads. However we shouldn't forget Manchester United eliminated them from the FA Cup this season.    Manchester United are still struggling though. One day they win in another they lose points. Their unstable look prevents me from believing in them here. On the other hand Arsenal got a really huge win over PSV last night. They really surprised me for a team that didn't even score any goal in their last 2 Premier League games.

Considering all of this, I see Arsenal one step ahead here of course. But instead of making a bet on a side, I'm going to try out BTTS @2.00.

It's definitely going to be an interesting game.
Hope it's a Saturday fixture?, I just hope so.
Evaluating both teams performance so far since they last met, Arsenal has been the better side, even though they something struggle to score goals and draw games that they ought to win. Manchester United has been totally awful, even in little games. Their win against Ipswich was a narrow one, though it was well deserved considering the red card disadvantage.

Even if Arsenal has failed to score in their premier league games, they will still have a good odd against United. I agree with the odd though, but I won't be surprised is something different happens. Arsenal can be very disappointing sometimes. Good luck to both sides.

[mamesso]

Liverpool played really horrible last night despite the 1-0 win. However this shouldn't be misleading because clearly Arne Slot didn't want to play all his cards.  

In two days, I'm confident that we will watch a completely different Liverpool. A much stronger one. Southampton is a really weak opponent and they will probably hope for not losing with another historical score.    The season is already theoretically over in terms of championship but still nothing is official yet. Therefore I won't expect any complacency from Liverpool until declaring it officially. Arne Slot already has 2 more years on his contract but this incredible season will secure his seat even more than ever.

Hehehehe who cares about Liverpool's bad gameplay? It's fantastic to see them win the game by having 0.27xG and one shoot on target, and this is the beauty of parking bus. They also made PSG's coach, Enrique gets upset with their parking bus. LMAO

You play bad, but you win. This is far better rather than play good, but lost. That's what we called "SlotBall". They know when they must play fully offensive, and defensive.

No matter how they play, the important thing is that the final result is still satisfying. Arne Slot really understands the condition of his team and the quality of the opponents they face, in my opinion he has done his best by implementing a defensive strategy and occasionally making quick counterattacks when he gets the chance.
Btw, I was very impressed with Allison's struggle, as Liverpool's last wall of defense, he managed to frustrate PSG players.

[Jewan420]

I think we should be worried about United's form after they played badly in the last few games. They only won 3-2 against Ipswich who are a team in the relegation zone. Honestly it looks like Manchester United are on the same level as the teams in the EPL rankings at the moment. The game against Real Sociedad will be a big challenge for them. United need to win that game to get their confidence back and build a good mentality before playing Arsenal. I think after the big win against PSV at the moment I don't see United being able to give Arsenal a challenge. Yes Arsenal will win that game. Manchester United are not a team that can give them a defeat at the moment.

We shouldn't be too confident about Manchester United in the form they are currently going through. Maybe we can lose if we bet on them. Their next match in the Premier League is against Arsenal, where their chances of winning are absolutely negligible from my point of view.

Before this match, they will play Real Sociedad in the first leg of the round of 16 in the Europa League, where it is important for them to win the match. If they can win the match against Real Sociedad, then maybe they will be able to go into the field with confidence against Arsenal. According to the recent form of Manchester United and Arsenal, Arsenal has a higher chance of winning. Considering the recent form, Manchester United has fallen behind Arsenal a lot, United will have to be lucky to win the match against them.

[Zaguru12]

It's definitely going to be an interesting game.
Hope it's a Saturday fixture?, I just hope so.
Evaluating both teams performance so far since they last met, Arsenal has been the better side, even though they something struggle to score goals and draw games that they ought to win. Manchester United has been totally awful, even in little games. Their win against Ipswich was a narrow one, though it was well deserved considering the red card disadvantage.

Even if Arsenal has failed to score in their premier league games, they will still have a good odd against United. I agree with the odd though, but I won't be surprised is something different happens. Arsenal can be very disappointing sometimes. Good luck to both sides.

Let me start with it can never be a Thursday game because Manchester United will be playing in the Thursday’s Europa league game against Real Sociedad, so they cannot be playing a league less than 48 hours later, it is part of the observations from the premier league, it is only possible on rare occasions which there isn’t any this weekend.

For me this is a game between two clubs who shouldn’t be playing the way they are currently playing bought will definitely be telling themselves they should be at a point higher than they have now. Both have not been greatly domestically although in terms of European football both have been great.

Head to Head, Manchester United of recent have been bad against Arsenal has the Gunners have been having a feast against them lately so the odds isn’t surprising. But we all know this season that one team not to rule out against top oppositions is Manchester United they have come clutch against top opponents even in their worst moments. So Arsenal needs to be extra careful about them on Sunday