YOU – to predict how the biggest storylines will unfold between now and May.
Below are five questions about the remainder of the Premier League season. Simply read on and cast your votes!
Can anyone stop Liverpool?
It was meant to be an impossible job. Just ask those who followed Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger into the dugout. But Arne Slot has taken Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and made them better. Much better.
Six points clear with a game in hand to come. Mohamed Salah on a Ballon d’Or charge. A new-look midfield blowing everyone away (except Manchester United, oddly), with Arsenal and co desperately trying to cling on.
Premier League top eight (as of 07/01/2025)Image credit: TNT Sports
With no other team close to matching their brilliance in the first half of the campaign – save perhaps for one in the East Midlands – only a wild downturn in form can deny Liverpool the title. Surely they can’t blow it from here.
Will Nottingham Forest qualify for the UEFA Champions League – or better?
It’s the late 1970s all over again.
Nottingham Forest have emerged as rivals to Liverpool at the top, with the City Ground playing host to the unlikeliest of title showdowns on January 14 – live on TNT Sports and discovery+ – when the old foes meet.
Forest are on a six-game winning run, the best spell in the league, and have also kept four clean sheets on the spin. Their frugal defence combined with the resurgent Chris Wood up front, all crafted by the once-mocked Nuno, makes facing them a nightmare.
Could they win the whole thing? Leicester City showed it’s possible to unseat the elite nine years ago, but they didn’t have to oppose a side as brutually effective as Slot’s Reds.
A return to the UEFA Champions League is a much more realistic objective, even if they did win the reverse fixture with Liverpool at Anfield, with potentially five places available via the Premier League depending on how English teams fare in Europe this season.
Even with five spots available, Forest don’t have much wiggle room. Chelsea, Newcastle United, Manchester City and Aston Villa are all within shooting distance, and almost half a season remains for them to find their target.
Will Manchester United qualify for Europe… or be relegated?
One good performance – very good, actually – doesn’t change the fact that Manchester United have just a single point to show from their last four matches. And more alarmingly, they are only seven points above the relegation places.
Premier League relegation battle (as of 07/01/2025)Image credit: TNT SportsRuben Amorim previously admitted relegation was a “possibility”, although those fears have been assuaged slightly by the 2-2 draw with Liverpool. Will they now push up the table and make a late dash for a European spot, or could they instead be dragged into a survival dogfight?
While fifth place currently offers the guaranteed carrot of European football, it’s possible that eighth will be enough once the various cups and coefficients are ironed out. United are currently nine points behind eighth-placed Aston Villa – a big ask, but not impossible…
And what about Ipswich?
In April 2023, Ipswich Town secured promotion from League One. In January 2025, they are masterminding Premier League survival.
They have defied all expectations to claim 16 points from their first 20 games back in the big time, and have Everton and Wolves (and United, of course) in their sights.
They were briefly out of the bottom three in the live table before being pegged back by Fulham on Sunday, but the signs are encouraging for Kieran McKenna and his Tractor Boys.
Will Southampton beat Derby’s record ‘haul’?
Southampton need six more points to avoid Premier League infamy – and many, many more to actually get out of trouble – but they are on a horrible trajectory.
The 5-0 home defeat to Brentford made it three games, zero points, under new boss Ivan Juric. With just six points from 20 games, The Saints are on course for 11.4 points – marginally better than Derby County’s catastrophic haul of 11 from the 2007-08 campaign.
Ominously for Southampton, Derby had a point more than them after 20 games…
Watch the 2024/25 Premier League season on TNT Sports and discovery+
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Publish date : 2025-01-07 07:49:00
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