WHY SAY ANYTHING?

This question, of course, assumes that one of the three will be triumphant come next May and that the challenging pack, which may very well include Everton and West Ham, will remain exactly that, the challenging pack.

Arsenal, as we are used to saying by now, will do nothing as long as Wenger is performing his Dorian Gray impression. Having no Champion’s League football will be of no assistance as they will compete in the Europa League. Consequently, a top four place will be difficult for them to achieve next season, even if they manage to keep Alexis Sánchez.

Tottenham Hotspur are about to discover that the time to strengthen is when you are strong and this is something they are, currently, failing to do. Add to that the fact they will be playing their home games at Wembley next season and you have another team who could struggle to make the top four. Relying on youth players coming through at this level is a nice theory but it is unrealistic to expect anything spectacular of them.

Liverpool are the unknown quantity. If they buy Virgil van Dijk, can find a goalkeeper who is consistently good rather than the opposite, and can score enough goals they should have enough about them to finish in fourth place. It really all depends on which Liverpool team turns up throughout the season.

The outsiders with the best chance of a breakthrough season are definitely Everton and West Ham, who have added both quantity and quality to their squads. Defensively we expect Everton to be sound and West Ham to be better than they were last season. The interesting part of the pitch for these two is up front.

Everton have bought Sandro Ramirez from Málaga who, whilst a proven goalscorer in Spain, is untried in the Premier League. He will also have to go some to fill the boots of Romelu Lukaku who is now, as the world knows, at Manchester United. This is the area which could separate Everton and West Ham.

The reason? West Ham have bought a goalscorer proven in the Premier League and his goals may just be enough to get West Ham into the top six.

If we assume the top four will be, in no particular order, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United, this leaves two Europa League places to be fought over by four clubs and this could be almost as interesting as the title race itself.

The top three should, if everything goes as expected, (and really, when does that ever happen?), be made up of Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs.

By the end of this transfer window, providing Ed Woodward can get his finger out from wherever it is currently stuck, we expect these three sides to have comfortably outspent everybody else and, as a consequence, they will have the three strongest squads as well as the three best squads.

Antonio Conte is reasonably safe having won the title last time out. José Mourinho won 2.5 trophies, as he likes to tell us, so he should also be considered safe. The only one walking a bit of a tightrope as far as winning something is concerned is Pep Guardiola.

If City win nothing next season he really needs a semi-final or final appearance in the Champion’s League and/or a runners-up spot in the Premier League. These are the only ways he can expect to keep his job if he doesn’t add anything to the trophy cabinet.

Of the three managers, despite being the most coveted by his club, he is also probably the most at risk next term. He needs to win the title more than the others do.

Purely because of this we are going to go against our better judgement, not to mention our wishes, and tip City for the title with United second and Chelsea third.

Watch this space for another article in ten months time explaining how easy it is to get these things spectacularly wrong and how we managed to do so!