Well last year I made pretty accurate predictions, correctly predicting standings for the Top 5 and getting 2/3 correct in bottom 3. Also correctly predicting top scorer :D So let's do this again for this season. Predict your top 5 and bottom 3 clubs as well as top scorer.

TOP 5:

1. Chelsea
2. Arsenal
3. Manchester United
4. Liverpool
5. Manchester City

BOTTOM 3:

1. Sunderland
2. Hull City
3. Crystal Palace

Top Scorer of 2013/14 season will be once again Robin van Persie.

You predictions ?

What i hope :

1- Arsenal
2- City
3- United
4- Tottenham

Back to a neutral prediction :

1- United (as usual stability and class Rooney+RVP will do the job)
2- Chelsea ( mourinho's effect)
3- City ( Pellegrini needs a season to adapt) will try to gofar in CL btw
4- Arsenal ( needs more quality on the bench)

@TheGame: But that's the point. What if Ramires gets injured? Then we have a fantastic backup in either Marco Van Ginkel, Frank Lampard or Kevin De Bruyne. I'm not sure whats City's backup if Toure gets injured, but I'm sure it is better than Anderson and Cleverley as backup. Obviously the Carrick/Fellaini combo is a fantastic pivot that truly makes United's starting eleven world class. But what will happen when one of them gets injured? You'll either resort to an always injured Fletcher, average Anderson, young and inexperienced Cleverley, or a 39 year-old who is way past it and his best position isn't even CM. You see now what I mean? If Ramires gets injured, we have a strong backup. If Paulinho gets injured, they have a strong backup. If Toure gets injured, they have a strong enough backup. But United on the other hand don't have the best backup. I have no doubt you have one of the best starting midfielders in England due to having Fellaini and Carrick. Carrick was the best DM last season imo so that is a huge plus but United only have these players to rely on. Now imagine if both get injured? You'd have to rely on either Cleverley, Jones or Anderson, the only true pivot players in your team. The lack quality in depth is very visible when that happens.

"Maybe you are mistaking depth with quality."

You're right and wrong. I'm now talking about quality in depth when I actually started by only talking about depth.

@Dynastian98 @FredTilson You guys are right. I meant to say Carrick was in the PFA team of the year. @Vendetta, have no doubt Lampard or Toure would do great in the midfield, but now it just seems like you are belittling Cleverley and Anderson. How are you going to say that Van Ginkel and KDB are better replacements than Cleverley or Anderson? Van Ginkel and KDB have made 4 TOTAL appearances this season and haven't impressed at all. Anderson has been, I agree, pretty average. But Cleverley isn't inexperienced and young. The guy is 24 years old, has made over 50 apps for United, and is an England international. They might not be world class, but I would take them over any 2-man combination of KDB, Van Ginkle, Rodwell, Javi Garcia, and Mikel at the moment. If we did not have adequate depth in the midfield, trust that Moyes wouldn't have let Powell leave on loan.

@TheGame: I don't mean this as an insult to your squad but Anderson and Cleverley don't even compare to KdB and Marco Van Ginkel. Kevin de Bruyne was one of the best players in the Bundesliga last season and is a starter for the Belgium NT. They have only made 4 appearances all together this season but that is only the start of the season. Give Kevin time to adapt to the Prem and you'll see the difference in talent between KdB and Cleverley. Marco Van Ginkel on the other hand has been named the Eredivise's young talent of the year last season and has been compared to the likes of Lampard, Gerrard, Ballack and Bergkamp already. He was one of the standout stars in the U20 WC this year and is said to be Frank's successor by Mourinho.

Despite making a total of 4 appearances only they both performed great in the appearances. They impressed much more than you think. Vs Hull, de Bruyne gave an assist to the first goal and also nearly scored. Agaisnt ManUtd, he was a threat on the right side of the pitch as he linked-up with Oscar well. Van Ginkel was one of the few Chelsea players who actually did good yesterday against Basel and over time, he will do even better. Any Manchester United fan in their right mind would take MVG/KdB over Anderson, a player that did not live up to his expectations, and Cleverley, a guy who was touted as the next Paul Scholes and his breakthrough season was only last season. The guy doesn't have as much experience as you think despite being 24. Bertrand, Cole's successor so far, is 25 but that doesn't mean he is experienced.

By the way, Nick Powell went out on loan because keeping him would have been a waste of his talent. At such a young age he needs to play every game, and Moyes (or any manager) would have known he needed a loan. The same went for Lukaku who realized he has to play every game and requested a loan despite our lack of quality upfront.

Cleverley can turn out to be a great player in 2-3 years time beacuse the talent is certainly there like you said, but Anderson isn't good enough. And saying that you would take ANDERSON and Cleverley over either KdB, MVG, Mikel, Rodwell or Garcia is silly. You have a better chance of quality in depth if you chose Rodwell and KdB over Anderson and Cleverley.

Just to clear things up as well, I'm not belittling them, I'm simply speaking the fact that as backups, they're not the best quality backup midfield in the top four; and that will take a toll on Manchester United when the fixtures start piling up with less time to recover before the next.

@V, Cleverley was touted as the next Scholes, but even I know that will never happen. That is why I said I wouldn't take them "at the moment", because KdB and MVG still have ways to go. I still think Cleverley and Anderson would be more reassuring in the middle of the park as they have more experience and they don't really disappoint when they play. BTW KdB did not play well at all in the game against United even in a 4-2-4-0 formation where the midfield was flooded. Nick Powell went out on loan, because his talent would have been wasted, BECAUSE we have depth in the midfield and he would not play regularly. Lukaku wasn't going to play with Torres, Eto'o and Ba as the main strikers. Chelsea have depth in the striking department, just no quality. Now I am just lost, because this argument wasn't meant to compare the quality of players. We'll see at the end of the season how far each team's depth takes them.

"We'll see at the end of the season how far each team's depth takes them."

+1.

This is why I think a lot of Arsenal fans are in for a shock, once they come down from the cloud of the Ozil signing. Though, unfortunately, TheGame, I think this truth is going to work in Chelsea's favour more than United's.

@Lodatz, sorry mate, but an 11 point gap at the top last season says otherwise. The fact of the matter is United has had one of the most difficult fixture list at the start of the season and still come out unscathed given how many points City and Chelsea have lost to relatively easy oppositions. I expect Spurs and Liverpool to be in the title race until the run-in and Arsenal to just miss out of the top 4. I expect Chelsea fans to hit the panic button soon and Mourinho to be heavily criticized. Four games without a win is unacceptable for a team of their Calibre and a manager who calls himself the "special one". If this was Benitez, their fans would have been calling for his head. I just do not think they are as strong as people are making them out to be and they frankly got lucky in the game against Villa. I also expect City to lose out on the title, secondary to team chemistry. We have strengthened well with Fellaini and we are historically strong finishers. United will nick it this year. Frankly I see Spurs as the more dangerous/unpredictable and I think they could get anywhere from 2-4th place.

"If this was Benitez, their fans would have been calling for his head."

100% true. I hate the fact how because Mourinho was extremely successful in his first tenure at Chelsea that he is seen untouchable by so many Chelsea fans. But when Benitez was manager he got criticized for everything. I admit I hated Benitez at the start but he gained my respect. I look at it this way, Mourinho has recently been benching Mata for no reason at all. No fan bats an eye. If Benitez benched Mata for 4 games straight, all the fans would be asking for his resignation. That's why I wish people would be level headed about Mourinho's decision and criticize him when they should instead of still complimenting him.

But its too early to judge at the moment. Mourinho can still easily do much better despite the two losses in a row. Panic button? Possibly, but its too soon to tell when its only been 4 games in to the season.

And don't think United will glide by the top of the table like they did last season. Your forgetting a certain special red nosed Scot who was the focal point to your trophy last season. Moyes wont have it as easy as SAF did.

@Vendetta, at least you are conscious of that fact which is admirable. Can't say the same for some other Chelsea supporters. I agree that there is a certain romanticism with the idea of a former Chelsea manager coming back and destroying the competition. But not questioning him is just plain foolish. One thing Benitez understood was playing the team around Mata, which is what I believe is the best thing for Chelsea to do.

It might be too early, but remember that Chelsea typically do very, very well at the start of the season and don't drop points easily until around October/November, which is why it should be a bit alarming that they are dropping points this early in the season. But we all speculate and that is what makes football so interesting. We'll see what happens.

Haha, yes but now we have a new Scot roaming Old Trafford. I've been relatively impressed with how well the team has taken him and how he handled the Rooney situation. Trapattoni once said: "A good manager makes a team 10 percent better and a bad manager makes it 30 percent worse". We still have the players and really I think that is the ultimate reason why we will be successful again this year.

The_Game
Its dificult to talk about Tottenham since their squad changed considerably, Gareth Bale who carried the team left and a lot of quality signings came. Every new team needs time, Tottenham too. But Time = points dropped, i can only say that United,Liverpool and Arsenal have more stability since there is no big change, and all the changes were positive.
SAF still go to stadium, he's not dead if United needs him he will not be far from Old trafford.
Other teams need time, especially Spurs....
So i agree with you about United, but i'm more hesitant about 2-4th place, everyhing could happen.
PS : With Gareth Bale + all Spurs signings, Tottenham would be title contenders..... We will see how clubs and players will adapt.
For Arsenal, only injuries can stop them for being Top 4, or great run by Liverpool or Spurs.
Ohh and Liverpool can be very strong with sturidge incredible form,captain Gerrard and specially Luis Suarez who will join soon the squad.
My conclusion is that we can't get any information of the 2-6th place cause there is a lot of factors there, im waiting to see Tottenham against a Top 6 club to give my point of view, their first games were not that good imo.
Arsenal and Liverpool are impressive actually that's all what i can say.

"their first games were not that good imo."

I think it depends upon what 'good' means.

Against Crystal Palace (away), we had 58% possession, and 18 shots to their 5. We kept them pinned in their own half, parking the bus against us.

Against Swansea (home), we had 53% possession, and 21 shots to their 7. We kept them pinned in their own half, parking the bus against us.

Against Arsenal (away), we had 57% possession, 14 shots to their 12. The first half was back and forth, but by the end of the game, they were parking the bus against us (successfully, of course, I'm not trying to take anything away from the excellent defensive performance -- well done Arsenal), attacking only on the counter

Against Norwich (home) we had 69% possession, and 23 shots to their 5. We kept them pinned in their own half, parking the bus against us.

In fact, we've created more chances, and had more shots, than any team in the league. We just lacked a cutting edge to link midfield to attack efficiently, which we appear to have now gained in Eriksen, who was outstanding against Norwich and scored one of the goals of the week last night against Tromso. Seeing as we've literally dominated every team we've played, and it took Arsenal, of all teams, to park the bus and finish the game with 6 defenders, to keep us out, to make us drop any points....

...I'd say that's going pretty well, for a team with 7 new players, 3 of whom had not made an appearance until this past weekend (and one of whom still hasn't -- Chiriches). Yes, we'll need time to gel, to fully unlock the potential of the side, but, it's not exactly like we're doing badly while we're waiting. In fact, we're the 3rd best team in the league, judging by the table, and only pipped by a single goal in difference by Arsenal. ;)

I think you chaps are seriously underestimating this team. Bale has gone, but we're far, far stronger as a squad now. And Lamela (our biggest signing) has not even had a chance to start a league match yet. He didn't even get to have a training session until this week (his brother was kidnapped in Argentina). Chelsea (weekend after next) is going to be the biggest test yet, but, watch this space, because...

SPURSNADO!

@lodatz you may be right, was not my intention to underestimate Tottenham, i actually like their managing. The fact is that your team has not enough visibility, i have only watched highlights, didn't watch a spurs match yet.
but with your stats, i think you have a problem of finishing, new players need confidence...
im not saying you will miss the season, i'm just waiting for a 2nd big test to know exactly whats your team is capable of.
As i said i need time to have an idea about EPL contenders this year, we can't judge a team about possession iam a barça fan, we always have possession. But im waiting to see wich players will carry Tottenham in big games, and score winning goals...

You're absolutely right about our trouble with finishing. That's what we're working on, and with Eriksen as a proper playmaker (we haven't had one since Modric and VdV), hopefully we can start feeding better service to the strikers, to make those shots count for more.

I was just saying, the possession and shot tallies, that although we're still waiting for the full gel to happen, already we're dominating every team we come up against. As we move up through the gears, as the season progresses, with so much cover in every position, I think we're the ones to watch, honestly. :)

@tiki_taka, my reply would have been very similar to @Lodatz. They've dominated every team they played against this season statistically with almost pure attacking football. One thing AVB could not get Chelsea to do was play the style that made him successful at Porto. At Spurs, he is managing to do that well and you get the sense that he has brought in players who are more conducive to his style. Granted, there are still players that have to gel in the team, but once they do in the coming months they will be a handful for any team in the league. And you don't get a sense of reliance on any one player, and there are multiple players in the team (Holtby, Sigurdsson) who are versatile. It just seems like all the ingredients are there for them to succeed this year.

lol look at the new table

Liverpool
chelsea
city
arsenal
Everton

tottenham
united

we were so so wrong hahaha ! most of us didn't even expect Liverpool to finish in the top 4

In fairness, King, absolutely no-one could have predicted the way Liverpool exploded... ;)

That moment when u realise nobody even guess all TOP4 teams, except quikzy. (if Everton won't climb 4th)

Haha and micheal carrick was considered a good player. Maybe he could have been great if he learned to pass forward