Premier League predictions: Only 8 of 23 BBC pundits said Arsenal would finish top 4 | OneFootball

Who will finish in the Premier League's top four this season?

That was a question put to 23 BBC Sport pundits at the start of the 2022/23 campaign.

And it's very much looking like absolutely nobody is going to be correct - in any order.

Of course, it's far easier to predict which clubs will finish in the top four right now. We've just edged past the halfway stage of the campaign and the league table is really starting to take shape.

A reminder of how it looks at the moment.

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Arsenal lead the way by five points with a game in hand of second-place Manchester City. Manchester United are two adrift of City having played a game more. And it's Newcastle who occupy fourth place with the potential to go level on points with United with a game in hand.

Then comes Tottenham, Brighton, Brentford, Fulham, Chelsea and Liverpool making up the top 10.

Who saw a top 10 looking like that the start of February?

Nobody. Absolutely nobody.

Let's take a look:

23 BBC pundits predict Premier League top four

So, where do we start?

Firstly, it comes as no surprise that not a single pundit predicted Arsenal would win the title.

In fact, only eight of the 23 said they would finish in the top four - and they all said the Gunners would finish fourth! Kudos to Micah Richards, Rachel Brown-Finnis, Martin Keown, Sue Smith, Glenn Murray, Jermaine Beckford, Matt Upson and Stephen Warnock for backing Arsenal to finish fourth.

But there was even less faith in Manchester United.

Only three of the 23 pundits said they would finish in the top four. Rob Green said they would finish third, while Dion Dublin and Nedum Onuoha predicted fourth.

The predictions were dominated by Liverpool and Manchester City. Not a single pundit predicted an alternative side breaking into the top two with 13 saying it would be Manchester City-Liverpool and 10 predicting Liverpool-Manchester City.

And it's easy to forget just how strongly everyone backed Tottenham at the start of the season.

In fact, it was only Dublin who said they wouldn't finish in the top four.

Chelsea were included in 13 of the 23 predictions while Newcastle didn't even get a mention.

That means that the likely top four of Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Newcastle wasn't predicted by a single pundit in any order.