Premier League top-four: Revisiting BBC Sport pundits' predictions at start of season | OneFootball

Each season, the race to finish in the Premier League top-four is often the most exciting – and that seems to be the case once again this season.

In this campaign, Manchester United, West Ham, Arsenal, Wolves and Tottenham are still harbour hopes of playing Champions League football next season by finishing fourth – or better.

Unfortunately for them, it seems there’s only one further slot available with Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea having pulled away – although the latter’s place is a little less certain.

While the weekend’s results saw the top-four race hot up, they also breathed life into the title race.

Tottenham’s 3-2 victory over Manchester City gave Liverpool a huge boost in their pursuit of Pep Guardiola’s side. They are now just six points behind with a game in hand. Game on.

But who predicted yet another title battle between City and Liverpool?

It’s easy to say now that it’s all very predictable but, for BBC Sport pundits, it’s anything but.

That’s because – and none of them thought Liverpool would win the title.

In fact, only three of them thought Liverpool would finish in the top two.

Meanwhile, a certain Jermaine Beckford thought that Leicester – and not Liverpool – would make the top-four.

All 20 backed Manchester United to finish 2nd, 3rd or 4th but none of them had any faith in Arsenal or Tottenham.

20 BBC Sport pundits predict Premier League top-four

Take a look at the full predictions below:

Oh dear – it really hasn’t gone well for a lot of them, has it?

The biggest takeaway is the fact almost all of them underrated Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. The Reds suffered a difficult 2020/21 due to a number of injuries and many pundits couldn’t see past that when making their predictions this time around.

It seems that many overrated Manchester United, too. While they may occupy fourth-place right now, they aren’t favourites to qualify for Europe’s elite competition despite all 20 pundits thinking they would at the start of the season.

Instead, Arsenal are four points adrift with three games in hand and are currently favourites to finish fourth – something that no BBC Sport pundit fancied back in August.

There is still a long way to go in this current season but Liverpool and Arsenal have the potential to make 20 BBC Sport pundits look very silly indeed.