The best and worst of our 2024/25 pre-season predictions | OneFootball

Once again we’re back to cast an eye back on our pre-season predictions and it’s fair to say the 2024/25 campaign has made us look more foolish than ever.

With surprise successes and shock falls from grace, the Premier League picture looks rather different than it did all the way back in August. As we reach the end of the Premier League season, we’ve decided to look back at what we got right – or more importantly wrong.

Spoiler: There’s more bad than good.

The best and worst of our 2024/25 pre-season predictions

Worst – Title winners (Arsenal)

It was a clean sweep for Arsenal as title winners among our writers, who each backed the Gunners to get over the line after near misses in successive seasons.

Despite Manchester City’s decline, however, Arsenal have ended another season as runners-up. No one saw Liverpool topping the table, in what was expected to be a season of transition under Arne Slot.

Best – Surprise package (Lucas Bergvall)

Lucas Bergvall was successfully tipped to be one of the season’s surprise packages and the teenager lived up to that billing.

Amid testing circumstances at Tottenham, the 19-year-old was a bright spark. He collected the club’s Player of the Season award in his debut campaign in North London.

Worst – Biggest fall from grace (Mohamed Salah)

File this one under ‘could not have been more wrong’…

One of our writing team suggested Mohamed Salah was on the way down after a modest run-in for Liverpool last term.

Instead, he delivered one of the great Premier League campaigns, leading the division for goals and assists to inspire Arne Slot’s side to the title. No player has ever provided more goal involvements in a 38-game season.

Best – Biggest fall from grace (West Ham)

West Ham were suggested as another faller in 2024/25 and it’s safe to say this was a little more accurate.

The Hammers have competed regularly in Europe in recent campaigns but endured a dismal domestic campaign. Julen Lopetegui’s reign was short-lived and Graham Potter’s appointment offered little – if any – uplift.

Worst – Best transfer signing (Jean-Clair Todibo)

Part of the aforementioned West Ham side that struggled, Jean-Clair Todibo’s signing was seen as a coup before a ball had been kicked. Perennially linked with sides higher up the league, West Ham’s capture of the centre-back looked like a statement signing.

The France international has done little to justify the hype, having been talked up considerably by more than one writer in our team.

Best – First manager sacked (Steve Cooper)

Ok, Erik ten Hag was factually the first to go but this wasn’t a bad shout.

Steve Cooper was not a popular appointment and was sacked at Leicester at the first signs of real trouble. The second manager to go. Close enough.

Worst – Surprise package (Kalvin Phillips)

Kalvin Phillips got a nod as one to watch, on the basis you don’t become a bad player overnight. After difficult spells at Manchester City and West Ham, a loan move to Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich looked like a good environment to bounce back.

He’s started just 14 league games in a side heading swiftly back to the Championship. Let’s hope we’re wrong, but the ongoing malaise of the midfielder might suggest his best days are behind him.

Read – Choosing every Premier League team’s Player of the Season

See more – Five sliding doors moments from the 2024/25 Premier League season

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