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7 August 2026

We are firmly in Premier League prediction season now, and the latest set of forecasts includes a view that either Chelsea or Tottenham will completely fall apart.

One reader writes that, as someone without children who does not go away in August, the Mailbox is needed more than ever to help get through the day. With that in mind, he decided to put forward some predictions, adding that he finished top of his work World Cup predictions league, so people should take note and head to the bookies.

* Who will win the league: definitely not Manchester United. That is being made clear now so that, when the inevitable rough patch arrives, rival fans cannot claim United supporters thought they would win the title. He says, jokingly, that United fans took a poll and agreed he speaks for all of them. In truth, he thinks it is probably Arsenal, though he is not fully convinced because half their side looks tired and there is the long-term absence of William Saliba, among other concerns.

* The rest of the Top 4: Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool. Enzo Maresca will keep Chelsea on track, but not by much more than that. United, in his view, have a more balanced squad than some of the other contenders, and he rates Andoni Iraola highly. One of Chelsea or Tottenham Hotspur will completely implode, and while Unai Emery is described as a miracle worker, he believes Aston Villa will just miss out.

* Relegated: Hull, Coventry, Ipswich. He says there is nothing especially interesting behind that call; it simply feels like the logical outcome.

* Which club will be a pleasant surprise: he is not sure they fully qualify, but he believes Nottingham Forest could challenge for the European places again. Oliver Glasner is described as a less experienced Emery, but with the advantage of having no European football to distract him. That is unless he goes rogue and keeps winning domestic cups, something the writer feels too many clubs ignore instead of prioritising.

* Golden Boot: unless he gets injured, it will be Erling Haaland. Slightly frustratingly, he also thinks Alexander Isak will score a huge number of goals, while more positively he expects Benjamin Sesko to get 15+.

* Signing of the Season: Youri Tielemans simply makes too much sense. Moving away from United, Elliot Anderson is considered the best of the big-money signings, and Takehiro Tomiyasu is seen as a smart free transfer.

* Flop of the Season: even on a free, he thinks Jordan Henderson is overpriced. He says he cannot shake the impression that Henderson is like the idiot in every office whom senior managers somehow like, but whom everyone who actually has to work with thinks is incompetent. He also adds that perhaps he is just bitter, but £85m for Bruno Fernandes is A LOT of money.

* Manager Sack Race: Alvaro Arbeloa is tipped to mirror Frank de Boer, with Fulham bottom of the table before stabilising and finishing 14th.

Jack, from Manchester, adds that he is bored of the hobbies he said he would pursue once the World Cup finished, and is looking forward to stressing over something he cannot control again soon.

Another reader says James was a bit contradictory in the Mailbox this morning. James, he says, is worried that Bruno Guimaraes will not get away with all the fouls he dished out last season for Newcastle United when playing for Arsenal. Yet he then goes on to argue that a major reason Arsenal won the league was because they received no red cards all season.

He asks why Arsenal had no red cards last season. Was it because every tackle, push, shirt-pull and shout at officials stayed strictly within the laws of the game? In his view, no. He argues it was because referees heavily favoured Arsenal last season and that the Premier League wanted a new champion.

He says he will not put together a long list of examples of Arsenal being treated differently from other teams because he is supposed to be working, but insists there is a reason neutrals, not just rivals, spent most of the season calling them ‘VARsenal’. He says it was not simply jealousy over their league position. In his opinion, the last thing Arsenal need to worry about with new signings is punishment from referees. He says he would be more concerned about “Legoman” draining the fun from Bruno Guimaraes’ game and convincing him that set-pieces are the route to winning matches. The message is signed Samuel.

Another contributor says he has just read Dave Tickner’s article on how Arsenal should “p*ss” the league. It is the second piece he has read in the space of a few days claiming Arsenal will win the upcoming Premier League title.

He says he is sorry, but it reminds him of Liverpool under Arne Slot. According to him, the media effectively guaranteed them the title after they had won it and signed big-name players, only for them to flop badly afterwards.

He argues that Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are far from convincing. The team, he says, do not have an obvious and regular goal threat apart from from corners, and if referees do clamp down on that then Arsenal could be in trouble. He adds that Arsenal have struggled to sign the players they want, while Maresca already knows Manchester City, so this title race is far from settled. Yes, Arteta has been in charge for some time, he says, but his team have relied heavily on pushing boundaries and rules. He concludes by saying we should see how successful they are if referees really do crack down. The mail is signed Spaniard in London.

Another reader says he wrote in a couple of times last week when the FIFA sell-off scandal was at its height. His first message was along the lines of: “This is heinous but he’ll survive it anyway.” The second came after UEFA threatened to boycott the next World Cup, and had more of a “hang on a sec!” thread running through it.

At that point, he says, it felt as though the tide was turning and there was some hope that common sense might prevail. But now, after most of the dust has settled, he woke up to read that Gianni Infantino has been retained as FIFA president after being backed by the federation’s executives. His reaction: “Huh?”

He points out that these are the same executives who had publicly attacked Infantino one after another over the previous week or so. Arsene Wenger and Matthias Grafstrom, he says, specifically put the boot in, while Carlos Cordeiro threw the kitchen sink at the issue and resigned outright.

He adds that this internal turmoil came on top of UEFA criticising Infantino several times, along with multiple world leaders condemning his actions. He says that yesterday Luis Figo also joined in as the officials met in Morocco, calling Infantino “craven”, which he describes as a great word. At the same time, reputable news outlets were reporting that Morocco had been offered the 2030 World Cup final in exchange for continued support of Infantino. Given all that, he says, surely the pressure had become so intense that Infantino could not survive much longer.

But, he says, he was completely wrong. Not only is Infantino somehow still in place after being backed by the same executives who had previously twisted the knife, but the statement issued after that crisis meeting yesterday also included the following passage: “With the project withdrawn, it was agreed that Fifa will no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process and will take all necessary measures to protect and safeguard its name and reputation”.

He asks whether saying FIFA will no longer tolerate attacks on its integrity is not the most tone-deaf and pathetically inappropriate response imaginable to the whole fiasco. Lessons learned: Nil. Humility shown: Nil. Demonstration of any intent to change: Less than Nil. He argues that taking steps to “protect and safeguard name and reputation” is not the same thing as reforming from within.

He says he is actually more disheartened now than he was this time last week. The spinelessness that must have been on display in that room yesterday, he says, is off the charts. Either those executives have been paid off massively, or they are lying in wait like snakes to remove Infantino later while publicly backing him for now. Either way, he says, that is not the kind of leadership group anyone should want running the game.

He says he fully expects everything to go VERY quiet over the next few months as Gianni retreats and licks his wounds from a position of relative safety. If somebody announces a candidacy to run against him in November, perhaps that changes. But unless that happens, he believes football is staring directly at another term for a man who could hardly have shown himself less suited to the role. And so, he concludes, this sorry and rotten situation may well be allowed to drag on far longer than it should. The mail is signed Keith Reilly.

Finally, another reader addresses Harold by saying this is a tiny football corner of the internet where the same 20 people repeat the same arguments in the comments year after year. So, he says, firing off a wind-up email built around more than a kernel of truth is far less boring and far less time-consuming than engaging with some of the eejits below the line.

He says pre-season results are famously meaningless, but as a hook on which to hang the truth that Liverpool have a laughably thin defence, they do the job. Add a few mild barbs, again based in truth, and he says writing that email is infinitely more enjoyable than trying to debate with the same eejits. It is football, he says. A game. And it is absolutely ripe for lampooning, something made even more obvious by the ridiculous zealotry of some supporters, with Arsenal and Liverpool fans currently the main offenders in his view. He signs off by telling people not to take everything so seriously. The message is signed RHT/TS x.