Have a laugh at our 2015/16 pre-season predictions

Leicester: Surprised our team

A look back at our Premier League predictions from August 2015 and we all tipped up Leicester…to get relegated!

Our TEAMtalk pre-season predictions are well worth a look/laugh at. Who saw Leicester’s title coming? We certainly didn’t, but did anyone outside of Leicester predict that the 5000/1 shots would do the unthinkable?

In fact our writers all had the Foxes down as relegation fodder. Have a chuckle at these remarks.

“Watford and Norwich look dead certs for me. And I think they might be joined by Leicester, who could rue the dismissal of Nigel Pearson,” wrote James Marshment.

Ian Watson claimed: “I think Leicester will drop, a few months after Claudio Ranieri gets the bullet around Christmas.”

Mark Holmes thought: “I’ll get off the fence and go for Norwich, Leicester and, just, Bournemouth.”

While Matt Briggs added: “Watford and Bournemouth will obviously also struggle, but I fancy one of them to survive at the expense of either Leicester or Sunderland.”

With regards to who we thought would win the title, the general consensus was that Chelsea would retain their crown. Little did we know they would start awfully, sack Jose Mourinho before Christmas and finish as the worst ever performing Premier League champions finishing down in 10th spot.

Matt, James and Ian all went for the Blues, although Matt did claim “this season will be the most competitive ever” it’s just a shame he stuck his hat on the men from the Bridge. Mark did oppose Chelsea and claimed they were “poor in pre-season”, but unfortunately he plumped for Man City to trump them.

Pre season Predictions

TEAMtalk’s quartet all picked Arsenal for a top-four finish, with Matt, James and Ian all placing the Gunners second. Three of our men had Liverpool in fifth or sixth; only Matt did not see that outcome, but he had them to finish fourth.

Matt did recover some integrity though by picking Southampton as his ‘best of the rest’ side; the rest of the boys going for Swansea and Everton.

Aston Villa were correctly earmarked for relegation by Matt and Ian, but Mark fancied them to stay up: “I actually think Villa will do OK. They’ll be a bit of a car crash at times, I expect, but they’ll also shock a few bigger teams playing the way Tim Sherwood likes.”

READ: TEAMtalk’s 2015/16 Season Predictions

And there’s a brilliant sound byte from James: “I also think Spurs might endure an indifferent campaign and could finish as low as eighth this season.” The less said the better…

Three of our men fancied the Manager of the Year Claudio Ranieri to get the tick-tack first; Mark thought Watford boss Quique Sanchez Flores would be the first managerial casualty.

Matt and Ian expected Memphis Depay to star for Manchester United, Mark fancied Christian Benteke to do well, while James thought Petr Cech was “the obvious choice”, but also fancied Georginio Wijnaldum to have a great season.

As for the season’s biggest failure, Matt gets credit after going for Bastian Schweinsteiger, Ian thought Fabian Delph would have a shocker, James suggested Roberto Firmino would flatter to deceive, while Mark predicted Matteo Darmian to struggle.