2025-26 Premier League predictions, title odds and best bets: Arsenal and Man City set for epic title battle

2025-26 Premier League best bets

Newcastle to finish in the top six 
2pts 3-1 Coral, Hills

Sunderland to finish in the top half
3pts 7-4 Coral, Ladbrokes 

Burnley to finish bottom
1pt 8-1 bet365

Hugo Ekitike to be top goalscorer without Erling Haaland
3pts 11-4 bet365

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2025-26 Premier League: The story so far

Liverpool's action-packed 4-2 home win over Bournemouth on the opening night of the 2025-26 Premier League season set the tone for a thrilling first half of the campaign.

It's been a season of late goals and premature conclusions, hot takes, cold streaks and drama, both on and off the pitch. 

Champions Liverpool won their first five matches while Aston Villa failed to score a goal until the 67th minute of their fifth game. Now the Reds are 28-1 to win the title – exactly the same price as Villa.

Seven games into the campaign, only Arsenal and Liverpool were above Tottenham in the table. Ten matches later, Thomas Frank is favourite in the sack-race betting.

The Gunners, according to some pundits, are already crumbling under the pressure of expectation. Others, though, might suggest that sitting top of the Premier League and Champions League standings, despite a host of injury problems, actually represents a decent start for Mikel Arteta's men.

But Manchester City, third-favourites in the ante-post title betting after a forgettable 2024-25 season, are tucked in behind Arsenal and travelling sweetly.

Since October's 1-0 defeat at Villa Park, City have won seven of their eight league fixtures, averaging three goals per game.

Erling Haaland has turned the Golden Boot race into a lap of honour and Brentford's Igor Thiago is the only player within ten goals of the City striker.

However, there is no such sense of inevitability about the title contest and the battle for European qualification.

Christmas week offers Premier League punters a fleeting chance to make sense of a baffling campaign in which Matty Cash and Micky van de Ven are outscoring Alexander Isak and Cole Palmer.

Sunderland – 80-1 for the top six at the start of term – are four points above Newcastle, who were 8-15 in the same market, and Nottingham Forest have had more managers (three) than Wolves have points (two).

2025-26 Premier League title odds

Sign up with bet365 to bet on the Premier League. Here are the latest odds for the title:

Odds correct at time of publishing

Want more top football betting advice? Make sure you take a look at Racing Post Sport's tips for more of the latest picks from our experts.

Gunners must sharpen up attack to deny City the title

Liverpool were cut to 6-5 to retain their title after beating Arsenal 1-0 at the end of August but that was as good as it got for our pre-season selection.

The Reds are ten points off the pace and Isak's injury, coupled with doubts over Virgil van Dijk's form and the futures of Slot and Mohamed Salah, mean Champions League qualification is now the priority.

Arsenal shade title favouritism from City, who are two points behind after cashing in against some out-of-form opponents recently.

Their superior attacking threat is a clear advantage – Arsenal's summer signing Viktor Gyokeres has scored only five league goals, two of them penalties – and they host the Gunners on April 18.

But City are far from unbeatable on the road, losing at Brighton, Villa and Newcastle and conceding four goals in this month's win at Fulham, while Arsenal's squad depth could prove decisive.

The Gunners dropped points on recent away trips to Sunderland, Chelsea and Villa but they did not play badly in any of those games and a little more attacking urgency would make them tough to overhaul.

Villa's stunning run of results looks unsustainable based on their expected-goals (xG) figures – Morgan Rogers is defying the data on a weekly basis – and their Europa League exertions could also affect their league form.

For the second year running, Chelsea's title challenge seemed to dissolve almost as soon as it had started and Enzo Maresca's catty comments about the club's owners may not help his team's cause.

North-east rivals set for strong second half

English clubs' performances in Europe may again mean that the top five in the Premier League qualify for the Champions League and Liverpool (4-9), Villa (10-11) and Chelsea (evens) are favourites to chase home Arsenal and City.

Manchester United are 11-10 to make the top six but, for all the positive PR surrounding their recent attacking displays, they have won two of their last eight league games.

Those victories came against a knackered Crystal Palace side and bottom club Wolves while United's last three home results were a 1-0 defeat to Everton, who were reduced to ten men in the 13th minute, and sloppy draws with West Ham and Bournemouth.

Newcastle, the next team to visit Old Trafford, make more appeal in the top-six betting despite their Champions League commitments and injury problems.

They returned from November's international break with a 2-1 home win over Manchester City and a 4-1 victory at Everton before blowing leads in 2-2 draws at home to Tottenham and Chelsea.

Striker Nick Woltemade, aside from his own goal in the derby defeat to Sunderland, has done well and Yoane Wissa's return to fitness is a boost for the Magpies.

Newcastle had a great second half of last season, winning the EFL Cup and finishing fifth in the league, and they can go level on points with Manchester United if they win at Old Trafford on Boxing Day.

Like the Magpies, Sunderland's home form is the key to their success and they have ticked off tough away fixtures at both Manchester clubs, Chelsea, Liverpool, Palace and Brighton.

Regis Le Bris has made the Black Cats hard to beat and their sensational summer transfer business should help them cope with the loss of six players to the Africa Cup of Nations.

With 27 points on the board from 17 games, Sunderland look a tempting bet to finish in the top half. Granit Xhaka is an outstanding leader of an energetic young team who have won six of their eight games against bottom-half teams.

Sunderland's schedule in the next six weeks includes home fixtures against Leeds, Palace and Burnley and trips to struggling Tottenham, Brentford and West Ham. The ante-post relegation favourites should be backed to sustain their surprise top-half challenge.

Under-fire Burnley boss Scott ParkerCredit: Getty Images

Bottom club Wolves may overhaul Burnley 

Wolves racked up six straight Premier League victories in March and April but they have not won any of their first 17 matches this season.

They failed to build on a promising performance at Arsenal, losing 2-0 at home to poor travellers Brentford, but are only nine points behind second-bottom Burnley with 21 games remaining.

The Clarets needed a late goal to win 3-2 at Wolves in October, since when they have picked up one point from eight games – scoring with their only shot on target in Saturday's 1-1 draw at Bournemouth.

Burnley's underlying stats are poor at both ends of the pitch and they are worth a bet to finish bottom of the table.

Both Wolves and Burnley look doomed and the upturn in form of Leeds and Nottingham Forest is bad news for West Ham, who are also odds-on for relegation.

Impressive Ekitike can chase home Haaland in Golden Boot race

Liverpool's Salah and Isak were supposed to be the leading challengers to Golden Boot favourite Haaland but Hugo Ekitike is now the main man for the Reds.

With the sulky Salah away at Afcon and Isak injured again, the young Frenchman looks well worth backing to be the top league goalscorer without Haaland.

Brentford's Thiago has a three-goal lead over Ekitike but the Liverpool forward has started only 11 games to the Brazilian's 16.

Ekitike scored 15 Bundesliga goals for Eintracht Frankfurt last term, from an xG of around 23. His finishing has been far sharper since joining Liverpool and he must maintain his high standards in order to make France's World Cup squad.

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Read more mid-season predictions from our top tipsters:

Championship: Coventry's title dreams could be broken by Boro  

League One: Bluebirds could fly into the distance  

League Two: Magpies ready to take the step up  

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