Premier League Predictions 2022-23: The Archive | The Analyst

2022-10-02 01:16:15 By : Mr. Jay Zheng

What the supercomputer thought earlier in the season. Was it right?

Home Wins: Arsenal to go four for four, Liverpool to taste rare victory Away Wins: ten Hag, six points Machine long shot: Wolves to derail the Newcastle bandwagon?

Normally we have a not-entirely-popular [whispers] international break inserted after three rounds of the Premier League season, but due to the gigantic presence of the 2022 World Cup slap bang at the start of winter, this season we just rattle straight through to matchweek eight in one fell swoop. It’s refreshing, it’s zany, it’s relentless. Matchweek 4 looks relatively sedate on paper but in the Premier League anything can happen as narrative leaks from any hole it can find. What’s the best way to prime yourself for another weekend of late summer action? By consulting the wisest machine in the showroom, the mainframe of dreams, The Analyst supercomputer. 

Eric ten Hag is the first manager in Premier League history to make 15 substitutions in his first three games. Don’t worry, he’s not broken any rules but he might just have broken the stranglehold of dismay that has gripped Old Trafford for the best part of a decade. One win doesn’t make a season but a 2-1 home victory against Liverpool is about as good as it gets, especially if you can parade five-time Champions League winner Casemiro before the game, a man who has promised to give an industry-leading 120% to his new team’s cause. United have lost seven away games in a row, their worst run since radar was invented, but if they win at St Mary’s in the early kick-off on Saturday then they might have just located the biggest gift of all: hope. The supercomputer is bullish about United’s chances, giving them a 47.2% chance of victory and we simply have to agree. 

Ben Mee spent much of his career at Burnley having to listen to nonsense from pundits about Turf Moor being a “tough place to go” but it turns out that his new home in Brentford, the Gtech Community Stadium, actually is. The Bees have kept a clean sheet in five of their last six Premier League home games and you can barely travel around west London without hearing someone say “away teams get wrecked… down at the Gtech.” This Saturday Everton and their nervous 5-4-1 come to town, and with an average of only one point per game under Frank Lampard you fear the worst for them. A rare Frank surname vs. Frank forename clasico and the supercomputer is utterly frank: a point here will absolutely be one gained for the Merseysiders. 

The Premier League contains the best football managers in the world, and those looking to get in and around that conversation know they can join that exalted company if the results are good. High up on the South Downs on Saturday the division will witness a bearded English thinker take on a fevered Ted talk tactics teacher when Graham Potter entertains Jesse Marsch in the Brighton against Leeds game. It’s fifth against third, it’s cleverly restructured teams with unique gameplans, it’s the ongoing rehabilitation of Rodrigo’s goalscoring ability. The win predictor model has Brighton as narrow favourites, but if you want to see a wildly entertaining high-scoring draw with easy access to the English channel I’d suggest this game is the absolutely the one. 

Chelsea got Leeds United-ed last weekend and now skulk back to their capital city lair to lick their wounds against a similarly wounded former Premier League title winner. Thomas Tuchel’s Blues are attempting to see out the month with some more retail therapy. One of the players on their list is Leicester City’s Wesley Fofana, who is parked up training with the U23s while the speculation swirls. When the supercomputer has a big six team at pretty much bang on 50% to win at home then you know that it is wrestling with the eternal battle between squad strength and localised narrative and that feels correct for this game. Brendan Rodgers, a former Chelsea employee, has only won two of his 20 meetings with them in his managerial career and although Edouard Mendy was castigated for his getting-tackled error at Elland Road, Leicester’s Danny Ward already has the worst goals prevented rate in the Premier League this season at -2.8.  

Liverpool and Manchester City are both playing home games at 3 p.m. this Saturday, like this is some weekend sent in a time machine from the 1990s or earlier. Will the traditional kick-off time inspire the visiting sides, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace? The supercomputer laughs at such a suggestion, making Liverpool 79.2% hot favourites with City not far behind on 72.7%. That’s right, the team without a win in the league this season are stronger favourites than the reigning champions who have seven points from nine, but when you factor in Palace’s record of two wins and a draw from their last four Premier League games at the Etihad it starts to make sense. Then ladle in knowledge of Bournemouth’s record of seven defeats from eight at Anfield in the Premier League, added to the fact that they have recorded only 16 shots so far this season, the fewest in any Premier League club’s opening three games since Huddersfield in 2018, and you start to see just how wise the supercomputer is yet again. Look, both Liverpool and City should win handsomely and get big numbers on the 39 different versions of the classified football results that have sprung up in the last few weeks, but there’s always the chance that they won’t, and that’s what makes Our League so alluring.  

Saturday’s action concludes with the Premier League’s only 100% record, held by Arsenal Football Club, going up against the Aleksandar Mitrović nationwide anti-hubris goals-and-that tour, in association with Fulham FC. “Mitro” has three goals in home games this season but could only muster a missed penalty in Fulham’s trip to Wolves on MD2. Arsenal have never lost at home to Fulham, ever, not even in the days when goal nets were optional and you could shoulder barge an opponent into a river. Always a fear for Fulham, that, given how close Craven Cottage is to the Thames, but given the narrative arc of 2022-23 so far you expect Arsenal, with their own personal Jesus, to go four for four, just like Watford did in 2018-19. The supercomputer certainly thinks so, giving Mikel Arteta’s men a 62.4% chance of victory. As Europe’s leading interpreter of result-based supercomputers I’m fairly sure that last season this sort of fixture would have seen Arsenal given a rating in the 50s so there’s evidence right there of the club’s unstoppable rise back to prominence.  

West Ham’s ongoing European commitments mean they are once again tucked away on Sunday, a sad slot for their 1000th Premier League game but they won’t mind at all if they can score a goal or pick up a point, neither of which has happened so far this season. Not that Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa have looked much brighter, and it is this pervading double dose of claret and blue gloom that has led this match to be classified as the now legendary Most Even Game of the Weekend. Could be a draw, maybe 0-0. You get a point for that though. Progress. 

Simultaneously in the west Midlands on Sunday afternoon Wolves take on Newcastle, the visitors fresh from the uplifting-even-though-they-let-a-two-goal-lead-slip 3-3 draw with Manchester City last Sunday. It will be the Wolves fans first chance to see Matheus Nunes on home turf, and they’ll hope that he can have as much impact on their side as the almost-peerless Bruno Guimarães has had on Newcastle since February. The supercomputer can work fast, trust me, but with transfers flying in by the hour it can be hard to factor that it into the calculations. Classy big man Alexander Isak is set to bolster Newcastle even further in the long term but this game might come too soon, so it could be a last chance for Chris Wood to do something for the Magpies, although nursery rhyme fans will know that Wolves can usually deal with wood fairly well, if not bricks. 

Talking of transfer sagas, early Premier League enthusiasts will recall that the division’s maiden campaign, 1992-93, saw Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur tussle for Teddy Sheringham, the future Euro 96 star scoring Forest’s winner in their opening game against Liverpool only to take his classy touches and surprisingly poor penalty conversion record (31 taken, 21 scored!) down to old London town to play for Spurs. Will there be 30-year bad blood when the two sides meet at the City Ground on Sunday? It seems unlikely, in fact it feels more likely that Forest will re-sign Sheringham (one of only 29 people on Earth they have not been in for this summer) than beef over this. What if you rebuilt Sheringham but removed the penalty taking glitch? You’d probably end up with Harry Kane, a man who has scored against 30 of the 31 Premier League clubs he has faced (well done Brentford btw) and he’ll be eager to show Forest fans what Teddy Sheringham might look like in the year 2022 and played for Tottenham (as he did for much of 1992 tbf). The supercomputer makes Spurs the biggest chance of an away win this weekend and after West Ham did everything but take three points in Nottingham in MD2 you simply have to agree. 

Home Wins: Everton to bounce back against Nottingham Forest Away Wins: Brentford to rule west London Machine long shot: Manchester United to trouble fellow strugglers Liverpool?

1981-82 was the last top-flight season to see both Manchester United and Liverpool start with a winless pair of games, but here we are in 2022 and the nation’s two most successful clubs are in differing but equally genuine stages of crisis. The Analyst supercomputer didn’t exist in 1981 (you simply can’t crunch millions of data points on a 32kb BBC Micro, lord knows I’ve tried) but it is humming away in the corner ready to get stuck into Matchday 3 so let’s hop to it. 

The weekend begins with bad boys Spurs up against Wolves at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. A single goal from Harry Kane in this match will make him the outright top-scoring player in Premier League history for a single club, and if it is the opening goal it will be Tottenham’s 1,000th in a home game, albeit they have had three different homes in the Premier League era. The win predictor backs Antonio Conte’s side not to trip up in this one, and to go – briefly – top of the table when they take three early points. 

Sticking with north London pacesetters, Arsenal travel down to alphabet-rivals AFC Bournemouth in the Saturday early evening slot and the cheeky supercomputer has given Mikel Arteta’s men exactly the same odds as Spurs have of besting Wolves. There’s enough rivalry between the two clubs without the devious machine stepping in like this but it feels right, just like football in that section of England’s capital city does at the moment. 

In between those two slices of Spurs/Arsenal are five classic 3 p.m. games, which include the fabled Most-Even-Game-Of-The-Weekend between Crystal Palace and Aston Villa, yet another match where two combative midfielders from the 2000s are instead forced to watch from the touchline and bark instructions. Will Steven Gerrard be angry with Patrick Vieira for ending Liverpool’s title hopes on Monday night? The Palace boss needs to watch out because Villa have been better on the road under Gerrard (P14 W6) than at luxury FA Cup semi-final venue Villa Park. You can see why our machine makes this one so even. 

CTRL-ALT-DELETE all you like but the supercomputer has Everton at almost 53% to beat Nottingham Forest on Saturday. It could be a masterstroke because although Forest won against West Ham last week, they were undeniably fortunate to do so, and it remains beyond the grasp of even science to work out just how good or bad the sentient transfer window club are. We all suspect Everton might be quite bad but a 3 p.m. game at Goodison is probably just what the doctor ordered. 

Fulham against Brentford in the top flight, it’s a whole new ball game. The supercomputer has casually calculated that this is the 1,445th different fixture to be played in England’s highest division and it also gauges that Brentford – destroyers of Manchester United last week – are strong favourites to be crowned kings of the bit of London it always takes 25 minutes longer to get to than you predicted. Look out for Josh Dasilva’s attempts to become the first player to score from outside the box for three successive games since Jordan Henderson in 2015. Bit disrespectful to xG, but ok fine. 

The supercomputer’s biggest home favourites in MD3 are Leicester City who face Southampton, a team they have certainly heavily punished in the past. Can the 2022-23 iteration of Leicester do this though? Both sides have let in a league-high six goals this season so defences haven’t been on top, but they have managed to score at the other end. Whisper it quietly, but could this be the Premier League’s first 9-9 draw? No, probably not. 

Leeds versus Chelsea is a fixture that drips with historic aggression so Thomas Tuchel – wherever he watches the game from – would be advised to bear it in mind. The German is not only an expert at self-defence but also organising a defence, with Chelsea having let in only 17 goals in Premier League away games in his time with the club. That solidity is the reason why the supercomputer backs the Blues strongly to leave Yorkshire with all three points and a warm, traditional handshake. 

Sunday kicks off with Brighton’s trip to West Ham United, a fixture that the Seagulls love because they simply never lose it. Six draws and four defeats makes Albion officially the Hammers’ most infuriating opponents in Premier League history and Respected Tactician Graham Potter has his side playing so well that they may restrict West Ham to their first goalless start after three games since 1994. If David Moyes wants to glimpse some hope, though, he should dial up his local friendly supercomputer because our model fancies the Hammers to win this one. I’m not so sure but Brighton have to start squandering huge amounts of xG at some point, so why not at London Stadium on Sunday? 

Only two Premier League clubs haven’t let in any goals so far this season and they are Newcastle United and Manchester City, who face each other at St James’ Park on Sunday. City are looking so smooth and so polished thus far and have also only lost one of their last 29 league games against Newcastle. Nick Pope can expect to be a busy Pope once more in this game, trying to fend off the likes of Erling Haaland as he tries to retrospectively punish a club his dad played against 11 times in the Premier League without scoring or assisting once.  

A baby born during the last Manchester United versus Liverpool fixture played at 3 p.m. on a Saturday would now be an adult; it has only happened three times in Premier League history and will probably never happen again. This weekend will see only the third Monday night clash between the old rivals, though, and it promises to be one of the most narrative-soaked battles they’ll have ever taken part in. Both clubs absolutely need a win, both want to forget their opening two matches but only one of them can name Mohamed Salah in their XI, a man who has scored eight goals in his last four games against them in all competitions including three in this exact fixture last season. That’s (partly) why the supercomputer has Manchester United Football Club at only 20.7% to win a Premier League home game. Erik ten Hag, it’s over to you.    

Home Wins: Manchester City to bamboozle Bournemouth as per tradition Away Wins: Back West Ham to trouble yet-to-gel Forest Machine long shot: Arsenal to struggle vs. Leicester?

In 2020, matchweek two served up a monstrous total of 44 goals so let’s hope for more of the same this weekend, especially if the scorching pitch-surface temperatures contribute to some hollow legs towards the end of games. Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, so it’s absolutely perfect that the early kick-off on Saturday is between Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa and Frank Lampard’s Everton. Like that bit in Heat when Pacino and De Niro finally appear together, all eyes will be trained on the technical areas to see which brooding Premier League legend will inspire his team to glory in the, er, heat.

The unusually noisy supercomputer has turned its internal fans up to 125% to cope and favours Aston Villa at 41.4% but Everton at 29.6% makes it a fairly even shout. Everton are still reeling from their terrible away record last season while Villa were maybe not as bad as some people, including most of their fans, thought in the game last weekend. Only Newcastle and Tottenham had more open play shots than Gerrard’s team, although crucially some of theirs did end up in the back of the opposition’s net.

Moving into the 3pm kick-off zone and the Emirates Stadium will see a game between two managers whose thoughtful methods have been exposed on documentaries. From drawing brains and hearts to sealing envelopes, these men will do what it takes to get their message across. Arsenal haven’t started a top-flight season with two wins and two clean sheets since 1971 when they were reigning champions, but although our friendly supercomputer rightly rates them as a 42.4% chance in this game, it gives Leicester almost 30% too, and if first half City turn up from last week then they might just pull off some sort of early shock. I can envisage it… can you?

It’s a long way from Newcastle to Brighton but the clubs are managed by Eddie Howe and Graham Potter respectively, so this is a sort of BBC4 arthouse version of the Gerrard vs. Lampard coaching battle from earlier in the day. MD1 was lovely for both sides but this will be a sterner test, although the fact that Albion and Newcastle lead the division in high turnovers that lead to shots (yes after one game, I know) suggests that this could be a ding dong summer classic on the Sussex coast.

There are no certainties in sport. Oh, actually there are: Manchester City will always beat Bournemouth. 16 games between them (10 in the Premier League) and 16 wins for the reigning champions. Scott Parker has tasted success at the Etihad before but the wise supercomputer gives Bournemouth only a 4.5% chance of leaving there on Saturday with three points. Erling Haaland’s home debut is something to look forward to but not if you play for AFC Bournemouth.

Southampton vs. Leeds is the fabled machine’s most even fixture of the weekend. Yes, Saints have lost their last two Premier League games by four goals to one and yes Leeds started the season by beating Wolves but they still gave up some red hot xG opportunities and Southampton are generally better in their Solent base. Why not settle for a draw and plenty of drinks breaks? Makes sense. Keep hydrated.

Talking of Wolves, they start their home campaign by hosting Liverpool-humbling Fulham, as Marco Silva, against one of his former clubs, prepares to start his season-long demonstration that his version of Aleksandar Mitrovic is top-flight ready and hungry for goals. The win prediction model enjoyed Fulham’s bright start but is backing Wolves as strong favourites to emerge with their first three points of the season. They’re more dangerous than you think, very much like actual wolves.

Saturday concludes with what could be the game of the weekend as troubled superclub Manchester United travel down to Brentford to face a side who will be more than happy to land some more wounds on the old giant. Go back to the 1990s and tell someone that Manchester United would only have a 40.8% chance of beating little Brentford in a league game and they’d grab you by the shoulder and march you out of the room, but that’s where we are. Erik ten Hag played Christian Eriksen as a number nine last week, something that Brentford didn’t choose to do when they had access to his services last season. He could be the difference, or he could be left fully reminded of what the Bees can do when they work up a head of steam.

The first ever Premier League Sunday in 1992 contained a Nottingham Forest home game and so does this one. Forest will play their first top-flight game at the City Ground since the 20th century but the supercomputer, while a committed fan of the excellent Forest-under-Clough film I Believe In Miracles, doesn’t believe the club’s ever-expanding squad will have a miracle up their sleeve when they face West Ham this weekend. West Ham are a massive 58.2% shot and the biggest likelihood of an away win in MD2. Yes, they were beaten by Manchester City last Sunday but in a way we all were.

Super Sunday concludes with a massive game as Tottenham travel to Chelsea in the battle of London superclubs whose prospects you’re not quite sure about yet but who are undoubtedly good. Chelsea are unbeaten in seven Premier League games against their capital rivals (W6 D1), conceding only one goal in that run, and the supercomputer makes them slight favourites, but Harry Kane is only a hat-trick away from overtaking Thierry Henry as the top-scoring London derby player in Premier League history. We know that August isn’t his favourite month of the year to unleash but even so…

The matchweek concludes on Monday night with Liverpool vs. Crystal Palace, the last fixture to ever feature a player born in the 1970s (Julian Speroni), and one that saw a 9-0 home win in the 1990s. This is the 2020s, though, and after dropping two points in their opening game, Jürgen Klopp’s team simply have to win this one or, somewhat ridiculously, the crisis talk will be all too real. The supercomputer thinks it will happen and if Darwin Núñez is in the starting XI then it very probably will.

Home Wins: Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United Away Wins: Liverpool and Manchester City Best Chance of a Draw: Leeds United vs. Wolverhampton Wanderers

The 2022-23 Premier League will be different from previous seasons. There will be mid-season break for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, teams can now use five subs, and Mike Dean will be confined to wearing a full referee kit in a side room at Stockley Park. But fear not, the supercomputer returns for another campaign of Premier League predictions.

The 31st Premier League season kicks off on Friday night with a London derby under the lights at Selhurst Park, as Crystal Palace host Arsenal. Palace beat Arsenal 3-0 in their last meeting but have never previously won consecutive matches against the Gunners in league competition. Our supercomputer gives them a 29.7% chance of doing that this time around – lower than the chance of an Arsenal away win (41.3%). The Gunners’ strong pre-season and summer transfer window acquisition of Gabriel Jesus should make them a dangerous side to face on the opening weekend. The Eagles are led by former fans favourite Patrick Vieira, a man who knows a thing or two about a red card. Arsenal have had more players sent off in their opening game of a Premier League campaign than any other side (six), with Vieira on the receiving end of one of those, in 2000-01. Not content with being sent off on the opening day that season, he was then sent off in Arsenal’s second game two days later. A much calmer man in the dugout now, it must be said – just don’t invade the pitch and goad him.

Fulham may have been the entertainers on their way to the Championship title in 2021-22, scoring 106 goals, but that doesn’t curry favour with the supercomputer. Hosting Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool side isn’t the most welcome start to any side’s season, but the fixture computer doesn’t factor requests. Earlier this week we revealed that starting a Premier League campaign well gives you a strong chance of surviving relegation, but with just an 8.8% chance of a Fulham victory given by the supercomputer, they have the lowest chance of winning across the competition this matchweek.

They may have lost out to Manchester City in the Premier League title race last season, as well as a defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League final, but our supercomputer is giving Liverpool the best chance of topping the standings at the end of this campaign, pre-season.

At the other end of the table, the supercomputer has already rated the three newly promoted sides as having the highest chance of being relegated this season, and we’ll get to see Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest play in the traditional 3 p.m. Saturday slot on MD1.

Scott Parker’s Cherries side host Aston Villa in their first game back in the Premier League – a repeat of their first-ever game in the competition in August 2015, which Villa won 1-0. With a 38.1% chance of an away win, we might even see a repeat of that result.

Nottingham Forest start life back in the Premier League with an away trip to Newcastle United. This will be Forest’s first Premier League game in 23 years and 82 days – the longest-ever gap between matches in the competition. The supercomputer doesn’t expect it to end in success. Newcastle have a 51.1% chance of victory, compared to Forest’s 21.1%.

Tottenham Hotspur have a home game with Southampton to kick off the Premier League season. Antonio Conte’s Spurs side have been given the highest chance of victory across all 10 hosts of a top-flight game in England this weekend, at 62.9%. Their deadly attacking duo might be powering the supercomputer’s thoughts, as only Alan Shearer (14) and Andy Cole (11) have scored more or as many Premier League goals against Southampton than Harry Kane (11) and Son Heung-min (10).

This is the 124th English top-flight season since the EFL began in 1888, and Everton are the team to have played in the most of these – 2022-23 will be their 119th in the top division. The supercomputer doesn’t respect that history when it comes to predicting their chances of success this weekend, though.

After narrowly avoiding relegation last season, Toffees’ boss Frank Lampard will face the club that gave him his best years as a player – Chelsea. Despite winning each of their last four games against Chelsea at Goodison Park – Chelsea’s longest current active streak of defeats against a league opponent – the supercomputer doesn’t rate their chances of making it five in a row (22.8%), with Thomas Tuchel’s side having the third best chance of victory among the 10 away teams on MD1 (49.8%).

Raheem Sterling looks set to make his competitive debut for Chelsea in this match, and the England forward is one of only 10 players to score a hat-trick on the opening matchweek of a Premier League season.

Leeds United’s meeting with Wolves at Elland Road is the only other Premier League game on Saturday, and the data-crunching contraption gives this fixture the highest chance of a draw across the 10 matches on the opening matchweek (29.3%).

On paper, a trip to the London Stadium to face West Ham United is a tricky game to start a Premier League campaign with. Not for reigning champions Manchester City, according to the supercomputer. Man City are being given a 63.3% chance of winning in London on Sunday, with the current 13-game unbeaten run for Pep Guardiola’s side against the Hammers – and City’s work in the transfer market to bring in superstar striker Erling Haaland – forcing the AI-powered machine to heavily back the away win.

Before that meeting, Leicester City host Brentford and Manchester United’s Old Trafford will entertain Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon. Both home teams are being given a shade under 50% chance of victory in these two matches.

Erik ten Hag becomes the eighth different man to take charge of Man Utd in the competition since Sir Alex Ferguson retired – six of the previous seven have won their opening match, with the only one to lose also being Dutch (Louis van Gaal). The new season is upon us. Sit tight and see if the supercomputer’s predictions play out.