I think Arsenal will do well to break in to the top 5.
Man City start as favourites.
Manchester United obviously have a lot of good players (although hampered by their managers negatively on and off the pitch).
Chelsea with a new manager will be in a transitional year, but you don't get long to find your feet at Stamford bridge.
Spurs players retuning from the WC will either push on due to their success, or struggle with fitness and injuries due to no break.
Liverpool have strengthened their weakest area, their goal keeper.
Then Arsenal with a new manager after 22 years will definitely be going through the ringer. Think Moyes at Utd post Fergerson.
Hard to see them do better than 6th.
The rest are aiming for 7th. But I bet 10+ chairman would take 17th if offered it now!
Arsenal have a new manager and he has been out purchasing, not something that anyone has paid too much heed to with the World Cup, which is probably a good thing as the spotlight has been shining elsewhere.
Odds enough, I'd expect Mr Emery to have as an aim, a first season goal, securing successfully a top four place, and I would be equally surprised if he failed to achieve it. Two years of underachievement will bite at pride, some players have been off-loaded, and defensive frailties have been addressed (but to what extent, we will not know until the season starts in earnest).
Chelsea will be in transition, and may have problems holding on to some of their top players.
Likewise, their new manager - after a few erratic seasons - where, as usual, they have had several changes at the top, may face challenges - both budgetary, plus the visa problems of the owner, and will certainly face the need to stamp his own authority on the club as he is something of an unknown.
Liverpool may finally fulfil their potential; personally, I have long liked Jurgen Klopp, and the goalkeeper issue has been addressed. I'd love to see them do really well and this could be their year for some sort of glory; they have the players, and the time could well be right.
Spurs - and I like Mauricio Pochettino - I think may have peaked. Their players will be exhausted, and perhaps prone to picking up the sort of niggling injuries that players who have run on adrenalin and empty may pick up. besides, the pressure will be on them to deliver to their potential - their players did provide much of the backbone of the English WC team, and it would not come as a surprise if some of them became restive, and seek to move elsewhere, if Spurs do not perform this season.
I think that this is the last season for that team to perform domestically; realistically, I cannot see the team lasting in its current form or shape beyond next summer, perhaps even beyond Christmas.
Re Manchester United, this will also be an important year, and one where Mourinho's limited man management skills will be thrown into sharp relief. This is another team of underachievers, - who do not gel as a team, and whose total sum is considerably less than the sum of their individual parts, and that is something I lay at the feet of the manager.
Players are diminished, lessened, shrivelled and reduced under Mourinho; there is not a single player I can call to mind whose career has been enhanced, who has grown as a player, under Mourinho. His inherent negativity has hurt his team, - the stunning performances turned in by both Pogba and Fellaini in the WC should give rise to questions of his management style.
For Pep, it is hard to build on perfection, but if he is to do that, he will have to try to repeat last year's astounding performance, and even more, show that he has what it takes at CL level. A great manager with a great team.