· 6 September 2025, 16:00
**The transfer market is closed, and there have been three weeks of Premier League games to feed into the Sewpa Dewpa Computa at Opta, and it has thrown out a fresh final league table prediction.**
Kicking off at the bottom of the pile, it's both good news and bad news for our neighbours, Sunderland.
The Mackems are predicted to finish bottom of the stack and will go straight back to the Championship, but on the plus side, they will do so with a relatively high points total [according to Opta](https://theanalyst.com/competition/premier-league/table) - 35 points. So they won't be going down with a record low points total.
They will be joined by Burnley, and for the first time in three seasons, it won't be the three promoted teams going down as Opta predicts Wolverhampton Wanderers will occupy the third relegation place.
Where will Eddie Howe guide the Magpies this season?
Liverpool is expected to win the league, and Newcastle should get into Europe
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amusingly, despite all of the money they've spent, Manchester United are expected to manage a 14th-place finish, which does seem very likely if they don't get shot of Ruben Amorim, and let's hope they don't.
But what of Newcastle United? The Geordies have been predicted to finish sixth, which, after such a stressful summer and the fact that we're participating in the Champions League this season, we'd definitely take.
However, the prediction sees us pipped to fifth spot by Crystal Palace, last season's FA Cup winners. The prediction sees both sides on 58 points, but has given the fifth spot to Palace. They've started the season well, especially given that they've lost Eberechi Eze, who was a huge player for them, but whether they can maintain that, we're not so sure.
Of course, the computer has Liverpool retaining their title with Arsenal second yet again.
A couple of wins could persuade the Opta computer to bump us up a spot or two
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A sixth-place finish should be enough to get us back into Europe, but it wouldn't be the Champions League, and that's really where we should be aiming. Depending on how well English teams do in Europe again this season, there could be a fifth Champions League place open again, which means we'd be in touching distance once again.
Hopefully, after a couple more games, if Newcastle can rediscover their goal-scoring touch, the computer may bump us up a spot or two.
As an early prediction based on our two draws and a defeat, though, we'd happily accept that finish.