The 2025-26 Premier League season is nearly here and Joe Cole and Owen Hargreaves have given their predictions on where Newcastle United will finish in the table.
Newcastle United fans may be dreading the quickly approaching Premier League season, not to mention the Champions League campaign the side will also be competing in.
It shouldn’t be this way, but all the optimism earned from last term’s success has completely dried up after a dreadful summer transfer window.
Eddie Howe has only been able to add Anthony Elanga to his squad, with Newcastle missing out on every other top player they have targeted, like Benjamin Sesko, James Trafford and Hugo Ekitike.
To add further salt to the wounds, Alexander Isak wants to join Liverpool and his future remains up in the air.
It’s nearly impossible to tell how Newcastle will fare next season as a result, but Owen Hargreaves and Joe Cole have both given their predictions.
Eddie Howe watching his Newcastle United team face Arsenal in pre-season.
Photo by Yong Teck Lim/Getty Images
Owen Hargreaves and Joe Cole make their Premier League 2025-26 table predictions
TNT Sports pundits Cole and Hargreaves have given their predictions for the full Premier League table in the 2025-26 season, with both thinking Newcastle will finish 5th.
That’s one place higher than the Opta supercomputer, which predicted Newcastle would finish sixth next year.
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Newcastle finished 5th last season and it was enough to qualify for the Champions League but it’s not yet clear if it will be this time around.
The duo’s full predicted tables are:
Position Joe Cole’s predicted table Owen Hargreaves’ predicted table
1. Liverpool Liverpool
2. Manchester City Arsenal
3. Chelsea Manchester City
4. Arsenal Chelsea
5. Newcastle United Newcastle United
6. Tottenham Tottenham
7. Aston Villa Manchester United
8. Brighton Aston Villa
9. Manchester United Brighton
10. Fulham Nottingham Forest
11. Nottingham Forest Fulham
12. Bournemouth Bournemouth
13. Everton Crystal Palace
14. West Ham Wolves
15. Crystal Palace Everton
16. Brentford West Ham
17. Burnley Brentford
18. Wolves Sunderland
19. Leeds United Burnley
20. Sunderland Leeds United
Both have Liverpool to win the league, with Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City finishing in the top four.
The duo also think newly promoted sides, Leeds United and Sunderland, will go straight back down, but Cole thinks Burnley will buck the trend and stay up in place of Wolves.
Newcastle United will struggle to finish 5th without new signings
Newcastle fans were no doubt hoping Howe’s side would be able to push on even further after the success of last season, finally winning a trophy and returning to Europe’s top competition.
Given the club’s resources and ambition, there should have been a real aim of becoming title challengers.
Instead, even a fifth-place finish looks optimistic with the current state of the squad, which has more goalkeepers than centre-midfielders.
Newcastle know how hard it is to juggle domestic competition with Champions League football after finishing 7th in 2023-24.
Their squad is even weaker than it was then and the Champions League first stage is now two games longer.
If the squad doesn’t see serious improvement in the few remaining weeks of the transfer window, then a long, disappointing season is in store.