The 2024/25 Premier League season is past the half way point and the race for Europe is up in the air.

Liverpool are huge favourites to win the title, but the battle for the top six looks incredibly tight, with four points currently separating Nottingham Forest (44 points in 3rd) and Bournemouth (40 points in 7th).

With that in mind, it’s interesting to see how the experts at Opta see it panning out based on their projections heading into the final 15 games of the season.

Opta’s predicted Premier League table

According to the statisticians at Opta, Newcastle will pip Chelsea to a top-four finish – but their current projections look incredibly tight.

Currently, they believe Newcastle are on track to finish fourth, ahead of Chelsea (5th), Nottingham Forest (6th) and Bournemouth (7th). However, their predicted point tallies are very close, as shown below:

Top half

As for the bottom half, Opta believe Man Utd will finish the season down in 12th and back Wolves to inish three points clear of the drop zone, seeing newly-promoted trio Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton go down.

Bottom half

As things stand, the top five are set to qualify for the Champions League based on the current UEFA coefficient rankings, meaning 6th and 7th may qualify for the Europa League; although this is dependant on the winners of domestic cup competitions.

Current Premier League table

Currently, we sit three behind Nottingham Forest, level on points with a Man City side showing signs of a resurgence and one ahead of both Chelsea and Bournemouth.

Aston Villa – predicted to finish 8th by Opta – also lost ground on Newcastle over the weekend, falling four points behind us after they followed our 3-1 win at Southampton with a 1-1 draw at home to West Ham.