It’s been a slow start to the season for Newcastle United, who have had striker sagas, a few early injuries and some tricky fixtures to contend with so far.
Defensively, we’ve been superb with four clean sheets in five games, but with just three goals in that time, it’s restricted us to just one win thanks to Nick Woltemade’s debut goal against Wolves.
Other top six rivals have also had a mixed time of it, whether it be the continued chaos at Man Utd or Aston Villa’s awful start, seeing them score just once in their opening five games and fail to beat a 10-man Sunderland from 1-0 up on Sunday.
On the flip side, Chelsea have had a decent start before Saturday’s defeat at Old Trafford, while Spurs have won three and drawn one of their opening games, seeing them go nicely under new boss Thomas Frank.
The bookies are often an interesting gauge of the ‘favourites’ to seal a top five finish and all but secure Champions League football for another season, and this is how they see it five games into the 2025/26 campaign:
- Liverpool – 1/150 (1.007)
- Arsenal – 1/33 (1.03)
- Man City – 1/8 (1.13)
- Chelsea – 2/5 (1.4)
- Spurs – 13/8 (2.63)
- Newcastle – 7/4 (2.75)
- Man Utd – 7/4 (2.75)
- Bournemouth – 11/2 (6.5)
- Crystal Palace – 8/1 (9)
- Aston Villa – 10/1 (11)
So, the bookies think Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City are nailed on, with Chelsea deemed odds on to make the top five, being many people’s favourites to finish fourth.
Spurs come next, considered just ahead of Newcastle and Man Utd in the running, while Bournemouth and Crystal Palace are rated more likely to finish in the top five than Aston Villa after such a poor start by Unai Emery’s side.
