Arsenal claimed the title with 85 points, Manchester City fell seven points short, and Manchester United came third after a season that shifted expectations at Old Trafford. The top of the 2025-26 table had a clear story. Lower down, it was messier. Several clubs end the season carrying questions they cannot ignore, and the summer will not give them long to answer them.
Several clubs head into 2026-27 with more to prove than others. LiveScore Bet, a modern platform for sports wagering, covers every Premier League fixture through the season – here are the five clubs who will be most closely watched when it begins.
Liverpool
Liverpool won the Premier League in 2024-25 and finished fifth in 2025-26, one of the worst title defences the division has seen. They ended up 25 points behind Arsenal, dropped into the bottom half of the table for long stretches, and only secured Champions League football because the Premier League earned an additional European spot. The summer will also bring Mohamed Salah’s departure. Salah has been the club’s most reliable source of goals for the best part of a decade, and replacing that output while rebuilding a squad that capitulated from champions to fifth place is a considerable task for Andoni Iraola heading into 2026-27.
Chelsea
Chelsea finished 10th with 52 points after a season that went through three managers. Enzo Maresca was sacked, Liam Rosenior came in and failed to improve results, and Callum McFarlane took over on an interim basis to see out the campaign. The club have since announced that Xabi Alonso will take charge ahead of 2026-27. Alonso won the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen unbeaten in 2023-24, as well as the DFB Pokal and DFB Supercup, and came close to adding the Europa League in the same season. Whether he can impose a coherent identity on a squad that has resisted it under every previous manager since 2022 is the central question around Chelsea heading into next season.
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham finished 17th with 41 points, avoiding relegation by just two points across a season that saw several managerial changes. The club have already moved in the transfer market, signing Andy Robertson from Liverpool and centre-back Marcos Senesi from Bournemouth. There is at least the suggestion of a new identity forming at Spurs, with Roberto De Zerbi’s possession-based approach well established from his time at Brighton and Marseille. Whether the squad is capable of executing it consistently enough to push up the table is a different matter, but the early activity points to a more structured rebuilding effort than the club has managed in recent years.
Newcastle United
Newcastle dropped to 12th with 49 points after finishing in the top six in each of the previous two seasons. The club’s grip on a European place loosened as the season progressed, and they failed to win any of their last seven league fixtures. There are concerns around ageing key players and a lack of depth in central midfield. The ownership has the backing to spend, but recruitment in recent windows has been inconsistent, and 2026-27 will test whether this project is still moving forward.
Nottingham Forest
Forest finished 16th with 44 points and went through three managers during the season, spending the opening months of the campaign in the relegation zone before fighting their way clear. Star player Elliott Anderson is expected to leave this summer and join a top-six club, which would be another significant loss from a squad that has already been thinned considerably since their Europa League qualification just two seasons ago. Stability is the priority, and given how close they came to going down, simply staying up in 2026-27 would represent progress.
Coventry City
Coventry City return to the Premier League after 25 years in the Championship, and few promotions in recent seasons have carried quite the weight of expectation this one does for a fanbase that has waited so long. The Sky Blues will need to prove they belong at this level, and the gap between the Championship and the top flight tends to expose squads quickly. Investment in the summer window will be critical. For a club without Premier League infrastructure or experience across most of their current squad, avoiding relegation in 2026-27 would be a strong first step back.