The 2022/23 Premier League season is just around the corner and anticipation is starting to build.
The 20 teams that will contest the latest edition of England's top-flight are already knee-deep into their summer transfer business and are now starting to get their pre-season campaigns underway.
Marry that to the fact that every one of the coaches is locked in for the August kick-off date - barring any dramatic resignations - and supporters can finally start to wonder how the season will actually play out.
Premier League predictions
There is, after all, a special type of excitement that comes with the advent of a fresh term with nobody quite knowing for certain who will win the title, qualify for the Champions League and drop down to the Championship.
Sure, you're probably safe in assuming that Fulham won't win the league and Liverpool will be safe from relegation, but picking out the exact positions that clubs will finish up in is actually nigh on impossible.
You will have seen plenty of people over the years trying to predict how the Premier League table will look in May before a ball's even been kicked and inevitably looking like a complete mug when the forecast is revisited.
We've been there, done that and got the t-shirt. In fact, so have more pundits, fans and supercomputers than we care to count, but that's the fun of it all, right?
"Lisandro Martinez Signs For MANCHESTER UNITED!" (Football Terrace)
Premier League fan survey
So, bearing that all in mind as we rub our hands together at the prospect of the approaching Premier League campaign, you'll be delighted and intrigued to hear that there's a new predictive method on the scene.
And it comes from the latest edition of the annual Sky Bet Fan Hope Survey, which has once again provided fascinating insight into how the fans of all 20 Premier League clubs are feeling ahead of the big restart on August 5.
Here at GIVEMESPORT, we've already looked at how confident the respective fanbases are feeling and now we're honing in on the predicted Premier League table that has been calculated based on the opinions of the supporters themselves.
The survey asked fans where they thought their club would finish this season and the subsequent batch of results from each fanbase were then averaged out to see what the general consensus was.
Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester City vs Huddersfield Town - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain - May 6, 2018 The Premier League trophy is displayed before the match REUTERS/Phil Noble EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
The 20 clubs were then ordered by the average position that their own fans thought they would end up in at the end of the 2022/23 season, duly creating a predicted table based on the thoughts of those who make the division so special in the first place.
How might the 2022/23 table finish up?
Got it? Right then, well, let's be sure to check out what the final 2022/23 Premier League table looks like based upon the results of the fan survey down below:
20. Nottingham Forest
Average predicted finish: 12.7
Soccer Football - Championship Play-Off Final - Huddersfield Town v Nottingham Forest - Wembley Stadium, London, Britain - May 29, 2022 Nottingham Forest's Brennan Johnson celebrates after winning the Championship Play-Off Final Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers
19. Southampton
Average predicted finish: 12.6
18. Everton
Average predicted finish: 12.5
17. Bournemouth
Average predicted finish: 11.8
16. Leeds United
Average predicted finish: 11.8
15. Fulham
Average predicted finish: 11.4
Soccer Football - Championship - Fulham v Preston North End - Craven Cottage, London, Britain - April 19, 2022 Fulham players celebrate after being promoted to the Premier League Action Images via Reuters/Peter Cziborra EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
14. Brentford
Average predicted finish: 10.4
13. Crystal Palace
Average predicted finish: 9.1
12. Brighton & Hove Albion
Average predicted finish: 9.1
11. Aston Villa
Average predicted finish: 9.0
10. Wolverhampton Wanderers
Average predicted finish: 7.9
Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Norwich City - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - May 15, 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Rayan Ait-Nouri celebrates scoring their first goal with Toti Gomes Action Images via Reuters/Molly Darlington EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
9. Newcastle United
Average predicted finish: 7.3
8. Leicester City
Average predicted finish: 6.8
7. West Ham United
Average predicted finish: 6.3
6. Manchester United
Average predicted finish: 4.7
5. Arsenal
Average predicted finish: 4.3
Soccer Football - Premier League - Arsenal v Everton - Emirates Stadium, London, Britain - May 22, 2022 Arsenal's Martin Odegaard celebrates scoring their fifth goal REUTERS/Toby Melville EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
4. Tottenham Hotspur
Average predicted finish: 3.6
3. Chelsea
Average predicted finish: 2.7
2. Liverpool
Average predicted finish: 1.4
1. Manchester City
Average predicted finish: 1.3
Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester City v Aston Villa - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain - May 22, 2022 Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola celebrates with the trophy after winning the Premier League REUTERS/Hannah Mckay EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
Some interesting results
Well, you can't fault the Premier League fans for ambition with every single club's supporters tipping their side, on average, to finish at least 12th in the table.
Hats off to the Nottingham Forest, Fulham and Bournemouth fans feeling quite so ambitious, but we guess fans aren't exactly going to enter a new season with the ambition that they're set to go straight back down again.
Nevertheless, the table that all the averages bring us to remains fascinating with Liverpool and City supporters just as close in their optimism for the season ahead as their actual title race was in the one just gone.
If anything, we're a little surprised to see Spurs fans not swinging for the fences and backing themselves for a title challenge with Antonio Conte in the technical area and an outrageous set of signings under their belt.
Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain - February 19, 2022 Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte REUTERS/Russell Cheyne EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
It's also eyebrow-raising to see United fans feeling quite so pessimistic with clearly a large amount of the Old Trafford faithful failing to see a world in which Erik ten Hag stops the rot within his first season at the club.
And Everton fans are evidently still licking their wounds from the rollercoaster ride that was 2021/22 campaign with their level of pessimism ahead of the new year placing them right down in the relegation zone.
However, as all of the fans who participated in the survey will know, it's always impossible to predict with any certainty how the most unpredictable league of all will play out no matter how upbeat or downbeat the atmosphere might be.
Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester City v Aston Villa - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain - May 22, 2022 Manchester City's Fernandinho lifts the trophy as he celebrates with teammates after winning the Premier League REUTERS/Hannah Mckay EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
And that's exactly why we all love the Premier League so much because fortunes, ambitions and hope can all change in an instant. Only time will tell how brilliantly or terribly this predicted table will age, but we can't wait to find out.