Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has predicted that the 2022/23 Premier League season will be a five-horse race.
This season, only Liverpool and Manchester City were fighting it out for the league title and in the end, Man City managed to hold onto the top spot. The other teams did not even come close as third-placed Chelsea were 18 points behind the second position. The Blues did manage to put up a fight in the first few months of the season but by the end, they were huffing and puffing to hold onto their Champions League spot.
Tuchel has admitted that City and Liverpool were a class apart this season but at the same time, he’s predicted that the contest will get even more intense next season.
“It is in general a big step in the general direction in terms of consistency for us,” he said, as per Fotmob. “If you look at the last year we have only been in the top three, this is very good. But there is always room for improvement. The level of consistency from City and Liverpool was too much for us, it was too high.
“It will not get easier to close this gap, because while we are forced to be passive they are improving their squads. But this is the challenge, and we need to be fast and smart when it’s possible to have a competitive team.
“It will be a super tough race. Manchester United will be in the race and Tottenham will be in the race with Antonio Conte for sure.
“We want to stay in the race and Liverpool and Man City do everything to make their squads bigger and they set the standard so high. This is the challenge in which we compete.”
Will five clubs compete for the Premier League next season?
All the other top-six teams will need to do a lot of work before they can genuinely catch up with Manchester City and Liverpool but there’s no denying that teams like Chelsea, Man United and Spurs will become much strongest next season.
However, in making his prediction, Thomas Tuchel has failed to mention Arsenal’s name. Many people might think that Tuchel might have forgotten to mention them but we have a feeling the Chelsea boss intentionally has left Arsenal out of the equation.
The Gunners have actually finished above Manchester United this season and they were just shy of making it into the top-four but Tuchel feels they are still not ready to mingle with the big boys.
Mikel Arteta will beg to differ of course but the Arsenal boss will have to have a great transfer window if he wants to match up with the likes of Chelsea and Spurs. He did not make any signings in January and in the next month, players like Nketiah, Lacazette and Bernd Leno will probably leave as well.
On paper, not five but six teams have the capability to challenge for the Premier League title but a lot will depend on how these sides fair in the next few months.
If the likes of Man United and Arsenal cannot bring in the right players in the summer then they will once again miss out on a top-four finish and if Antonio Conte leaves Spurs to join PSG then the Lilywhites will collapse in the blink of an eye.
