Another year, another Premier League season done and dusted. The 2019/2020 campaign will be remembered for the dominance of Liverpool, who were finally able to clinch their first title. Things were mixed for the London clubs. Chelsea will deem their season a success after they managed to squeeze into the much-coveted Champions League positions. Arsenal and Tottenham will label their campaigns as ‘a season of transition.’ Relegated Watford had a season to forget.

But that’s all done now. No sooner has this campaign finished that we begin looking forward to next year. What will it bring for our London clubs; who will come out on top? With all due respect to Crystal Palace, who performed well to preserve their status as a top-flight club, next year’s battle of London will be between Chelsea, Tottenham, and Arsenal. What should we expect? Let’s take a look.

Arteta’s Arsenal Resurgence

It’s been a tough few years for Arsenal, though there are many good reasons to be hopeful these days. While the club may have finished a comparatively lowly 8th place in the league, no-one at the club will mind too much. This was always going to be a period of transition as the team was revamped to match Mikel Arteta’s style. In any case, while the club may have finished 8th, they’ll still be in the Europa League (providing they navigate the tricky group stage), and they ended the season with the FA Cup, too.

Still, both Arteta and the board will demand more from the team next year. The club are linked with plenty of exciting talents, including ex-Liverpool and Barcelona player Philippe Coutinho. If they can recruit well and the new players can settle in well, then the Champions League positions will be well within reach, and perhaps even a title bid too. We might just be about to find out how much Arteta learned as Pep Guardiola’s number two over the past few years.

Shoots of Hope for Chelsea

Chelsea have been making impressive leaps forward under Frank Lampard’s guidance, and if they can begin the season with a few wins, other teams will have to treat them as a serious title contender. However, given that the West London club is more influenced by momentum than other teams, their prospects for the season will depend, in large part, on who they can recruit during the transfer window and which teams they’ll play against in the first weeks of the campaign. If you aren’t paying too much attention to Chelsea’s off-field activities during the summer, then read up on the latest football predictions before the season begins if you’re thinking about backing them for a title-surge. While they’ll always turn up for big games, never easily losing to one of their main rivals, consistency has been a problem for them over the past couple of years. Yet as all football fans know, if there’s one person who knows how to win, it’s Frank Lampard.

What For Tottenham?

You never know with Tottenham. After a relatively successful few years in which they challenged both domestically and on the European stage, they’ve again fallen into a scenario they had hoped they had overcome: the transition period. But if there’s one person who can fire a team through this period and onto glory, it’s Jose Mourinho. While the Portuguese manager hasn’t hit the standards he set in the past for some time, there’s no denying that he has it within him to achieve great success. As with Chelsea, their prospects for next year will depend on who they can recruit during the off-season. If they back Jose and bring in the players he wants, then they’ll be a formidable force. If they don’t, then we can expect another struggling campaign, and it would be no surprise if Mourinho left during the season.

Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham are, in many ways, in highly similar situations at the moment. They could all fail or all succeed next year. It seems as if the best way to predict how they’ll fare next year is to see what they do during the summer since they all need to recruit players. And from then? We’ll just have to see what the wacky world of Premier League football throws up.