Online poll gives United EPL title

Manchester United have been backed to win the Premier League title by a sizeable majority of BBC Sport users.

More than 56,000 people predicted their final table using our selector, with 60% expecting Jose Mourinho to continue his record of winning the league in his second season at a new club.

Arsenal have been tipped for their lowest finish under Arsene Wenger.

At the bottom, Huddersfield, Crystal Palace and Brighton made up the relegation places.

Your final league table

The title race and the Champions League

Manchester United are the only Premier League team with a 100% record so far this season and their excellent start – along with the summer signings of Romelu Lukaku, Nemanja Matic and Victor Lindelof – was enough to ensure they emerged as clear favourites.

Manchester City were backed to be their closest challengers, while only 8.6% of you thought Chelsea would retain the title they won so convincingly last season.

The Stamford Bridge club did make the top four though, with their third-placed finish behind the two Manchester clubs enough for Champions League qualification, along with fourth-placed Liverpool.

But while London clubs dominated the top flight in 2016-17 – Tottenham finished second behind Chelsea – you do not expect them to perform so well this time around.

Spurs, runners-up last season, were tipped to lose out in the battle for the top four.

And Arsenal, who missed out on Champions League qualification last season with a fifth-placed finish – their lowest since Wenger’s appointment in 1996 – came sixth in our predicted league table.

In fact, only 1.3% of users thought the Gunners would win a first title since 2004.

The battle to avoid the drop

Promoted Huddersfield are unbeaten after three matches and are third in the real-life table.

But you still anticipate a struggle for the Terriers – they are predicted to finish 18th.

It is Brighton, though, who you are most convinced will return to the Championship, with 55.4% of participants saying they will finish 20th.

That was the second-highest proportion for any single placing – behind Manchester United as title winners.

Crystal Palace, one of three sides yet to earn a point this season, are tipped to finish 19th after a worrying start and uncertainty about the future of manager Frank de Boer.

So will you be right?

Let’s take a look at how you got on last season.

An overwhelming majority (78%) picked Manchester City as champions in 2016-17, a figure that was perhaps a reflection of their scintillating start to that campaign – they had won all five league games at the time we asked for your predictions.

Ultimately, though, that proved wide of the mark, with Chelsea (your tip for second) clinching the title with relative ease.

Three of your final top four were right, with Tottenham taking Arsenal’s place in the real-life table at the end of 2016-17.

At the bottom, you got two out of three right, with Sunderland and Hull both correctly tipped for the drop.

But Burnley – your pick for 20th – ended up six points clear of the relegation zone in the relative safety of 16th.

[BBC]