Premier League Predictions, Week 34 (Part 1)

© Micah Veldkamp, 2026

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Welcome back to the weekly predictions, everyone! Did you miss me? It's been 72 whole hours since you heard from me last!! How have you managed?!?

What am I doing back so soon, you ask? Well, I couldn't wait any longer! Crystal Palace and West Ham just brought Week 33 to an end with a scintillating 0-0 draw, so let's move on to Week 34!! Okay, I do have a real reason for the immediate turnaround, and it's not just that Liverpool's last-minute victory in the Merseyside Derby has re-instilled a love of football in me. The FA Cup semifinals are coming up this weekend, and all participants have had their league matches bumped up to the midweek as a result, which means that as soon as tomorrow, some teams also involved in significant fixtures for the fate of the Premier League table will be playing their matches. So I'm going to preview a couple of those midweek matches for now, and will hashtag circle back and hashtag connect with you all later on for this weekend's predictions. Watch this space!

And while you're at it, watch my season form plummet like the North London tandem: yes, this past weekend I improved upon my disastrous week prior, but only by the slimmest of margins. Where I went winless 10 days ago, I scored a solitary win this weekend-- although even that required a stoppage-time winner, from Aston Villa over Sunderland. I also whiffed on all scoreline predictions, for a nice clean 1/5 week. I've made joking references to my "slide" towards it, but no more joke: I'm a couple more performances like this away from reaching the dreaded .500 line, now sitting at 80/145 on the season.

But, believe it or not, the matches are kicking back off in less than 24 hours, so let's not waste any more time doom-manifesting. Here are your first couple for Week 34!

Brighton & Hove Albion vs. Chelsea

It wasn't all that long ago that things looked pretty peachy for Chelsea's chances in participating in next season's Champions League: they were comfortably in the Top 4, and sitting in the Champions League Round of 16. But a brutal last month has seen them drop four straight league matches and also get bumrushed out of Europe by reigning champions PSG, and now they are running out of time to salvage a return to Europe's premier competition next season. The last two weekends in particular have been damning, as they lost to Top 5 teams Manchesters City and United and 4th-place Liverpool won both of their matches to widen the gap to 7 points. In fact, tomorrow's hosts Brighton have won their last 3 matches and snuck all the way up to a lone point behind the Blues; a win at home for the Gulls would leapfrog them up into 6th place, amazingly. I struggle to see Chelsea dropping a fifth straight match, especially when they know what's at stake. But they're on the road and in such poorer form than their opponents that it would be malpractice to predict a Blues victory, at the same time. One of those where no outcome would shock me, but I suspect honors may be shared.

The Pick: Draw, 1-1

Burnley vs. Manchester City

Arsenal have sat alone atop the Premier League table since the start of October, but with a win in Burnley on Wednesday, Manchester City can knock the Gunners from their perch for the first time since Week 7. (Technically the two would be level on points, but a win would by necessity give City the goal-differential edge.) Poor current form aside, "bottling it" memes aside, it's still pretty stunning that Arsenal are at this point, where we could feasibly enter the last month with a team other than them leading the league. I still think there are plenty of turns left in these last 5 weeks-- this is not the most reliable City team Pep Guardiola's had, by any means, and Arsenal perform much better without the sole target on their backs anyhow. But I don't expect Man City's stumble, should it come, to come against one of the worst teams in the league whose relegation fate is essentially already sealed.

The Pick: Man City, 2-0