John Terry makes bold Chelsea prediction ahead of Arsenal title fight | Football

John Terry has boldly predicted that Chelsea will be top of the Premier League table after the opening rounds of the 2025/26.

After a disastrous season that saw the club finish 10th, with both Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior losing their jobs, the Blues are looking to bounce back under Xabi Alonso.

With an impressive manager in the dugout, notable signings like Morgan Rogers and Maxence Lacroix and no European football, some have tipped Chelsea as unlikely title winners.

Terry isn’t going that far, declaring that Arsenal are ‘big favourites’ to retain the trophy, but is confident his former side can have a successful season and get off to a near-perfect start.

Alonso has been given a fairly favourable set of fixtures to begin his Chelsea career with, starting with a trip to local rivals Fulham on Monday night. In fact, the Blues are not set to play outside London until mid-October.

The Chelsea legend has predicted they will begin the campaign with wins against Fulham, Brighton (with help from former Seagull Danny Welbeck), Hull City and Brentford.

Most notably, he has predicted the Blues will also secure a 1-1 draw away to the Gunners on September 6, with Alonso’s side to be top of the table after five games.

‘For him [Alonso], you really want to get off to a winning start, so you want to win your first game, you can get momentum from that,’ the former Chelsea and England captain said on TikTok.

‘I remember years ago when Jose Mourinho came back, Burnley away we went 1-0 down after 20 odd minutes, came back to win the game with an unbelievable touch and finish and pass from Cesc Fabregas to Andre Schurrle.

‘Just from that moment you could just feel something was happening. So as players, you have to be very confident but also you feel the momentum, you can feel things are right.

If they are right off the pitch and around the place, which they are because I’ve been around it myself – you can see and feel it – and we have bigger and better players coming back from the World Cup that haven’t even met up with the first-team yet.

‘I think you can only be excited. So I think for him, looking at these first five games, I would be expecting three to four wins and maybe a couple of draws.

‘Off to a great start and Chelsea sitting top of the league after five games is my prediction.’

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