Rio Ferdinand immediately U-turns on his 1-20 Premier League final positions prediction

Rio Ferdinand has predicted Liverpool will retain their Premier League crown this year as he forecast where each side will finish this campaign. But the Manchester United icon admitted he made a few errors when locking in his choices.

The top-flight returns after three long months on Friday evening as the reigning champions welcome Bournemouth to Anfield. ArneSlot's side will be looking to get off to the perfect start after a dominant title win last term, whilst Andoni Iraola's Cherries will look to mount an upset after narrowly missing out on European competition.

Liverpool are favourites to go back-to-back, and that's exactly what Red Devils legend Ferdinand thinks they'll do, as revealed through his randomised league table prediction. Though a few selections did go awry.

Ferdinand took to TikTok ahead of the new season to forecast where every side would finish, and did so using a filter that randomly selected a team. He would then place sides on a blank table continuously until complete, leaving room for some blunders.

"[Wolves] I'm gonna go 16th. [Nottingham] Forest, because they're in Europe, I'm gonna put them down a little bit this season...I'm gonna go ninth. Everton, I'll go middle of the road somewhere, 13th," began Ferdinand.

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"Fulham 10th. Arsenal, No. 2. Burnley just down [18th]. Chelsea fourth and Man City, I'm gonna go third, still on a hangover. I'm gonna go eighth for West Ham.

"Newcastle, now I'm gonna go sixth. Man United seventh, but could be sixth United. Brentford, 17th, lost some good players, man, lost their manager too."

Ferdinand then realised he made an error when choosing his final league table through the randomised format, as he declared: "What am I thinking, Brighton should be eighth, but got to go 11th now.

"Liverpool, first, they're gonna win it, unfortunately. Bournemouth 12th. Sunderland, bottom [20th], down. Oh, Spurs, Spurs aren't finishing fifth. Got to put them fifth, but Newcastle should be above Spurs.

"Oh, [Aston] Villa! Another one I've missed. Villa are 14th," he laughed, suggesting he should have put them much higher. "[Crystal] Palace are 15th as well. Leeds, my old team, is 19th, unfortunately.

"I want Leeds to stay up, but I don't think they're capable. All three teams that have come up will go down. I've messed up. You know who I'm confident is gonna finish higher than I've said here.

"Palace will finish higher than 15th. Villa will 100 percent finish higher than fourth and Brighton will finish higher than 11th. All the others are around about where they should be, Spurs are too high actually."

The ex-United defender is confident that Slot's Reds will retain their Premier League crown. He also thinks the top four will remain the same as last season, with Arsenal in second, City in third and Chelsea in fourth.

Ferdinand wasn't so convinced, however, about Thomas Frank's Spurs. After finishing 17th last year, he thinks they will not get as close as his original positioning of fifth.

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