With just three rounds of the 2025/26 Premier League campaign to play, there is plenty for SBOTOP fans to get excited about… as very little has been settled.
Manchester City and Arsenal are in a furious race for the Premier League title and that looks set to go down to the wire, while Tottenham Hotspur have just recorded back-to-back wins to ignite the relegation battle. On Sunday, Manchester United confirmed their 2026/27 Champions League place with a 3-2 win over Liverpool who still need points to get their ticket.
And there are at least six, and up to eight clubs still on the hunt for Europa places, one of them Brentford, and it is in that part of West London where some of the biggest Premier League 2026 news stories have been written. Following the departure of beloved manager Thomas Frank and star players Bryan Mbeumo and Yoanne Wissa, the Bees were seen as relegation candidates. But incoming manager Keith Andrews has done a phenomenal job leading Brentford to seventh place and with a strong chance of a top eight finish.
Andrews has played his hand brilliantly, as part of Frank’s coaching team, he understands what works and he has continued to drive his team on to fully committed, well organized performances and a willingness to attack with quick transitions and penetrating set pieces from long throws or free kicks. And the Bees’ biggest sting is in their star striker Igor Thiago, who scored his 22nd goal of the league campaign in a 3-0 win over West Ham United on Saturday, and he now trails Manchester City’s Erling Braut Haaland by just two goals in the race for the Golden Boot.
Thiago signed for Brentford in a £30m switch from Club Brugge in 2024, but in an injury-ravaged campaign he played just eight times as Mbeumo and Wissa scored the goals which gave Brentford a top-ten finish. But this season, the 24-year-old has come into his own and has combined the shooting ability of Mbeumo and the clever movement of Wissa to become the near-perfect striker. A development which has not gone un-noticed by neighbours Chelsea, who are reported to be tracking the star, now rated at £80m; but the Blues will have competition from Atletico Madrid, AC Milan and Juventus, if the Brazilian can be tempted away in the summer.
In the meantime, Thiago has three games to pass the tally of Haaland, who has two additional games to keep his nose ahead. The Norwegian hitman scored the winner in Manchester City’s last two league matches, a 1-0 victory over Burnley and a potentially pivotal 2-1 win over Arsenal. And he will be in action on Monday night when the Sky Blues play away to Everton when another strike would leave Thiago needing at least a goal a game to win the Golden Boot.
But Brentford’s man has come a long way in a short space of time and now he has the world at his feet.
The chasing pack
Barring a sensational scoring spree, the likes of which we have never seen, the chase for the Golden Boot is a two-horse race between Thiago and Haaland; but let’s take a quick look at the other strikers who can be pleased with their efforts this season.
Haaland’s strike partner Antoine Semenyo has scored 15 goals and stands alone in third place. The Ghanaian winger cum striker switched to Manchester City in the January transfer window in a £64m move from Bournemouth and has since scored five goals in 12 games for the Sky Blues, and he will surely have a part to play in the title run-in; as will Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres who, with 14 goals finds himself in joint fourth place alongside Chelsea forward Joao Pedro. The Swedish star has gathered momentum in recent weeks, scoring a brace on Saturday as the Gunners beat Fulham 3-0 and he is set to star again when Arsenal meet Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Thanks in no small part to the goals of Gyokeres the latest Premier League 2026 betting odds have nudged slightly towards the Emirates Stadium, but they will swing back northwards if Manchester City win their game in hand. Pedro, meanwhile, is part of an underperforming Chelsea side which has just got their latest manager, Liam Rosenior, sacked and are in the fight, alongside the likes of Brentford for a Europa place.
Another team in that mix is Brighton & Hove Albion, and their veteran striker Danny Welbeck has scored 13 goals for the eighth-placed Seagulls, while Nottingham Forest attacking midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White also has 13 to give his team a good chance of surviving the relegation fight.
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