Where AI thinks Plymouth Argyle and Exeter City will finish in L1 and L2 next season | OneFootball

Football League World leans on ChatGPT to see where it feels the Devon derby rivals will finish in their respective divisions next season

The reunion of the Devon derby rivals, Plymouth Argyle and Exeter City, was short-lived after the Grecians fell into League Two this past season.

The EFL was devoid of the fixture for two years while Argyle plied their trade in the Championship, but their two meetings across the 2025/26 campaign more than made up for it.

Despite their season ending in relegation, Exeter actually went the year unbeaten over the two games between the two sides, with their 1-0 win at St James Park taking place during Plymouth's terrible start to the campaign.

Their 2-2 draw at Home Park happened under completely different circumstances, as it was Exeter battling against the drop and Plymouth at the other end of the table. Then, Tom Cleverley's side were fighting to get into the top six.

And while their lunchtime battle in mid-April wasn't one of the final games of the term, there'll be some Exeter fans stating that the two points they took off Argyle stopped them from finishing in the play-offs, and Plymouth fans saying that the two points they stole late on helped relegate their rivals.

Either way, just because they're now in different divisions doesn't mean that the back-and-forth will stop, and both sides will be hoping to celebrate not only their own success, but the other's possible failures next season.

Where AI thinks Plymouth Argyle and Exeter City will finish in League One and League Two next season

After a brilliant end to the recent League One campaign, many are tipping Plymouth to be early-season promotion favourites, especially if they can keep the likes of Lorent Tolaj and Bim Pepple, who were electric up front, at the club.

The likelihood of both staying is incredibly slim, but even without one or both of them, popular AI-based site ChatGPT is still hot on Argyle's chances in 2026/27.

It believes that Tom Cleverley's side will finish fourth next season, going one better than this past term and finishing in a play-off place, due primarily to that aforementioned end to 2025/26, where the Pilgrims had the third-best points return from December 1st until the final day.

The crowded top-end of the third tier next season will make it difficult to finish in the top two, and whoever does get promoted will definitely have to earn it.

Meanwhile, it can often be difficult for relegated sides from League One to stabilise and stop the rot ahead of a fourth-tier campaign. While AI doesn't think that Exeter will be battling relegation, as the likes of Crawley Town and Shrewsbury Town were this past season, it doesn't predict that the Grecians will immediately get promoted.

Indeed, ChatGPT has Matt Taylor's side finishing 12th in League Two next season, citing their potential financial issues, with the club being fan-owned, as a real blockage to a promotion charge.

Additionally, Ilmari Niskanen, who registered the most assists in the third tier last term, is already leaving the club at the end of his contract, and top scorer Jayden Wareham may follow him out this summer, which would really impact their frontline and would require them to rebuild it ahead of the new season.

AI feels that this will be a season of transition for the Grecians, rather than promotion.

AI predicts that Plymouth Argyle will be celebrating promotion next season

Plymouth would be the happier of the two sides with how their predicted season would pan out, but Exeter fans would be waiting to have the last laugh if Argyle fell in the play-offs.

Unfortunately for them, AI doesn't think that Tom Cleverley's side will, and come next May, the Pilgrims will be celebrating at Wembley in the League One play-off final after beating Sheffield Wednesday.

That would mean that the 2027/28 campaign would see Plymouth two divisions above their arch-rivals and with all the bragging rights in the discussions between which of the two sides is bigger at that time.

Time will tell whether ChatGPT gets it right, though. For now, Argyle fans can take confidence that they're being outlined as a side ready for promotion in 2026/27.