Predicting the 2026/27 starting XIs of the Big Six: who signs Anderson and are Gyokeres, Isak dropped? | OneFootball

Which one signing will Arsenal add to their first-choice XI? Who will Liverpool bully Newcastle into selling? And which Ratcliffe obsession will Man Utd buy?

The January 2026 transfer window has closed and it most certainly happened. One of the bigger stories was probably Dwight McNeil being both valued at an actual £20m and then being f**ked around by Crystal Palace – which might not be a coincidence – so it was not a stone-cold classic.

There were winners and there were losers in the month-long market, and there is also a need to look ahead again because the Premier League wheel and content machines never stop spinning.

And frankly these next few months will be boring, with Arsenal having the league wrapped up until they next drop points, the relegation race run now West Ham have realised who they are again, and the sack race slowing right down after the madness of the first few days of the year.

Why not, then, look ahead to how the Big Six will shape up going into next season? There is literally no good reason not to. Try not to think about it too much.

Arsenal’s first-choice XI for the 2026/27 season revealed

The point remains that Arsenal probably have a second-choice XI which would challenge for Champions League qualification and obviously still score 427 goals from set-pieces in the process.

This absurd concept of recruiting really good players and depth across every position to compete on multiple trophy-shaped fronts will never catch on, even if it does require them to keep signing Chelsea cast-offs.

That does leave them with significantly less room for improvement than their peers. The goalkeeper and defence is not shifting. The midfield – even with a mild sense of supporter frustration at the stylings of Martin Odegaard – will likely not change either. But the attack is slightly different.

Bukayo Saka will patrol Arsenal’s right flank until his hamstrings turn to dust. The Viktor Gyokeres experiment will not be abandoned after a single season in which he is currently the club’s top scorer anyway. Gabriel Martinelli feels a little less secure, with Eberechi Eze, Leandro Trossard and Noni Madueke failing to provide ample evidence that they can be more than cover and rotational options on the left.

Combined with that record £255m spend in the summer, it creates a scenario whereby the Quadruple winners can afford a single marquee signing to round out their attack and add some gloss to a window spent scouring Europe for squad players over 6ft 5ins.

Given the gilded choice of Rodrygo, Bradley Barcola or Julian Alvarez, it is easy to see Mikel Arteta using Premier League experience as the deciding factor to find his ‘missing piece’.

Arsenal’s 2026/27 first-choice XI: Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Odegaard, Zubimendi, Rice; Saka, Gyokeres, Alvarez

Chelsea’s first-choice XI for the 2026/27 season revealed

Only an actual idiot would try and figure out Chelsea’s first-choice anything at any given time, never mind the 11 players they deem young and ultimately desirable enough to sell for a ludicrous profit which will fund their next future raid of South American teenagers.

It can be difficult enough predicting the poor sap in charge of being lectured about red zones in the dugout, never mind the identity of the expensive, mildly Strasbourg-flavoured team he has had bestowed upon him.

Liam Rosenior will probably at least make it to the start of next season, likely armed with a trophy if the history of Chelsea is anything to go by. And he might already be considering precisely how he is going to simultaneously age all of these men.

A couple of the many returning loanees will provide interesting dilemmas. Nicolas Jackson does carry the aura of whatever the LinkedIn-friendly equivalent of a bomb squad is, while Mike Penders has done well at Strasbourg and could usurp Robert Sanchez.

Beyond that, Chelsea have already confirmed four signings in summer 2026, including a £42.1m forward whose progress in Portugal has been slightly impeded by an entirely fractured foot.

It feels like only the £206.8m midfield tandem is absolutely certain to persist, with everything else susceptible to variables and the whims of whichever member of Brighton’s recruitment staff Chelsea have poached most recently. A rogue Seagull will follow that trawler.

Chelsea’s 2026/27 first-choice XI: Sanchez; James, Van Hecke, Colwill, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernandez; Estevao, Palmer, Barcola; Joao Pedro

Liverpool’s first-choice XI for the 2026/27 season revealed

As with most of these forecasts, it is important to first decipher who the actual manager will be. And when Arne Slot baldly secures Champions League qualification on the final day for Liverpool it will be decided that he gets another £400m summer transfer injection before being sacked when they lose to Millwall at Anfield in October to leave them marooned in 14th.

In his final action as Liverpool manager, Slot will sign a contract that guarantees Cody Gakpo a lifetime supply of wasteful minutes on the left.

The Mo Salah succession plan will see Dominik Szoboszlai take his place on the right as he continues in his quest to become the Hungarian James Milner, providing tireless cover in every conceivable position.

Jeremy Jacquet should already be preparing for a season of Virgil van Dijk hand-holding, which will actually involve being shouted at after conceding as a direct consequence of the exasperated captain’s steadfast refusal to break into anything more than a languid stride.

Liverpool will also make it an annual tradition to bully and humiliate Newcastle by taking one of their best players. But the one they nabbed for a Premier League record fee last summer has work to do to depose Hugo Ekitike.

Liverpool’s 2026/27 first-choice XI: Alisson; Livramento, Van Dijk, Jacquet, Kerkez; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Gakpo; Ekitike

Manchester City’s first-choice XI for the 2026/27 season revealed

If the tabloidese ‘[Manager X’s] dream XI revealed’ template is to be believed, then:

a) Enzo Maresca would return to Etihad with Marc Cucurella, Malo Gusto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as his entourage.

b) Xabi Alonso would scrub his six unhappy months at Real Madrid from history and instead take anything of worth at Bayer Leverkusen that Liverpool have not already raided

c) Cesc Fabregas would leave a pile of idyllic, lake-adjacent rubble where Como once stood.

Manchester City just need to decide who replaces Pep Guardiola when he leaves at the end of the season. They will inherit a team boosted by daft levels of recent investment. And obviously Matheus Nunes at right-back. And somehow probably still Bernardo Silva somewhere if we’re being honest.

Manchester City’s 2026/27 first-choice XI: Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, Ait-Nouri; Rodri; Semenyo, Reijnders, Gonzalez, Doku; Haaland

Manchester United’s first-choice XI for the 2026/27 season revealed

It does depend on whether they appoint a permanent manager inexorably and destructively wedded to one singular formation, who also displays a scant disregard for academy produced-players and is charismatic enough to convince an increasingly desperate club that everything must be sacrificed in the name of his vision.

Then again, what serious footballing institution would be daft enough to do that?

When Michael Carrick does win all his remaining games purely out of spite against Roy Keane, there will be only a handful of certainties in the Manchester United starting XI: it will contain Harry Maguire; Luke Shaw will be injured as it isn’t a major international tournament season; a new midfield will be signed at ridiculous expense; Bruno Fernandes must be kept.

It is anyone’s guess beyond that. Marcus Rashford might fit in somewhere. Amad should. Jason Wilcox will have to find his Manchester City academy fix along the way. And he will definitely just give in eventually when Sir Jim keeps texting him about Michael Kayode’s long throws.

Spurs’ first-choice XI for the 2026/27 season revealed