Guardian writers’ predicted position: 16th (NB: this is not necessarily Nick Ames’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips) Last season’s position: 13th Odds to win the league (via Oddschecker): 750-1 Second-season syndrome?
Brentford arguably suffered a variant of it in their first. After storming through the opening weeks of their Premier League debut they slumped alarmingly to the extent that, had it not been for the transformative impact of Christian Eriksen, relegation would have loomed menacingly.
It means they have experience of pulling themselves up by the bootstraps when opponents find them out and the signs are they may need to draw upon it.
The obvious snag is that Eriksen, who protractedly chose Manchester United ahead of another spell in west London, is no longer around.