Aston Villa are favourites to go down along with Fulham and West Brom, but personally I think they'll do okay.

While Villa's post-lockdown haul of nine points was nothing spectacular, placing them 16th in the Project Restart league table, they were definitely a much-improved unit.

Dean Smith spoke openly about spending the hiatus drilling his side in set-piece work, both attacking and defensive, before using the short preparation they had to mainly focus on being more solid.

They conceded just 11 goals in 10 matches after the restart, with seven of those coming in defeats by Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. Before lockdown they conceded 56 in 28 games.

Lots has been said and written about the money Smith's side spent last summer to prepare for their return to the top flight, and the club defended itself by claiming it was a necessary, long-term rebuild.

Those players should be much stronger for the experience of a top-flight season, and if they can maintain just an element of their defensive improvement, they have a great chance.

But safety will also hinge on their ability to solve their problems at the other end - while their defence got better, their already modest 1.2 goals per game dropped to 0.7.

Ollie Watkins has been heavily linked and a striker like him would have to arrive to both solve the issue of goalscoring, and add a pacy threat in behind which has been missing since Tammy Abraham's loan ended in May 2019.

The recruitment of Matty Cash from Nottingham Forest looks like an excellent piece of business, solving a problem that saw Smith use various different centre-halves in the right-back role during the closing weeks of last term.

Villa look to be better equipped now than they were last August, and that bodes well for their prospects of climbing away from the relegation battle.

West Ham must have thought someone at the Premier League had a vendetta against them when the fixtures came out. Putting it mildly, they have an astonishingly difficult start.

After beginning at home to Newcastle, they play six matches against sides that finished in the top eight last season - they avoid Chelsea and Manchester United, if you're wondering.

While that's clearly harsh, and could lead to undue pressure being placed on David Moyes early in the campaign, their excellent end to 2019/20 showed me enough to think they won't be mired in the relegation dogfight this time around.

When discussing their chances of survival post-lockdown I wrote that they had too much quality, allied with a hard-nosed experienced coach, to be relegated. I am sticking by that.

Brighton won plenty of admirers during their maiden season under Graham Potter, but didn't earn the points their performances deserved. Much of that was down to them drawing a league-high 14 matches.

Their defensive record ended up being pretty poor too, something that will be helped immensely by Ben White's decision to sign a new four-year contract after a superb season on loan at Leeds.

Many of the goals Albion conceded came directly from individual errors that were a result of their commitment to playing out from defence, something White excels at.

Like Villa though, goals are a major problem.

Adam Lallana looks a good fit, but he won't fix that for them, and it's also tricky to know just how much the former Liverpool man has tailed off after several years in the wilderness at Anfield.

There will be three teams worse than Brighton in the Premier League this season, of that I'm pretty confident.

Unless Neal Maupay or Aaron Connolly - the most likely candidates - can discover their shooting boots though, it could be a close run thing.

The other contenders

Relegation odds:

Newcastle and Crystal Palace are a marginally bigger price to be relegated than Aston Villa, both for similar, and fair, reasons.

There has been a lack of transfer activity for near enough the entire three years Roy Hodgson has been at Selhurst Park, something that was irking him enough that he almost left at the end of the season.

The former England boss was persuaded to sign a new one-year contract, and since then Palace have signed Ebere Eze from QPR for £20m. Only Norwich scored fewer than Palace's 31 goals last term, so the attacking midfielder should help with that.

Palace finished 14th in the end, but they were never in the relegation battle - not even close.

Hodgson's side were a big fancy for the drop when they lost their opening game at Sheffield United in tame fashion last August, for the exact same reasons that are being outlined this time around.

But they responded with a run that quickly put distance between themselves and the bottom three, and never looked back.

They did, however, lose seven of their nine Project Restart games, collecting only four points, so there should be genuine concern. Nathan Ferguson will solve a problem they've had at right-back since Aaron Wan-Bissaka left a year ago, but there hasn't been the major influx of players that Hodgson would have liked.

I really think they'll struggle this season.

Newcastle did make a raft of signings following Steve Bruce's appointment last summer, some of which have been roaring successes, i.e. Allan Saint-Maximin, and others complete flops, like Joelinton.

There has been real angst on Tyneside this summer because of the collapsed Saudi takeover and consequent uncertainty, while on the pitch just two post-lockdown wins did nothing to encourage supporters ahead of 2020/21.

But similar to Palace, they had very little to play for when the season got back under way. Come September 12 they'll have plenty.

Steve Bruce did a terrific job under trying circumstances last term, as it was never going to be easy succeeding Benitez. Jeff Hendrick was the only early arrival, but crucially they didn't lose anyone despite plenty of rumours surrounding Saint-Maximin and Matty Longstaff - and they're close to adding three great signings.

Callum Wilson, Ryan Fraser and Jamal Lewis could all sign before the season starts, and that changes the make-up of this squad completely.

The campaign might be a lot smoother for the Magpies if those new additions are made than it will be for Palace, but both clubs will have just about enough to survive in my book.