Three Premier League dark horses to watch in 2025-26

Aston Villa

Last season: 6th

Key departures: forward Marcus Rashford (to Barcelona), center back Axel Disasi (loan expiry; back to Chelsea), attacking midfielder Marco Asensio (loan expiry; back to PSG)

Key additions: forward Zepiqueno Redmond (from Feyenoord), forward Evann Guessand (from Nice)

It's been a quiet summer for the lovable Premier League dark horse. The club has bid farewell to a few of its loanees and welcomed young, largely unknown prospects in their wake. None of Aston Villa's summer signings make much of a statement... that is, until you realize what coach Unai Emery is doing with them.

Emery, in partnership with his longtime director of football Monchi, doesn't want a Chelsea-sized stable of high-value players. He'd much rather work with moldable young talents that he can train as needed and sell on for a profit in the future. This approach is something of a gamble in a competition as moneyed as the Premier League, but it's worked out well for Emery thus far. His Aston Villa has bounced back from finishing 14th in 2021-22 to finishing in 7th, 4th and 6th in the three seasons of his tenure.

Tottenham Hotspur

Last season: 17th

Key departures: forward Son Heung-Min (to LAFC), defensive midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (to Marseille), forward Timo Werner (loan expiry; back to RB Leipzig)

Key additions: winger Mohammed Kudus (from West Ham), center back Kevin Danso (from Lens), forward Mathys Tel (from Bayern Munich)

It's hard to know just what's going on with Tottenham Hotspur. On one hand, things have turned around drastically from last season's nigh-unbelievable 17th-placed finish: new coach Thomas Frank has established a healthy working environment, the club has cleared out some of its older and less productive players, and key signings Kudus and Tel are already proven on the European stage. But crisis is never far away at Spurs, and that adage has proven itself to be true once again in 2025-26. Attacking midfielder James Maddison suffered an ACL tear in preseason and is expected to miss the entire year; statement signing Morgan Gibbs-White fell through after Nottingham Forest renegotiated to keep him on its roster. Both are huge losses for the North London club.

As the Premier League season ticks closer, the question on everyone's mind is this: which Spurs will we get in 2025-26? The Spurs that consistently failed to compete against their Premier League peers despite their riches and quality? Or the Spurs that stormed to the Europa League trophy despite all that frustration? With Frank's steady hand on the tiller, signs point to the latter — and that firmly throws Spurs into the mix as a dark horse title contender in 2025-26.