Hello to new players, and welcome back to returning predictors as The Athletic launches season two of our weekly Premier League Predictions series.Last year, you, The Athletic subscribers, pipped six-year-old Wilfred to the trophy on the final day, with The Athletic’s Oliver Kay (somewhat shamefully) finishing third behind the world’s most knowledgeable infant schooler.The algorithm brought up the rear in fourth, but recalibrated its formulas and stormed to victory in our World Cup version, topping a five-team table with the returning Wilfred, a new set of Athletic experts, and Stanley, a whippet who made bold predictions his calling card.Stanley’s inclusion significantly increased the potential for humiliation, so we bribed him out of the game with a pile of doggy treats, but we’re delighted to say the rest of the World Cup team has rested up, dusted themselves (or itself, in Algo’s case) down, and signed up for the second year of predictions.This year, Oli has recruited some help. He will be joined by returning experts from the World Cup series, Elias Burke and Andy Jones, as well as Duncan Alexander, to form a rotating cast of Athletic know-it-alls.Oli is a veteran of multiple World Cups, with over two decades of reporting on England and the Premier League. Duncan is one of The Athletic’s most knowledgeable journalists, with a background in data. Andy is a Liverpool reporter, while Elias reports on Tottenham Hotspur. But if Wilfred beats us again… well, he’s turning seven on Saturday, so we never really stood a chance anyway.And if you’re new to the Premier League after falling in love with soccer over the summer, good news: we’re making it even more straightforward to play along. Last year, players predicted the scoreline for each of the 10 Premier League matches each gameweek. Points were awarded for correct guesses, and a league table was used to track the standings.This year, we’re stripping it back. Like in the World Cup edition, players will just need to pick between a home win, an away win or a draw. There will be three points for each correct prediction, plus a bonus of five points if you get all 10 results correct in one week — though if you do that, you should probably quit your day job and take mine.Nice and simple, eh? If none of that made sense, flick back to our launch article, which goes through the rules in detail.So, here goes: Gameweek One of 38. Good luck to our first guest subscriber, 47-year-old Ryan from Las Vegas, who is a Tottenham fan!Subscriber’s match of the weekManchester City vs BournemouthRyan says: “Manchester City vs Bournemouth is an interesting one for the opening weekend. Are Bournemouth still good or do they crater this year after the exit of Andoni Iraola? How much will City miss Rodri and Pep Guardiola? It feels like a lot is up in the air both sides may not have the year they want.”HOME WINElias says: “City’s poor performance in their 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in last Sunday’s Community Shield has dampened expectations for Enzo Maresca’s first season in charge at the Etihad Stadium, but you should never read too much into that game. City lost three successive Community Shield matches in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and went on to win the Premier League in each of those seasons. I’m not saying that will happen again, but I expect them to kick into gear for the start of the league season.”HOME WINEnzo Maresca faces a big challenge taking over from Pep Guardiola (Carl Recine/Getty Images)