This year the former title may be attributed to norwich, swansea and newcastle whist the latter to liverpool and aston villa. Next year inevitably other clubs will strive to emulate the success enjoyed by such clubs in the pl. Obviously transfer season is yet to come but based purely on what you'e seen so far and incumbent manager who does everyone think will surprise and flop next year. With regards to surprise i would say southampton and reading (if they get promoted) with liverpool an outside chance though thats debatable. With regard to flops i would say manu (daring and i say it every year to be fair but fergie always proves me wrong ) and spurs (depends on whether they can retain top player and harry stays)
Maybe Everton, if they start the season well. They finally have a good forward and the rest of team is pretty solid.
Edit - Apologies for misreading OP's post Surprise - Newcastle to continue where they left off this year, Liverpool because they can't do any worse or can they? Failure - Liverpool being worse than the have been this year, Chelsea in the doldrums, Villa because Mcleish hasn't a clue, Spurs because some key players and Harry will have left
Surprise: Newcastle, Manu set for a 20th title, I never thought Manu could do it, City were looking too strong for them, and it looked like a very weak Manunited side, yet they have managed to burst past Mancity. In fact how many times have we said that this looks like a weak Manu side only for them to go on and win the title? Failure: Liverpool, they started the season so brightly, they looked like they finally had a very good solid team, and then it all crumbled quite badly, I thought they looked like title contenders in the opening weeks, I think a better manager would probably make them a better team with the same group of players, Dalgleish was never a good choice, just based on sentimentality.
The team that wins the championship will do poorly, as is so often the case, while the team that gets through the playoffs will have a better work-ethic coming into the league and will do better. Norwich will flop. It's the same old story: team gets promoted, does well in first season, plummets to relegation in the second. Swansea seem a bit different because they haven't done as well as their ability predicts, they may be mid-table, but it depends how many players they keep. Do they keep Vorm? Do they get Sigurdsson again? Liverpool will start ok and then flop just as hard... especially after Suarez puts in a transfer request to move to Real Madrid. Gerrard will finally retire after the season, and Liverpool will be relegated in 2014. If QPR survive they will be much improved, mid-table. Man City will shed a bunch of players, buy a bunch of players, and inevitably have the same problems they had this season. Man United will have to be less reliant on Scholes and Giggs for the first time. They'll suffer from more inconsistency but the officials will swoop in to reward even more penalties to make up for it. Ashley Young will win 90% of these penalties, and will turn green from perpetual grass-staining. Arsenal will clearly win the league having solved their defensive problems, they midfield frailties, and by Podolski netting 20 goals in his first season. Chelsea will hire some foreign manager who is too stupid to turn them down, like Zola, Gullit or Deschamps, and they'll be just where they are this season. Spuds will be spuds... choking their way to a 5th place finish. Newcastle will lose Ben Arfa and Tiote to Chelsea before turning into a mid-table team again.
Surpise: Arsenal (cuz we will win the title) and finally Everton Failure: Aston Villa (with their coach) and Newcastle (some key players will leave)
Surprise: Newcastle. Actually have a very decent squad and spine. With European football (particularly Champions League) players won't leave and they will no doubt add to the squad with a few more astute additions. Failure: Arsenal. RVP will either leave this summer or will let his contract run out next season. Either way it will be detrimental to Arsenal. Even the most blinkered of Arsenal fans must acknowledge that once he leaves its game over.
