I personally think the league is much weaker this coming season with Brighton and Newcastle going up, and weaker teams in terms of stability and squad replacing them - Newcastle and Villa came down with huge financial spending power, one spent wisely and the other didn't and look what happened. Sunderland will probably perform similar to how we did, I can't see Hull faring much better with the state of their ownership, and Middlesbrough are without Karanka who masterminded their push into the prem. I'm not even sure if Villa will make top six to be honest, yes they spent a load of money but they haven't exactly set the world alight since Bruce rocked up, they seem like a case of throw money at it and hope for the best. I fully expect us to be up there next year, Derby and Wednesday would be guesses for being up there with us, Norwich would expect to be challenging, maybe one of the three relegation teams, potentially Villa if they sort themselves out, and then I'm not really sure who else because there's a group of 6-7 teams that are similarly average after that. If Hudds go up then I'm not sure how Reading will do (surely their luck will run out and they'll return to mediocrity at some stage??), if Reading go up then I'd expect Hudds to be there again as long as they keep Wagner.
