Barcelona indeed won LaLiga, Liverpool were even better than top-two, and Nottingham Forest very much finished in the top half of the Premier League table. PSG were definitely better without Kylian Mbappe, and Freiburg snagged a top-five finish in the Bundesliga.
Our Early-Season Overreactions for 2024-25 had a fantastic success rate, even if Everton didn't go down, Juventus didn't win Serie A and Brighton still didn't break through.
We know measured predictions, derived from the largest possible sample, are usually the best, and we know that one to two matches aren't enough of a sample to go on.