Since returning from lockdown, we’ve become accustomed to getting our Premier League fix in drips and drabs, eked out at the rate of a game per day to the point that Fantasy Football has become utterly redundant.
The final day of the season, then, was a real shock to the system in all the right ways.
Well, unless you support Bournemouth, Watford or Leicester…in which case it was just a shock to the system.
Why’s that? We’ll tell you why,
Things have been steadily spiralling at Leicester pretty much since Christmas, but being booted out of the top four thanks to Jesse Lingard’s first league goal since about 2004 really was a new low for the Brendan Rodgers era.
As a result, Manchester United finished the season in third place, and will be joined in next season’s Champions League by fourth-placed Chelsea, who brushed aside Wolves to capitalise on Leicester falling flat on their face yet again.
Liverpool won the league so obviously they’ll be there, as will runners-up Manchester City after their ban was melodramatically overturned.
There were incredible scenes at Selhurst Park, as the Tottenham technical area rapturously celebrated a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace that secured…sixth place.
Leicester will join them in the Europa League, while Wolves miss out through domestic means, though could still secure their qualification through winning this year’s competition.
We’ll wait and see on that one.
It was a bit of a heart-breaker to see Eddie Howe in tears after Bournemouth conjured up a big performance to beat Everton, but you just can’t wait until the final four games of the season to show up and expect to be fine.
The Cherries head back to the Championship along with Watford, who lost at Arsenal. Both finished one point behind Aston Villa, whose point at West Ham was enough to stave off the dreaded drop.
Oh yeah, and Norwich are gone too…but if at this stage that’s news to you, then you’re probably looking at the wrong website.
Despite Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s best efforts against Watford, Jamie Vardy‘s 23 league goals mean that he became the oldest player to win the Premier League golden boot.
That’s despite him not even really turning up against Man Utd.
Commiserations go out to Danny Ings, whose late penalty against Sheffield United ensured he joined Aubameyang on 22 goals for the season. Raheem Sterling (20) and Mohamed Salah (19) just had too much to do.
Ederson‘s 16th clean sheet of the season, on a day where Nick Pope experienced the unfamiliar feeling of conceding a goal, meant that he wrestled the golden glove from the vice-like grip of Brazilian compatriot Alisson.
The Liverpool keeper kept one fewer, despite playing seven fewer games; but that probably just highlights why stats are a nonsense, especially as they pertain to keepers.
What a silly question. Obviously it was Kevin De Bruyne.
20 assists in a single season is quite a stupid number that has only once been matched by Thierry Henry – and he was quite good as you might remember.
De Bruyne was followed (though not that closely) by Liverpool full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold (13) and Andy Robertson (12) – though the latter’s ‘assist’ for Divock Origi, a square pass before the big striker raced inside and thumped one into the far corner, can barely be described as that.