Premier League report card: How did your club fare this season?
Manchester City's Fernandinho lifts the Premier League trophy following the the Premier League match at The Etihad Stadium, Manchester. Picture date: Sunday May 22, 2022.
The champions for the fourth time in five seasons and with a ridiculous goal difference of +73 having scored 99 goals and won 29 games, it is hard to say they don’t deserve the win, or even that they need a striker, though they have just signed the prolific Erling Haaland. Football relies on jeopardy for the mutual observer to really get involved. That leads to, not boredom exactly, but a feeling of inevitability. And that’s not good for any sport. With unlimited wealth at his disposal, it‘s hard to see past City as title winners for the remainder of his contract. Again, this is not good for most of us neutrals, any of the other 19 clubs, or even the Premier League.
All season long they have been tremendous to watch and at times utterly thrilling as they swept upfield like the Red Arrows flying in formation. Liverpool have been the team for the neutral to watch simply because they play a game which accepts jeopardy as a given but stares it down and beats it more often than not. It was the same on Sunday against Wolves as once again, they came from behind to win. The fact that Mo Salah, Trent Alexander Arnold and Andy Robertson are the top three of the assist chart for the entire league, tells its own story. But at the end of it all, it was probably that flirting with jeopardy that cost them the extra two points which would’ve given them the title. So be it. Football is meant to be entertaining and the Reds have entertained all season long.
It’s been an odd season for the Blues. Romelu Lukaku hasn't been deployed for maximum effect. Indeed, he was the wrong transfer at the wrong time for the wrong club. That being said, he still scored 15 in 44 games however, too few of those goals were significant. Too much has been made of the change of ownership being disruptive, players don't care who owns the club, they only care about being paid. Thomas Tuchel cut a frustrated, tense figure by the end. A clearout of ageing players, a reboot and rebranding of club style is needed.
They lost 11 games which is a lot for the team finishing fourth, however, they won 22 and that shows the schizophrenic nature of the club. Dejan Kulusevski has been a great acquisition and beefed up the attack. They must develop more breadth, depth and sophistication to their tactical deployment. Whether Antonio Conte fancies doing that is open to question. It’s not clear the squad has enough talent in it for his needs and if he can’t buy that talent, or not enough of it, then it seems doubtful he’ll sully his reputation for long by hanging around just to finish fourth again.
Bottom of the table after three games, Mikel Arteta has done well to turn things around and to do so by bringing through young, talented players who have been, at times, a joy to watch. Martin Ødegaard has really come good. Arteta needs to address the defence, which isn’t good enough. There is also that long-time problem for the Gunners of having no real leaders, no real beef or heft to them as a club. They feel like a talented but lightweight team, likely to get rolled over by the bigger, rougher boys sometimes, and yet to dance around them and win easily on others.
Bottom of the Big Six, 32 points off the leaders and a huge 11 off Arsenal in fifth, is, if not quite humiliation, then definitely embarrassing. It hasn’t just been the points total - their lowest in the Premier League - it has been the poor quality of their play. A lot of players need moving on. They need a proper defensive midfielder and to buy players for specific positions and a specific style of play. Football is more than buying the best players, surely the new man knows that, even if the executives at the club don’t.
Seventh is as high as the Hammers are ever likely to finish in the Premier League unable to even overhaul the dreadful Manchester United. Despite spending £308 million in the last five years, their squad looked thin on quality at times. But they had Declan Rice who along with Jarrod Bowen pulled the side through. But manager David Moyes looks set to lose Rice. The pressure of this successful season will really be felt next. If they’re mid-table in November, Moyes will be dismissed for underachieving with a side that simply overachieved this campaign.
After finishing fifth twice, eighth place is still a good season for the Foxes, but may feel like a bit of a come down. However, they got to the semi-final of the Europa Conference and for a club the size of Leicester that’s a really fine achievement. Their main downfall has been the astonishing amount of goals they have conceded from set plays: 20. Quite why they haven’t been coached out of this bad habit is a mystery, and another is how long Brendan Rodgers will stay. Does he have loftier ambitions? With the Spurs or even Chelsea job possibly becoming vacant, we may soon have an answer.
They finished an impressive ninth but literally an extra goal in just four of their 15 draws would have pushed them into the Europa League places. Graham Potter has got pretty much everything else right at the club. They have a strong identity and play fluid, well-organised football. It is all set up for success if, and it is a very big if, they can find more goals. However, Potter’s name should now be on a much bigger club’s radar across Europe as a manager who plays attractive, progressiv football and as a coach with empathy. If progress isn’t made in the transfer market, he could easily be lured away.
Their final position of tenth was at least hitting par, so the air of sourness that has been around the club for the second half of the season, is the product of unrealistic ambition. Losing Adama Traore robbed them of some sizzle and sparkle and they’re 17th in the goal scoring table with a paltry 38. Their defence is strong, only the top four conceded less, so clearly their focus must be in recruiting some goals. Winning just one of their last nine games, even if it was against Villa, was a very poor way to end the season. Bruno Lage’s capital is significantly denuded.
The £100 million January investment saved their season. Eddie Howe has been ridiculously over-vaunted by his own fans, but he has looked somewhere between scared and embarrassed over ownership questions, amateurishly stonewalling them during pressers. However, putting Joelinton in midfield has worked better than anyone, even Howe, could’ve predicted and he deserves praise for that. The widespread disgust at their ownership will not go away, nor will the nuclear levels of whataboutery from those fans who can’t face the truth that they are supporting a club that is funded by one of the most murderous regimes on earth.
A season of much promise that ended with them in 12th. Patrick Vieira has transformed the club’s staff and how the club plays. They lashed out £77 million on 12 players, letting 15 go. Marc Guéhi has been impressive all season, Michael Olise has tormented defences on occasions and Conor Gallagher, the fans player of the season, has been the all action player that set the club alight. They only need to turn a third of their 15 draws this season into wins to challenge for European places. You wouldn’t back against Vieira after such a strong, radical start to his tenure.
It has been a joyful top flight season for the Bees who have packed their great new and well-named ground The Brentford Community Stadium and roared their team on. Thomas Frank has shown many how you go about being an underdog side that cannot really compete financially. Frank largely relied on the players who got them promoted. Ivan Toney has been crucial to them both for his goals and how he operates in their system which likes to get the ball forward quickly on the transition. Their only drop in form pretty much coincided with Toney being injured. Rico Henry also had a fantastic, all-energy season at left-back.
Catch them on a good day and they look like a side who could blow away almost anyone. But those days have not been frequent enough and they’ve lost half of their games this season. The Danny Ings/Ollie Watkins partnership has shown signs of being a successful strike force but has been plagued by injury. Steven Gerrard cut an impressive figure and he went into the last game with Villa in eighth place in the league if calculated since he arrived in mid-November. Villa are a substantial club and must become a top 10 regular.
Ending the season in 15th with a -24 goal difference and dropping 29 points from winning positions isn’t acceptable. They simply lose too big, too often. However, the occasionally massive beating aside, they’ve competed well and play some good football at times. Signing Adam Armstrong from Blackburn to replace Danny Ings hasn’t worked with only two goals in 27 games. James Ward Prowse is their class act and top scorer with 11. It’s been an OK campaign, but they are drifting and have little purpose beyond staying in the league. How long will fans be happy with that?
At the start of the season, under Rafa Benitez, they lost just one of their first seven games, won four and drew two. That’s 14 points of the 39 they ended up with. Then injuries struck, Dominic Calvert-Lewin was out for months and it all fell apart. Those first seven games get forgotten in the subsequent revisionism. Frank Lampard took over when they were 16th and they finished 16th. Rafa secured 19 points in 21 games, Lampard 20 in 18. Facts can’t combat faith it seems. Lampard’s Everton did just enough. Can he do better next season?
Oh Leeds, you made your fans sweat. They ended the season in 17th with a -37 goal difference. Terrible injuries throughout the team but especially down the spine of the side, crippled them for most of the campaign. Sacking the much loved Marcelo Bielsa was a brave move and is one which probably kept them up. His tactics led to some big beatings. Jesse Marsch has tightened things up, helped by the return of Liam Cooper. Given they are set to lose important players this summer, their recruitment must be substantial and high quality.
They need a total reboot. They had atrophied under Sean Dyche and change was necessary. They have too many old and underperforming players. Everything they used to be good at they stopped being good at. Wout Weghourst will probably do well in the Championship but a stable club has been undermined by greedy new sports portfolio owners who bought the club using the club’s own money and have loaded it with debt. It’s easy to see it all falling apart financially and to see the club in the third tier within a couple of seasons.
This was the season the Pozzo’s model of firing three managers per season failed. That being said, it had worked for them before and they had no reason to think it wouldn’t again. But their squad looked well short of the mark. It’s a shame for Roy Hodgson to have to bow out like this, but this was a club that was always going under. Next year will be tough but Rob Edwards was a good managerial appointment, so the future may be different.
They spent over £50 million in the summer after being criticised by witless pundits for not spending any money last time they were in the top flight. They shouldn’t have bothered, as it had precisely zero effect. Dean Smith replacing Daniel Farke really made no difference, as many suspected it wouldn’t. They were dreadful. But they’ll be one of the richest clubs in the Championship and with some judicious acquisitions can do it all over again. One great season, one bad, is a decent deal for fans.
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