Article 90 — Overview of the English Premier League 2019–20
The 2019–20 English Premier League season ended a week ago but I waited for the end of the FA Cup final to write an overview of the season.
Liverpool finally emerged as the champions of England for the first time in 30 years. They did it with remarkable efficiency and consistency, setting the pace from start to the end of the league with no-one to match them stride for stride. They were head and shoulders above everyone else. Liverpool produced very good football in Jurgen Klopp’s rock and roll football style but they couldn’t always produce that and when they couldn’t they displayed mental toughness to eke out a result. Many times in the past, Liverpool have failed mentally to eke out a result when the going gets tough or they don't play well enough. Even under Klopp, they lost three Cup finals in a row suggesting a weak mentality but winning the Champions League last season has unblocked them mentally for this season.
Besides winning the league, they added the FIFA Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup this season but lost their defence of the Champions League. They ended the season with the best defensive record.
As for the best attack, it belonged to the second-placed team, the winners and benchmark team for the last two seasons, Manchester City. For the second season in three, they ended it by scoring over 100 goals. However, it was at the other end that they struggled badly with this season. This season, they paid the price for not replacing stalwart and former club captain, Vincent Kompany as they badly missed a defender and leader of that stature. On paper, I would say that City’s squad depth from its midfield upwards is of very high quality arguably better than Liverpool’s.
However, this season teams managed to find a chink in City’s armour and exploited it. Teams knew that they couldn’t match City for possession but if they pressed them high and exploited them on the counter-attack, there would be space for them to attack as City left a lot of space at the back and didn’t really have the best defenders.
City lost nine times this season and was way off the top spot. They were still good enough to end the season with some silverware though by retaining the League Cup. They are still in the running for the Champions League, a trophy that truly matters the most for them, their Holy Grail. Let’s see how they do as they defend a first-leg lead against the newly crowned Spanish champions and European giants, Real Madrid.
Manchester United and Chelsea finished third and fourth respectively on the final day of the season. Both teams managed by club legends had youthful squads that produced mixed results, some very good results and some very bad ones. In a better quality season, neither or just one of the two would have qualified for the Champions League. If they played in the Italian Serie A or Spanish La Liga, neither team would have earned enough points to qualify for the Champions League. Both teams can count their lucky stars for being in a low-quality season. United fell short of the semi-finals of the League and FA Cup and are still in the running for the Europa League. Winning the Europa League could give them a boost to them mentally for next season.
Chelsea had the opportunity to savour the winning feeling of a trophy but they got to the final of the FA Cup and lost. They face an uphill task to overcome a first-leg deficit against German champions Bayern Munich in the Champions League but anything is still possible in football.
Leicester City were Liverpool’s closest challengers from November 2019 to January 2020 but drifted apart after that. Again in a stronger league with better quality teams, Leicester would have slipped out of the Top Four sooner than the final day of the season after only three wins in the final fifteen matches of the season. It’s still a good season for Leicester and after that run of form, rightly find themselves in the Europa League.
Wolverhampton Wanderers was in the Europa League spot for a long time, threatening to break into a Champions League position if they maintained strong form and the teams above dropped points. A run of two wins in their last six matches meant that they completely slipped out of the Europa League spot. They were banking on a Chelsea win in the FA Cup which would have seen them qualify for the Europa League but they didn’t get any favours from the London side.
The team that took their place and get into the Europa League was Tottenham Hotspur. They started the season in alarming fashion. A squad and manager that had been doing well qualifying consistently for the Champions League for the past four seasons and were runners-up of last season’s Champions League lost their mojo.
Out went the popular Mauricio Pochettino and in came the serial winner and former manager of their London rivals, Chelsea, Jose Mourinho. It looked like Mourinho and Tottenham were imploding before the enforced Corona Virus break with poor form and a slew of injuries. The break did them a world of good as they recovered players that they had lost through injury and a strong finish to the season meant that they finished it in 6th and in the Europa League. The credit would have to go to Mourinho for getting Spurs up the table and into the Europa League when it looked improbable at one stage.
Sheffield United was a revelation this season. They were newly promoted and at no stage this season did they find themselves in the bottom half of the league. Like Wolves, they were knocking on the door to European qualification too but just fell short. Overall a very good season for the Blades. Arsenal had a wretched season starting the season with one manager, Unai Emery and ending it with a former player, Mikel Arteta. They didn’t do well enough to qualify for Europe, finishing the league in 8th position but they upset the odds twice in the FA Cup semi-final and final to win it. They set a new FA Cup winners record of 14 FA Cup wins and qualified for next season’s Europa League.
At the opposite end of the table, Norwich City had a horrid time back in the Premier League. They had started the season well beating Manchester City at home in September 2019 but that proved to be a one-off result. They were the first team to be relegated. Last season’s FA Cup runners up, Watford were the next team to go down. They had beaten Manchester United at home in December 2019 and were the first team to beat Liverpool in the league this season but they couldn’t produce that kind of results often enough to stay up. The final team to get relegated was Bournemouth.
Bournemouth under Eddie Howe has had truly wonderful rags to riches story. From nearly slipping out of English football, they made their way to the Premier League and stayed there for five years before dropping down a division. In five years in the Premier League, they have had some respectable results and performances. Even this season, they beat Manchester United at home in November 2019 and Chelsea away in December 2019. They beat Everton on the final day of the season but Aston Villa’s 1–1 draw against West Ham United meant Bournemouth went down.
Sheffield United’s 0–0 draw against Aston Villa turned out to be the defining result. Had the technology of Hawk Eye not failed in awarding Sheffield United a legitimate goal, Aston Villa would have been the team that would go down and not Bournemouth. Fine margins. So unlucky, Bournemouth who are deciding on whether to pursue a legal challenge against that challenge. Eddie Howe has also left his position as manager after their relegation. I hope to see him in the Premier League again.
In the past three seasons, the league has been characterised by the superhuman efficiency of the top team or teams. There isn’t much of a competition if one or two teams run away in a race of their own leaving the rest to scrape out results in a different league below them. The standard has been set though. To win the league, you would need to maintain an extremely high level of superhuman consistency from start to the end, hardly ever dropping points along the way. That is the benchmark teams that want to win the league need to match up to. Liverpool would be the team to beat next season.
Without the Financial Fair Play penalty, Manchester City will be free to invest in their squad and I fully expect them to invest big again. How much can Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal do to close the gap with Liverpool and City? Can anyone of those clubs break into this elite duopoly? We will know that when the teams take on the pitch next season. At the end of this season, United and Chelsea have been tipped to break the duopoly.
How will the likes of Leicester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sheffield United strengthen to build on the season they have had? All three are good quality sides. Could someone like Everton or Southampton breakthrough and cause more problems for the teams above them? The English Premier League is a wealthy league. None of the teams is in a financially dire position where they need to sell to invest back into the squad. With the money available to them, clubs should invest sufficiently to ensure a closer, more competitive league. That is what I want to see for next season, a league that truly anyone can beat anyone on their day.
Leeds United is making a return after 16 years in the wilderness. They could have a say in how competitive the league would be under their charismatic, colourful and experienced manager, Marcelo Bielsa. They would be a team most would have an interest in viewing to see how they do. Alongside them, West Bromwich Albion will also be back next season. The final spot will be contested between Brentford, Fulham, Cardiff City and Swansea City. Let’s see who follows Leeds and West Bromwich Albion into the richest league in the world.
