Despite the delayed start and regular rescheduling, the 29th Premier League season ended in May and what a strange season it has been. At the start of the season, almost every week we had a new club at the top. Arsenal was first when the season started only for them to trail off and disappear from the top half entirely for two months. Then Leicester shined for a while to snatch the position from Arsenal and then relinquish it to Everton. The Toffees flirted with the dream of a top-four finish for most of October only to peek early and finish 10th on the table with 0-5 beating on the final matchday.
This to and fro then continued with Liverpool and surprisingly Tottenham. All the while we failed to see Manchester City climbing slowly and steadily to the top. They improved their form from 8th on Christmas Day to 1st and despite the constant bickering by their local rivals, they refused to give in.
City’s ultimate and all-powerful reign started on the 27th of Jan and ended with them grabbing the title with three matches to spare. Man City comfortably clinched the 2020/21 title by 12 points with no fans in attendance for most of the season, taunting Manchester United who kept up with them but from a distance. City at the start suffered a big 5-2 defeat at the hands of Leicester and ended the season with a 5-0 victory over Everton on the final matchday. Kevin De Bruyne and Stockport Iniesta, Phil Foden were outstanding this season. Winning the Premier League title and League Cup as well as their remarkable Champions League second-place finish was built on their strong defense and player of the season Rúben Dias.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær deserves a lot of credit for United’s second-place finish this season who improving their ranking since last season. But Red Devils surprisingly lost six matches at Old Trafford but were unbeaten on the road for their entire campaign, they became the third club to do so after Preston in 1888-89, and Arsenal in 2001-02 and 2003-04.
Against the eerie backdrop with no fans, the Defending Champions had the most grueling season of all, which saw them lose at Anfield by not just one match but their worst streak at home with six straight losses. Jürgen Klopp had a hard time ending their free fall down the table from the top position in January to 8th in March. Liverpool failed to overcome their bad start to challenge City at the top but still managed a top-four finish in the end with commendable efforts. Reds rallied in the end to win their last five games of the season to finish strong at third.
Chelsea had the most erratic season of all. Their initial struggle in the season despite a $250 million investment got Frank Lampard sacked in January. Taking a tough decision of changing managers in between could have been the worst decision for the Blues, but Thomas Tuchel proved otherwise. With the likes of Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, and N'Golo Kanté on their side Chelsea scrapped a top-four finish but lost the FA Cup to Leicester. They improved form in the end and their second-best defensive record denied City a win in the UEFA Champions League defeating them 1-0 to clinch their second CL title.
Leicester City, on the other hand, spent most of their time in the top four this season and despite winning the FA Cup they lost ground in the latter part of the campaign and slipped fifth on the table to suffer another anticlimactic end. Surprisingly this year West Ham had one of their best campaigns to finish sixth on the table and grabbed their highest position since the 1998-99 season.
Tottenham also had a disappointing season even after having the Golden Boot and Playmaker award winner Harry Kane on their side, Spurs could only scrape a 7th place finish. Harry Kane became the third player to win both the awards in the same season. Kane and Son Heung-min even had the most prolific partnership in a single campaign with a record-setting 14 goals. They now sit two goals behind Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard for the all-time record of most goal combinations between two players in Premier League history.
Following Spurs, Arsenal disappeared from the first half for a while to end the season behind Tottenham even after winning the last five matches. In the end, they also missed out on Europa League as well for the first time in 25 years.
Surprisingly, all the top three took huge beatings at the start of the campaign, Aston Villa stunned Liverpool with 7-2. Tottenham defeated United by 6-1 and Leicester thrashed City by 5-2 to become the first side in Premier League history to score with three penalties in a single match. United went on to post the highest winning margin in history after a 9-0 win over Southampton they are tied with their record against Ipswich Town in 1995 and Southampton vs Leicester City in 2019 Red Devils even had seven different scorers that day.
Sergio Aguero went on to beat Wayne Rooney's record of most goals for a single club by scoring 184 goals for City in the Premier League and Alisson became the only goalkeeper to score a winner as well as a header with his stoppage-time goal for Reds against West Brom keeping their five-match winning streak alive.
Such informative and insightful analysis was driven by data compiled by Data Sports Group, who are the industry-leading sports content solution provider, catering to 50 sports categories including soccer, basketball, cricket, and offer over 5000+ competitions comprehensive coverage.
