2019-20 Premier League Season Review

2019-20 Premier League Season Review

Sunday 27 July was when the 2019-20 Premier League season reached its climax. Liverpool claimed their first League title in 30 years and for the first time in the Premier League era.  The Reds went into  the start of the season with a Champions League title in the bag, but the thing that they desperately wanted was that title, especially having come so close in the previous season, where an awesome Manchester City who proved to be a tough nut to crack, especially under Pep Guardiola.

However, this season, Jurgsen Klopp's Reds were determined to set things right. and they got of to a rollocking start by staying unbeaten in their first 18 games, which equalled City's record of consecutive games won in a season but Watford denied the champions of breaking that record with a surprising 3-0 victory at Vicarage Road. The champions also achieved 61 points in their first 21 matches as well as being the fastest to winning 30 matches with a 3-1 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion. 

The biggest difference has been the signing of Virgil van Dijk who arrived at Anfield in January 2018 and Alison Becker, who joined the reds, who joined the Reds at the start of the 2018-19 season. those so signings were key in terms of creating a solid foundation to allow the Reds to challenge

for trophies again. Yes you can say that the likes of Salah, Mané and Firmino did most of the goal scoring, but scoring loads of goals does not guarantee you a trophy. you need to have that extra security at the back to allow your attacking players the freedom of scoring goals.

Another key asset to Liverpool's success are their two full backs Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold. these two have been the catalyst of Liverpool's attacking play in the previous two seasons. not only has it been their ability to create assists for the front three but their desire to help out with the defensive side has been phenomenal, which is why they are in the top three in terms of the amount of assists in the Premier League. City's Kevin De Bruyne tops the table with 20, ahead of Alexander-Arnold who has 13 and Robertson with 12.

It has been a strange season for Guardiola's City as I would of thought that they would have produced a much better defence of their title. Yes, Liverpool truly deserve it, but as a neutral I would have loved it if City made the Reds earn it rather than letting them run away with it. I just thought City had lost a bit of their mental toughness.

Whether the focus for this season was on Champions League or not, i just felt that City looked a bit off the pace this season. The main reason for this could be the departure of Vincent Kompany. The biggest thing City had missed was his leadership both on the pitch and in the dressing room. You always felt the team was looking slightly weaker, especially on the defensive side. However, you would expect that City and Guardiola will be eager to regain back the title when the 2020-21 season begins in September.

Champions League

Chelsea along with City United and  Liverpool will feature in next season's Champions League following victories over over top four contenders Wolves and Leicester.  The Blues sealed their place im next season's competition following a 2-0 victory against Wolves, who were also looking for a place in Europe's elite competition. Unfortunately, the defeat against Frank Lampard's side meant that
Nuno Espírito Santo side finished the season in seventh place. However, their is still an alternative route for Wolves in order to play in next seasons competition, by winning the Europa League.   

Should Wolves qualify with victory in the Europa League, it wouldn't surprise me if they have a decent run in next season's Champions League becuase of the way Nuno has set them up in terms of tactics and style which is a 3-5-2 system. to be a top European side, you need that balance of attacking and defending, especially in midfield.  the three standout players for me this season have been Ruben Neves, Raul Jimenez and Adama Taore. the trio have been excellent this season and caused chaos in the oppositions defence, especially the pace of Traore. 

Coming back to Chelsea, Lampard has had a terrific first season as Manager. When he first got the job,  you would expect that most Chelsea fans were a little anxious as taking on the role of Blues boss in a relatively young career as a manager, but the way he has handled the team as well as including some of the youth team players, i.e Tammy Abraham, Daniel James and Mason Mount has been outstanding. The Blues still have plenty to play for this season, including a FA Cup final on Saturday against North London rivals Arsenal.                  

Manchester United have also gotten back to a regular top four side and part of this has to do with the signing of Portuguese midfielder who singed a five and a half year deal at Old Trafford for £47million.  His arrival has given a completely new vibe to the club and especially for players like Paul Pogba, who seams to be comfortable playing alongside the former Sporting playmaker in the centre of midfield. Since Fernandes joined the club, the Red Devils have picked up a bag full of points to secure third place. Part of this is to do with his creativity in midfield, which is what United were lacking. His arrival was a boost for all the players and therefore it motivated them to improve there performances, not just individually but as a team as well.         

Commiserations to Leicester City who narrowly missed out on a top-four finish. The Foxes at one stage seemed to be cruising towards Champions League football, however it has been a completely different story post lockdown particularly away from home. Brendan Rogers's sides had only won two out of their remaining nine games, with five defeats and two draws. On the plus side, it nice to see Leicester blood some more English talent such as 22-year old Harvey Barnes and James Maddison. Barnes along with veteran Jamie Vardy have been the two standout players this season for the Foxes this season with Vardy who won the golden boot with a total of 23 goals ahead of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Danny Ings with 22. 

Relegation Battle

If you thought the race for the Champions League was intriguing, so was the battle to avoid relegation. with Norwich City down and out after losing to West Ham, this left Watford, Aston Villa and Bournemouth to battle it out on the final day of the season. Eddie Howe's Cherries needed a victory over Everton, which they got by 3 goals to one. However, it wasn't enough as Dean Smith's Villa managed to hold out the Hammers for a precious 1-1 draw at the London Stadium thanks to a goal from skipper Jack Grealish. 

This was also heartbreaking for Watford as Hayden Mullins's Hornets suffered a 3-2 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Watford knew only a unlikely victory against Mikel Arteta's Gunners could stand them with a great chance of survival, but they were up against an awesome Aubameyang whose two goals dented their hopes of another season in the Premier League.  

 feature Image: English Premier League Trophy on Display in Manchester United Museum by edwin.11 CC BY 2.0 

 
       

Leading From The Front

France Lloris directs his defence as Croatia prepare to take the free kick in the World Cup Final from which they will ultimately make it France 1-1 Croatia

 At 2018 World Cup Final vs Croatia

Shortly after the half-time whistle during Spurs's home game with Everton, skipper Hugo Lloris was not impressed with the way Son Heung-Min was tracking the run of Toffee's striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin. This led to a bust up between the duo and they had to be separated by the rest of the on-field players.

However, the short bust up seemed to have worked as Spurs looked a completely different team in the second half and secured a 1-0 victory to boost their hopes of Europa League football next season.

During the post-match interview Mourinho was pleased with his teams performance, where he also described the Son-Lloris bust up as 'Beautiful'. He also mentioned about the fact that sometimes being honest with yourself as a team allows you to reflect on your performances and improve yourself mentally

"If you want to blame somebody for that, it's me. I was critical of my boys because they are not in my opinion critical enough with themselves".  

The second half showed a completely different kind of performance as Spurs were able to put in a solid defensive display to keep their 1-0 lead. Seeing incidents like these shows just how important team spirit is and how much passion the players still have for the game regardless of their overall position in the League. Former Spurs midfielder and Sky Sports pundit backed this up at half-time.

That might be a consequence of what happened in the Sheffield United game when he didn’t make a challenge. ‘He runs up to him, he pushes Le Celso into him almost… I’ve been involved with this before. I’ve seen it with Steve McManaman and Bruce Grobbelaar and, in a way, at least it shows that they care because against Sheffield United they didn’t. There wasn’t enough of that.’

This really emphasises the point that yes the manger is their to try and control the team, but it's then up to the players to respond and help each other out by working and communicating effectively with each other, especially on the pitch.

If you look at newly crowned champions Liverpool, a part of their success has come from their passion and desire to win football matches. Yes, you could say that the main reason is to do with teamwork and team spirit. Manager Jurgen Klopp and captain Jordan Henderson for me have been the main stalwarts of Liverpool's success in these past three years. Yes, you could say that it has been Liverpool's front three and two full backs, who have been behind the majority of their success,  but it's even more important for a team to have leaders like Klopp and Henderson, who can set an example for everyone of how team spirit goes a long way to  achieving success, which is one of the reasons as to why they won the Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup and now their first Premier League title. 

When a team is down it's really important for a leader or even a group of leaders to rejuvenate the team and say something like "come on guys this is not good enough, we need more!', phrases like this can really turn an average or below par performance into a top-class one, especially when their is no home crowd to try and jeer the players on.



Feature Image: Hugo  Lloris leading France World Cup Final via Flickr.com