A brief overview of the season

It was a fantastic Premier League season. Completely unpredictable and astounding. It was the most unpredictable it has ever been and the top four have well and truly disappeared for the time being. Below are my predictions for the season along with the actual results. To find out why I went for these teams to finish in each place read my previous article here - Premier League Prediction

My original predictions

1.Chelsea. 10

2. Arsenal. 2

3. Manchester United. 5

4. Manchester City. 4

5. Tottenham. 3

6. Liverpool. 8

7. Stoke. 9

8. Southampton. 6

9. Crystal Palace. 15

10. Swansea. 12

11. Everton. 11

12. Newcastle. 18

13. West Ham. 7

14. West Brom. 14

15. Sunderland. 17

16. Bournemouth. 16

17. Norwich. 19

18. Aston Villa. 20

19. Leicester. 1

20. Watford. 13

Did better than I expected.

Did worse than I expected.

I got it right. 

As far as predictions go. I actually didn't do too badly. In fact moving Chelsea and Leicester aside for one second, Newcastle was the only team I really misjudged. I was disappointed in McLaren and they ultimately took too long too sack him. Having said that, Rafa Benitez is not the great wizard tactician everyone thinks he is. I can prove this by looking at his record everywhere he has gone where no team since Valencia has actually excelled beyond what was expected of them. Yes he won the Champions league with Liverpool and took them to the brink of League success but he left them when they were 7th in the table and he had Torres, Gerrard and Masherano. Three of whom he let go. He is a massively overrated manager. Newcastle need more than him to come back up. 

Onto Leicester, I haven't spoke much about the success of Leicester. There isn't much to say that hasn't been said. Classically, an under appreacteated factor is the lack of injuries but other than that they simply played football the right way. Their wingers and full backs covered each side of the pitch relentlessly. They became incredibly organised in defence, in constant communication. Kante and Drinkwater patrolled the midfield and Okazaki did all of Mahrez's running for him. Then step forward the two game winners. Vardy turned every clearance into a neat through ball with exceptional forward running and Mahrez could create space from nothing. It was a perfect concoction of players that relied on everyone doing their very best. So good, that it is unlikely we will see anything like it ever again. These players were not known to have such quality before the start of this season but have all radically increased their stock this year. 

Chelsea were terrible. I hated Mourinho's tenure this year and am very unsure whether he will make an impact at United. It looks as though Chelsea's form would pick up but it never really got going once the top four had truly got away from them. A huge blot was the poor performances of Cesc Fabregas. While he had his moments, he lacked a dynamism that left Chelsea exposed at every moment. Coupled with Matic's lack of desire and the underwhelming quality of Mikel, Chelsea got over run time and time again. This is not to mention the fact that Willian was hailed as Chelsea's best player which in itself is damning enough. Willian can play well, very well but never contributes enough to compete with the elite, he shouldn't be the best player in a title challenging squad.

I also hugely underestimated West Ham. I had not really heard of Dimitri Payet before this season and in many ways he worked like Mahrez to Leicester. West Ham were well organised and strong, then they looked to Payet for the quality. He delivered and they took it to many of the big teams this year. The future is bright for West Ham right now. 

The rest of Europe

I wrote an article about how each of the top five leagues seem a bit predictable but that ultimately Football will prove itself to be the exciting, ever-changing, game that can not be relied upon for results. That actually wasn't the case. With the exception of the Premier League, it was business as usual across Europe with all the top teams retaining their title. 

This summer will be an interesting transfer window, particularly with the Euros showcasing more talent than ever. Everyone needs to find away to keep mixing it up.