Premier League
Team-by-team review of English Premier League season 2024/25
Team-by-team review of the 2024-25 Premier League season.
1 – LIVERPOOL
Arne Slot enjoyed a superb first season after replacing fan favourite Juergen Klopp, exceeding the hopes of supporters, many of whom would have been content with a top-four finish and a cup run.
Liverpool had the league sewn up long ago, thanks to a 26-game unbeaten league run as Arsenal faltered and Manchester City imploded, though one March week, when they were knocked out of Europe and lost the League Cup final, took some of the shine off.
The departure of local boy Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid also leaves big shoes to fill. But with the talismanic Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah tied down and further reinforcements to come, Liverpool are in a good position to prove this slightly surprising title was no one-off.
2 – ARSENAL
Mikel Arteta’s side are in danger of becoming the perennial nearly men as another season of rich promise slipped by without anything tangible to show for it.
Manchester City’s surprising decline should have opened the door for Arsenal to win a first league title since 2003, but instead, a third successive runners-up spot, this time by a huge margin, felt like regression.
They came close in the Champions League, losing a tight semi-final to Paris St Germain. But those two ties highlighted what Arsenal must address in the summer, chiefly a world-class striker to get them over the line.
3 – MANCHESTER CITY
Salvaged an otherwise poor season by clinching a Champions League berth with a 2-0 victory at Fulham on the final day.
Their hopes of a fifth successive league title began well but a mid-season nose-dive saw them fall off the pace and they missed a top-two spot for the first time since 2016-17.
Ballon d’Or winner Rodri suffered a serious knee injury in late September and would not return until the season’s penultimate game as they dropped as low as seventh in the table with manager Pep Guardiola saying the team’s crisis was costing him sleep.
They crashed out of the Champions League early and their FA Cup final loss to Crystal Palace meant they ended the season with no silverware for the first time in eight years.
4 – CHELSEA
Chelsea left it late to achieve their target for the season by qualifying on the final day for the 2025/26 Champions League, thanks to a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest.
With more than 1 billion pounds ($1.35 billion) spent on players by the club’s U.S. owners since 2022, Enzo Maresca faced pressure in his first season as coach to get Chelsea back into Europe’s elite competition. The Blues were second in the Premier League in December before a poor run made a top-five finish a struggle.
Chelsea finished fourth and could yet win silverware with a UEFA Conference League final to come against Spain’s Real Betis on Wednesday. Failure to lift Europe’s third-tier trophy would be an embarrassment for the two-time Champions League winners.
5 – NEWCASTLE UNITED
Eddie Howe’s side ended a memorable season with their first domestic silverware for 70 years and a return to the Champions League.
Their 2-1 League Cup final win over Liverpool was a perfect representation of the Magpies this season, with the defence capping a fine collective performance with a goal from Dan Burn, and striker Alexander Isak showing the potency of their attack by notching the second.
With the mercurial Isak attracting attention from Premier League rivals and clubs around Europe, Howe will have to convince the Swedish international that they can take another step next season and challenge for the title.
6 – ASTON VILLA
Playing a swashbuckling style of football built on tough defence and fast attacks, Unai Emery’s side have had their fans in raptures at times this season but it ended in disappointment.
Runs to the Champions League quarter-finals and FA Cup semi-finals produced some great moments but they missed out on a top five spot on the last day with defeat at Manchester United.
Villa Park became a fortress in the Premier League with no defeats in their last 18 there and they also beat Bayern Munich and Paris St Germain on two famous European nights.
Emery’s squad oozes so much talent it is hard to pick out the main star: from charismatic World Cup-winning shot stopper Emiliano Martinez in goal to Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers up front with 17 and 14 goals respectively in all competitions.
7 – NOTTINGHAM FOREST
Boosted by the goals of striker Chris Wood, Nottingham Forest mounted an unlikely challenge for Champions League football, putting behind them successive relegation battles.
Despite being in the top three for much of the campaign, a late season slump in which they won two of their final eight games saw them finish in seventh to qualify for the Conference League, a return to European football for the first time since the 1995-96 campaign.
Manager Nuno Espirito Santo found the right formula for success with a solid defensive structure and an attack built around the play-making talent of Morgan Gibbs-White and 20 league goals from a rejuvenated Wood.
8 – BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION
Brighton’s ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ persona this season will have been frustrating for fans as while their eighth-place finish represents a solid return under 32-year-old manager Fabian Huerzeler, they would have been higher up the table without the inconsistency that dogged them all campaign.
They managed wins against Liverpool, Manchester City, Newcastle United and Chelsea, and drew twice with Arsenal, but a 7-0 loss to Nottingham Forest was their worst league defeat in 67 years, and an eight-game winless run mid-season hurt their European chances.
Winger Yankuba Minteh proved an astute signing from Newcastle, and Danny Welbeck, Kaoru Mitoma and Joao Pedro all reached double figures for goals but, as ever, their challenge in the next transfer window will be holding on to their leading players, with the latter tipped for an exit.
9 – BOURNEMOUTH
Bournemouth missed out on Europe but Andoni Iraola’s team achieved a club-record points tally for a Premier League campaign as they punched above their weight.
In two years, Iraola has transformed the club, playing with a risky, high-intensity pressing style which earned them memorable wins over Manchester City and Arsenal this season.
Ryan Christie, Evanilson and Justin Kluivert have been central to Bournemouth’s progress this season, but the rise of youngsters like Real Madrid-bound Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez has been equally vital.
10 – BRENTFORD
The Bees flirted with a first foray into European club competition but eventually fell short after a season in which they proved unpredictable but highly entertaining.
Relegated Southampton and Ipswich were the only sides to concede more than Brentford at home, with the 35 goals the most they have let in at home in the topflight since the 1946-47.
But then only Manchester City, Newcastle, Arsenal and Liverpool scored more goals than Thomas Frank’s team this season, seeing them to 10th place.
Bryan Mbuemo netted 20 league goals and Yoan Wissa 19 while Danish international Mikkel Damsgaard was named both the Supporters’ Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year at the club’s end-of-season awards.
11 – FULHAM
Another solid season for Marco Silva’s side who spent the vast majority of the campaign in mid-table.
An 11th-placed finish, after coming 13th and 10th in the two previous seasons since Silva took them back into the Premier League, represents stability after some yo-yo years.
Losing to Crystal Palace at home in the FA Cup quarter-finals felt like a missed opportunity for the club and having established themselves in the top flight the key will be whether they can start aiming higher next season.
Raul Jimenez (12) and Rodrigo Muniz (8) provided the goals while Emile Smith Rowe thrived in midfield after moving from Arsenal.
12 – CRYSTAL PALACE
Palace’s victory in the FA Cup final over Manchester City secured their first major trophy in the club’s history and ensured this season will go down as their finest despite winning only one of their opening 13 league games.
They ended up with a club-record 53 Premier League points as manager Oliver Glasner moulded his team around the goals of talisman Jean-Philippe Mateta, the guile of Eberechi Eze and the pace and power of Ismaila Sarr.
Europa League football next season could help Palace keep hold of their prized assets.
13 – EVERTON
David Moyes and Beto proved the unlikely duo who turned around Everton’s season as another battle against relegation loomed as they languished one point above the drop zone with three wins from 19 games under the cautious Sean Dyche.
Moyes then returned after a 12-year absence and oversaw a remarkable nine-game unbeaten league run of four wins and five draws that ensured Everton would be in the top flight when they move into their new stadium next season.
Beto somehow reached double figures in goals, with fans overlooking his rawness while celebrating his whole-hearted, battling approach.
It helped that he scored against Liverpool, when James Tarkowski’s 98th-minute top-corner rocket in front of the Gwladys Street End to secure a 2-2 draw was the club’s moment of the season. There was still time for an emotional farewell to Goodison Park, the club’s home for 133 years, as the Toffees signed off with a win against Southampton.
14 – WEST HAM UNITED
A lacklustre season for the London club, whose decision to part ways with David Moyes and replace him with Julen Lopetegui always looked like ending unhappily.
Despite West Ham spending 130 million pounds on signings, Lopetegui’s style was bland and he was sacked after only 20 league games in charge, of which West Ham won only six.
Graham Potter’s impact has hardly been spectacular with five wins in 18, but he will be judged next season when he has been able to put his stamp on the team. Jarrod Bowen was again West Ham’s outstanding player with 13 league goals.
15 – MANCHESTER UNITED
United staggered through their worst season in the top-flight since they were relegated in 1974, and a massive rebuilding job awaits Ruben Amorim in the summer.
They jettisoned manager Erik ten Hag in October with United in 14th place, and if anything, they got worse under Amorim, who struggled to implement his style on a mediocre squad.
Even the salvation of a Europa League title was denied them as they lost to Tottenham Hotspur in a poor final in Bilbao and the lack of Champions League revenue will be a huge financial blow to a club already reeling from co-owner Jim Ratcliffe’s cost-cutting measures.
16 – WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
Vitor Pereira secured top-flight status with five games to spare, overseeing a massive improvement after taking charge of the Midlands club in December when they were second-bottom.
In contrast to his predecessor Gary O’Neil’s tinkering, the Portuguese manager stuck to a settled formation, improving Wolves defensively and taking them on a six-game winning run in the top flight for the first time since 1970.
While their results tailed off with safety guaranteed, Wolves have shown they can challenge for a top-half finish next season, but they may have to deal with the loss of their top scorer with Matheus Cunha who is expected to leave in the summer.
17 – TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Ange Postecoglou delivered on his claim that he always wins a trophy in his second season at a club as Spurs put aside a diabolical Premier League campaign to win the Europa League and end a 17-year silverware drought.
Whether or not that momentous night in Bilbao saves the pugnacious Australian’s job is another matter.
Twenty-two league defeats were embarrassing for a club with top-four pretensions. Postecoglou will point to a chronic run of injuries and the distraction of Europe as mitigating factors, but will need to convince the club’s hierarchy that it was an anomaly.
Strangely, Tottenham’s Europa League success was ultimately achieved by the opposite of so-called ‘Ange Ball’ — his team grinding through the knockout rounds to glory. The emergence of Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray offer some hope of a better season next time while their unlikely Champions League qualification will be an easy sell to potential signings.
18 – LEICESTER CITY
The Foxes’ fate was sealed with five games to go and they make an immediate return to the Championship.
Leicester set an unwanted record as the first team in the top four divisions to lose nine consecutive home league games without scoring.
The die was cast early in the campaign with their failure to win any of their first six games. Manager Steve Cooper was sacked after 15 games with the team in 16th position, but turning to former Dutch international Ruud van Nistelrooy saw no improvement.
19 – IPSWICH TOWN
After successive promotions to return to the top flight it proved a bridge too far for Kieran McKenna’s side.
Four wins all season tell their own story, but despite their struggle, there is optimism that Ipswich will be in a strong position to challenge for promotion next season.
They will probably have to do that without their stand-out player, though as Liam Delap’s 12 league goals have attracted the attention of some of England’s top clubs.
20 – SOUTHAMPTON
Southampton were relegated with seven games to go in April, the earliest in Premier League history, but they at least avoided Derby County’s all-time low of 11 points from 2007–08 as they ended with 12.
Two different managers, Russell Martin and Ivan Juric, could do little to lift the team’s form and 30 defeats was a new Premier League record.
They conceded 86 goals in a torrid campaign and goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale suffered his third relegation as a player but in truth it was his efforts that saved Saints from more humiliation as he made 125 saves, the second most in the league.
Will Still will be tasked with bringing them back up again.
-Reuters
Join the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
Chelsea’s Levi Colwill struck in the second half to send his team back to the Champions League for the first time in three seasons with a breathless 1-0 victory at Nottingham Forest on Sunday on a make-or-break final day of the Premier League.
Enzo Maresca’s men, the youngest side in league history, finished fourth in the table on 69 points in the crowded chase for European qualification, while Forest, who had Champions League dreams of their own in their best season in decades, had to settle for seventh on 65 points.
Colwill broke the deadlock of an intense game at the City Ground in the 50th minute when Forest defender Neco Williams struggled to head the ball clear and Pedro Neto was there to poke the ball across goal for Colwill to tap into the empty net, as the Chelsea fans behind Matz Sels’s goal erupted.
“Amazing, we’ve grinded it out all season and today for these fans, we hope they’re happy and get to see some Champions League next season,” Colwill said.
“We did it and we’re proud, as a club, we’re back where we should be.”
Chris Wood missed a chance to equalise at the death when Sels drilled a terrific ball into the box and Wood stretched to get his foot on it but chipped it over the bar from close range, prompting agonised groans from the Forest faithful.
While Chelsea’s goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of Forest, their season will be deemed a success.
They were tipped for another relegation battle by many before a remarkable turnaround under Nuno Espirito Santo saw them parked among the top five for much of the season and dreaming of a return to Europe’s elite club competition for the first time in more than 40 years.
As it is they will return to European competition next season, for the first time since the 1995-96 campaign, in the Conference League.
“After a game like this and the things that happened on the pitches, we didn’t achieve the dream,” Espirito Santo said. “We knew one goal could change everything, and that’s what the perception does to you — what if?”
PLAYERS APPLAUD FANS
The game promised to be intense and it did not disappoint, with both teams roaring out of the gates and the City Ground crowd at their raucous best.
Neto missed the game’s first real scoring chance midway through the first half when he latched on to Cole Palmer’s cross but his left-footed shot from the centre of the box sailed high.
Forest had a huge chance just before the break as Ola Aina sent in a beautiful cross that Wood flicked just over.
Chelsea players remained on the pitch, some of them teary-eyed, to applaud their fans after a promising first season for Maresca. They also play Real Betis in the Conference League final on Wednesday.
“Very tough,” Maresca said. “(Manchester) City lost here. Arsenal drew here. Liverpool drew here, and Chelsea won. So it’s not easy.
“The doubt (about his team’s success) was from outside,” he added. “They were saying that we are too young. We are not good enough. And they were saying that we were not able to win on this pitch because we’re too young, not experienced. And unfortunately for them, they have been all wrong.”
Despite the defeat, Forest fans lingered long at the stadium to applaud a campaign that saw them become the first team in Premier League history to double their points tally from one season to the next.
Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi received a loud ovation when he stepped on the pitch to wave to fans two weeks after he had emergency surgery on an abdominal injury after colliding with a post during their 2-2 draw with Leicester City. Awoniyi was not in Sunday’s squad.
-Reuters
Join the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
Sunderland staged a remarkable comeback to beat Sheffield United 2-1 in the Championship playoff final with substitute Tom Watson sending them back to the Premier League by scoring the winner deep in stoppage time at Wembley on Saturday.
Teenager Watson drilled in a superb low finish from outside the penalty area to end the club’s eight-season absence from the top flight, which included a spell in the third tier.
Victory in what is widely-regarded as the richest game in world football means Sunderland will benefit to the tune of 220 million pounds ($297.79 million) in extra revenue thanks to the Premier League’s lucrative TV rights deals.
Finances were the last thing on the minds of the Sunderland fans though when Watson sparked ecstatic scenes of joy.
For United, it was a crushing disappointment as they dominated much of the game against a side who finished 14 points below them in the regular Championship season.
Incredibly, it was the 19-year-old Watson’s last contribution for his boyhood club before the winger moves to Brighton & Hove Albion, but what a parting gift it was.
“It’s unbelievable, we’ll see each other in the Premier League next season,” he said. “I have been thinking about it for weeks and that story was written when I came off the bench.”
YOUTHFUL SIDE
It had looked like a bridge too far for French coach Regis Le Bris’s youthful Sunderland side as they trailed to a stunning 25th-minute counter-attack goal by Tyrese Campbell in a first half completely dominated by United.
Campbell’s cool finish from Gus Hamer’s inch-perfect pass rewarded United for a superb start in which they almost took the lead in the opening minutes when Kieffer Moore’s header was brilliantly saved by Anthony Patterson.
Sunderland also lost defender Luke O’Nien to a dislocated shoulder and were relieved not to be 2-0 down when Harrison Burrows bounced a shot into the net after a clearance fell to him but the effort was ruled out for offside after a VAR check.
Chris Wilder’s United, bidding to bounce straight back to the Premier League, were in control after the break but stunned in the 76th minute when Eliezer Mayenda showed great control and fired an unstoppable shot high into the net past Michael Cooper.
Extra time and the possibility of a penalty shootout loomed when Moore was guilty of giving the ball away and Watson was allowed to advance and write his name in Sunderland folklore.
It completed an incredible playoff campaign by a Sunderland side who lost their last five regular-season games and then scraped past Coventry City in the semi-finals with a last-gasp goal by Dan Ballard.
Sunderland’s surprise win means Jobe Bellingham, younger brother of Real Madrid’s Jude, will be a Premier League player next season, something his sibling has yet to experience.
“I take pride in saying I was one of the players to help this great club get back to where it belongs,” he said.
-Reuters
Join the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
The fight to finish in the Premier League’s top five and qualify for the Champions League intensified on Sunday but Arsenal can breathe easy on the final day after all-but securing runners-up spot with a 1-0 win over Newcastle United on Sunday.
Declan Rice’s superb 55th-minute strike sealed the points for Arsenal as they avenged three previous losses to Eddie Howe’s Newcastle this season despite a poor first half.
That lifted Arsenal to 71 points, 12 behind runaway champions Liverpool, but crucially mathematically out of reach of all the sides below them barring Manchester City.
Newcastle remained third position but only one point separates them and seventh-placed Nottingham Forest who kept alive their top-five hopes by beating West Ham United 2-1 away.
Forest (65 points) host fourth-placed Chelsea (66) in their final game next weekend while Newcastle (66) welcome Everton.
Aston Villa (66) are currently fifth and face Manchester United at Old Trafford next Sunday.
Sixth-placed Manchester City, who will end the season trophy-less after losing in Saturday’s FA Cup final to Crystal Palace, have 65 points but have two games left to play; Bournemouth at home on Tuesday and Fulham away on Sunday
“It’s going to go to the end and who knows what twists and turns there will be, we need one big effort in the last game,” Newcastle manager Howe said. “We need to be calm.”
Everton waved goodbye to Goodison Park — their home for 133 years and 2,791 games — with a 2-0 victory over Southampton secured by a double from Iliman Ndiaye.
“This team will be remembered in history as the one who played the last game,” Everton manager David Moyes said on an emotional afternoon on Merseyside in which a host of former players including Neville Southall, Wayne Rooney and Duncan Ferguson joined in the farewell celebrations.
Fulham kept alive their slim hopes of creeping into a European qualifying spot by securing a 3-2 win at eighth-placed Brentford.
In a battle for pride at the bottom between two relegated teams, Jamie Vardy scored his 200th goal for Leicester City in his last home appearance for Leicester City in a 2-0 defeat of Ipswich Town to move above them into 18th place.
500TH APPEARANCE
Vardy, who was making his 500th appearance for the club he fired to a fairytale Premier League title in 2016, announced last month that he would be leaving.
“From the bottom of my heart, thank you. For taking myself and family in as one of your own. Hopefully I’ve repaid you for that,” an emotional Vardy told fans on pitch.
Arsenal knew a win over Newcastle would secure a return to the Champions league and almost certainly mean a third successive runners-up finish in the Premier League.
They were indebted to keeper David Raya in the first half as he made a string of saves, but Rice’s sublime strike 10 minutes after the restart lifted the mood of the home fans whose dreams of silverware this season faded away.
“I had a dream and it was to deliver a big trophy this season to our people,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said.
“I think we deserve it from the journey we have been through in the last three, four years, but we haven’t achieved that. Now we need to make some steps, some action and come back here fresh on day one next season ready to go.”
Nottingham Forest have already guaranteed a return to European competition for the first time in 30 years but their hopes of claiming a top-five spot and a place in the Champions League have faded in the run-in.
They will head into Sunday’s climax still with hope after a deserved win at West Ham.
Morgan Gibbs-White gave them an early lead after a mistake by home keeper Alphonse Areola and Nikola Milenkovic’s header doubled their lead after the break, although Forest had to endure a six-minute VAR check before they could celebrate.
Jarrod Bowen’s replay meant it was an anxious finale but Forest held on through 17 minutes of stoppage time as the game ended in a series of ugly scuffles between the players.
“We knew we had to win this game. We left it a bit nervy for ourselves towards the end,” Gibbs-White said.
“It’s a do or die (against Chelsea), one last push and we have to give it everything.”
-Reuters
Join the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
Alozie excited about the friendlies leading to the Women’s AFCON
22nd National Sports Festival: Flamingos reach final as Golden Eaglets lose to Team Ogun
Team-by-team review of English Premier League season 2024/25
- EUROPA League5 days ago
UEFA Europa League final head-to-head record: Tottenham vs Manchester United
- Nigerian Football1 week ago
Inimitable Remo Stars present the most glamorous victory parade in Nigeria
- NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL6 days ago
Gateway Games Opening Ceremony: A Night of Stars, Sports, and Excitement
- NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL6 days ago
Six athletes disqualified from the Gateway Games over doping issues
- NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL4 days ago
LIVE MEDALS TABLE: Bayelsa maintains lead at Gateway Games
- NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL18 hours ago
Ogun State citizens reap economic gains from the Gateway Games 2024
- Uncategorized1 week ago
National Sports Festival torch lands in Abeokuta ahead of the opening ceremony
- U-20 FOOTBALL1 week ago
A repeat of 1997 final as Morocco, South Africa contest U20 African title