Premier League 2019/20: a most unusual season
Many winners
The Premier League 19/20 season was extraordinary. Like a good motion picture, it provided an exciting first ‘half’, a suspenseful intermission, a positive ending, and a salient theme underpinning it all.
Champions
The biggest highlight of the season was Liverpool ending a 30-year wait to win the title. Agonizingly pipped to the title by a solitary point, despite losing just once and recording the highest points total to never win the title, Liverpool returned with fiercer determination this season.
Dropping just 2 points in the first half of the season, by the time of their first defeat in GW28, they had a (joint) record 18 consecutive victories, a record 25 point lead at the top, and the title virtually sealed. Stretching from January 2019 to March 2020, Liverpool’s 44-game unbeaten run was just 5 short of Arsenal’s Invincibles.
For the third consecutive season, the champion side registered 32 wins and 98–100 points, cementing an incredible benchmark for future seasons.
Greatest Team?
Liverpool’s record-setting title charge inevitably triggered the debate on whether they are the greatest team to have won the Premier League?
This honour I feel still belongs to Arsenal because they went an entire season unbeaten. The alternative contender would be Manchester City for their record 100 point total. For pure fairytale, it could be Leicester City.
Liverpool though can have some consolation. They’re the earliest winners of the title, with 7 games to spare. Ironically, due to the disruption, they’re also the team to be crowned champions at the latest date (June).
Highlights
Europe
The extraordinary points gap at the top created a logjam of teams vying for European places. Manchester United’s winter acquisition — Bruno Fernandes, helped catalyze a remarkable upturn in form ensuring their return to the Champions League. When we factor in their transfer ban, a new coach and departure of Eden Hazard, Chelsea was another success story, finishing 4th (on goal difference) and earning their third UCL entry in four seasons. Their 8 goal thriller with Liverpool perhaps the highlight of Project Restart. London rivals, Spurs, who were 14th when Mourinho arrived, showed a remarkable turnaround to grab 6th place and Europa League qualification by virtue of Manchester City winning the Carabao Cup.
Leicester City set a strong tempo in early-mid season, including a record 9–0 thrashing of Southampton. The latter half saw them falter and surrender a 14 point lead for UCL slots, to finish 5th (Europa League). For the second time in five seasons, the Big 6 were not the Top 6. Both times Leicester disrupted the cartel. The first time they were champions. This time, it was perhaps the anti-climax of the season. Arsenal finished 8th, their lowest placing in 25 years, and can only reach the Europa League by winning the FA Cup.
Top Half
In recent seasons, we‘ve seen a newly-promoted side do well. Wolves last year perhaps set the benchmark, qualifying for Europe in their first season back. They again achieved 7th place, behind Spurs only on goal difference. This season, newcomers Sheffield United’s superb run made them one of the best performances for a newly promoted club. Their system of deploying overlapping centre-backs won much acclaim. In an age where football success correlates to money, the Blades have proven that a well-drilled side organized around core tactical principles, can punch above its weight. Burnley, through their “rugged and pragmatic” approach, rounded up the Top 10.
Relegation battle
Going into the restart, 6 teams were separated by rather fine margins. A ‘desperate relegation scrap’ though never really materialized. Norwich had displayed telltale signs of relegation since Christmas and limped out quickly. The fate of 3 teams was decided on the final day. Villa’s draw was sufficient for an escape. Finishing just one point behind, Bournemouth and Watford were relegated, the closest margin from safety since 2012.
Defensive frailties, lack of creativity up-front and attempting to play a style of football beyond their capability, were typical afflictions of relegation battlers.
Transfers
Transfers have been a peculiar aspect of this season. The top-end set the scene for circumspect transfer spending. Liverpool made no major acquisition, City made just one significant signing and Chelsea had a transfer ban. Amusingly, relegation escapee Villa was one of the highest net spenders in Europe, raising many questions on their transfer strategy. On the other hand, Burnley showed that it’s possible to establish in the Premier League using long-term inward-looking approaches to transfers and player development.
This season set the scene for modest transfer spending as if inadvertently foreshadowing the post-COVID19 reality of financial constraints. Recruitment is a big aspect of club success and if this aspect can be mastered, it’s a competitive advantage that’s hard to imitate. Data-driven recruitment has been instrumental to Liverpool’s success. As more teams catch on to that, we can expect smarter transfers to provide superior value for money.
VAR
This was the first season that VAR was employed in the Premier League. This could have been one of the big stories of the season but got dwarfed among the many highlights this season brought.
Despite the odd ‘niggle’, I felt that VAR worked fine. Technology in sport is a double-edged sword and once introduced, it cannot be undone. VAR will continue, and so will conspiracy theories, selective silences/outrages, and “alternative” VAR tables. That’s football.
Star performers
Golden Boot
Liverpool and City’s style of play created multiple goal-scoring options, while the output of two perennial challengers — Aguero and Kane, was blighted by injury. With this, Vardy’s hot-streak for the Foxes and Ings’ consistency for the Saints, made them front runners.
For the first time in 20 years, an all-English duo spearheaded the Golden Boot race. Vardy added the top scorer award to his Premier League medal. From non-league beginnings to collecting the ultimate set for any striker, this was another golden story realized this season.
The outstanding Kevin de Bruyne scored 13 goals and claimed a record-equalling 20 assists, accounting for a third of City’s 102 goals. In my view, KdB is the player of the season and would’ve been my pick for the Ballon d’Or.
Coaches
Klopp masterminded Liverpool’s maiden title victory. A lot has been written about how his personality, approach and tactics combine to create a wholesome team that delivers superior performances. Guardiola showcased City’s technical sophistication on multiple occasions. Chris Wilder and Nuno Espirito saw the Blades and Wolves punch above their weight. Lampard achieved the best finish by an English manager, on debut, since 1995.
While we saw some masterclasses, this season was notable particularly for coaches who joined mid-way and turned around their clubs’ fortunes.
Mourinho revived Spurs’ season. Hassenhuttl steadied the ship for Southampton who spent 5 weeks in the drop zone and received a 0–9 drubbing. While the Saints persisted with their coach, the Hornets went through 3 coaches. Pearson peeled Watford from rock bottom in December to hovering around 16th/17th place, before being bizarrely dismissed two games before the end of the season (and Watford’s relegation). Everton was in the relegation zone before Ancelotti’s arrival in December. By February, they were 9th but a late-season decline saw them finish 12th; though one feels that the real change will start next season for the Toffees. Arteta stemmed Arsenal’s decline and led a mini-revival of sorts that saw them finish 8th.
If the last two seasons were about defenders and goalkeepers, this was the season of coaches. The value of good coaches was proven empirically.
With Leeds winning the Championship, their highly regarded coach Bielsa will grace the Premier League next season allowing Pep Guardiola to be reunited with his mentor. Pep’s former and current archrivals (Mourinho and Klopp) are already there. Add Ancelotti to the mix and the Premier League will boast a prized collection of coaches next season.
The real winner
So far we looked at on-pitch action. The biggest action for the EPL and the world this year was no doubt the Coronavirus pandemic. The Premier League was suspended. With football running unimpeded since the World War, there was no protocol for this type of disruption. It had never been done before and no one knew what to do. It was the biggest ever crisis for the Premier League.
When reports of some players testing positive for Coronavirus started to emerge in early March, the only course of action was to suspend the competition. The next step was not known and would depend on how the (uncertain) future looked. Two solutions anchored the polar ends of the spectrum — “null and void” or a “restart” (later).
The financial and legal consequences of voiding the season were significant. On the other hand, the risk to players and public health was a pressing counterweight. The EPL finally opted for Project Restart, where all remaining matches would be played behind closed doors, with the required precautions.
Project Restart can only be seen as a success. We saw clubs turnaround their fortunes during the final quarter of the season. Importantly, all results were now based on sporting merit, restoring credibility to the season, staving off potential lawsuits and minimizing financial devastation.
The biggest winner this season was the Premier League itself which survived an existential threat to complete the season.
2019/20 was an extraordinary season. It had everything — excellence, dramatic overturns, overachievers, disruption, restart and VAR.
Among its many stories, the salient theme of the season was RESILIENCE. Be it the Premier League completing all 380 matches a most unusual time, Liverpool’s redoubtable effort in winning the title, turnarounds achieved by various coaches, or the heartwarmingly solid performances of relatively ‘smaller’ clubs, resilience was in plentiful display throughout the season.
It was a season of many ‘victories’ and indeed one where the notion of success itself was revisited, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
