Premier League Season 2023/2024 summary
The final round of the 2023/2024 Premier League season was played on Sunday, and here we go through the champions, the top and bottom teams, and take a closer look at the top scorers and the managers who left and came in this season.
Arsenal finished second, just like last season, and with a potential loss for City, they would have won the league. However, they will once again spend the summer recharging to challenge again next season. Liverpool finished third and Aston Villa fourth, meaning both will play in the Champions League next season, with Aston Villa doing so for the first time since 1983.
All the newly promoted teams this season, namely Luton, Burnley, and Sheffield United, were relegated and will play in the EFL Championship next season.
Over- and Underperforming Teams
The fact that all the newly promoted teams were relegated is no major surprise; it's very difficult for a newly promoted team to establish itself in the world's best league nowadays. There weren't any teams that significantly underperformed given the circumstances, but Manchester United finishing in eighth place is naturally a major failure. In fact, it's United's worst league finish ever since the Premier League was founded in 1992.Chelsea was heading towards a similar disaster as last season but finished with five consecutive wins, taking them to a final sixth place. Not a disaster, but they performed poorly at times during the season. Whether the strong finish indicates that Chelsea is stabilizing their strong squad will be shown next season, but it's already decided that coach Mauricio Pochettino is leaving Chelsea, and it's still unclear today who will coach the team next season.
There are no clear candidates for overperforming teams either. Aston Villa clinched fourth place, which is impressive, but everyone knew in advance that Villa had a strong squad with good harmony, so it's hardly a shock to anyone.
Crystal Palace finished in tenth place, which may not exactly be surprising, but they had a fantastic end to the season, which should be noted. In the last seven matches, they were unbeaten and won six of the matches with a goal difference of 21-4. They notably beat Aston Villa 5-0 in the final round and also defeated Liverpool (1-0), Manchester United (4-0), and Newcastle (2-0) during this streak. Their offensive, with Jean-Philippe Mateta, Eberechi Eze, and Michael Olise, was razor-sharp at the end of the league, and the new coach, Austrian Oliver Glasner, has worked wonders with the team since taking over as coach on February 19 this year after Roy Hodgson. Crystal Palace will be very interesting to follow next season if they are not forced to let go of some of their best players.
Erling Braut Haaland shouts his joy after another top scorer title
Top Scorer - Erling Braut Haaland!
Just like last season, the top scorer in the Premier League for the 2023/2024 season was Norwegian Erling Braut Haaland, this season with 27 goals scored. He won the top scoring title by five goals ahead of the runner-up, and even though he won comfortably, he didn't quite impress as much as in his first season at City when he scored a whopping 36 goals. He missed six league matches due to injury and was rested in one, so the fact that one isn't impressed by his 27 goals says a lot about the expectations placed on him.Second in the scoring list with 22 goals was Chelsea's Cole Palmer, a player Manchester City chose to release on September 1 (which perhaps says a lot about the strength of City's squad) for around £40 million to Chelsea. Had Palmer chosen to stay at City, he would undoubtedly not have gotten much playing time, so for his development, it was entirely right for him to go to the league competitor, a choice that will probably earn him a spot in England's squad for the summer's European Championship.
At third place in the scoring list we find the Swede Alexander Isak, scoring 21 goals, despite missing eight league matches due to injury problems. He started the season somewhat hesitantly but finished it with 11 goals in the final 12 matches. There are a lot of rumours going around about Isak regarding a move to various big clubs, but considering he seems to have truly found his place at Newcastle by now, perhaps the best thing for him would be to stay another season.
Other impressive goal-scoring performances this season that should be noted include Phil Foden's 19 goals, despite being more of an attacking midfielder than a forward. This performance and his fantastic play throughout the season earned him the Premier League Player of the Season award.
Other players who scored 19 goals and thus shared fourth place in the scoring list with Foden were Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins and Bournemouth's Dominic Solanke. Solanke scored 35.2% of his club's total goals, making him the player with the highest goal percentage for his team in the entire Premier League this season.
Managers Who Were Let Go in the 2023/2024 Premier League Season
Three managers were sacked (or let go) during the season, and the first to leave was Sheffield United's Paul Heckingbottom on December 5, replaced by Chris Wilder. Sheffield United had only 5 points after 14 rounds at that point, and the 0-5 loss to Burnley in that round was the straw that broke the camel's back. Despite the managerial change, they finished hopelessly last in the league with a mere 16 points and only three wins, so it's hardly fair to say that the change made any difference. The truth is rather that Sheffield United had a far too weak squad for the Premier League this time.A couple of weeks later, on December 19 to be exact, Nottingham's Steve Cooper became the second coach to leave his club this season. A 0-2 loss to Tottenham was the final straw this time, and Nuno Espírito Santo was appointed as the successor tasked with keeping Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. Under Santo, the points per match increased from 0.82 to 1.05, and he managed to keep the team in the league, despite losing four points on March 18 due to breaking financial rules (Everton also lost points for the same reason, eight points in their case).
Oliver Glasner - one of the hottest managers in the football world at the moment
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