Chelsea win the title at a canter
Conte brings championship back to the Bridge
Chelsea’s failure to qualify for Europe left them free to concentrate on their league challenge
After Leicester City’s miraculous title success in 2016, normal service has been resumed in the Premier League. Chelsea, after spending heavily last summer and recruiting a new manager, won their second title in three years at a canter as the top six pulled away from the rest of the league.
Much of Chelsea’s success can be attributed to the hiring of Antonio Conte. The former Italy coach took over a disillusioned squad that had finished 10th the previous season, 31 points behind champions Leicester, following the sacking of Jose Mourinho midway through the campaign. Conte’s energy and commitment quickly translated to the players, who were reinvigorated by a new tactical structure, which played to the strengths of several key signings.
Chelsea spent heavily on midfielder N’Golo Kante (£32m), striker Michy Batshuayi (£33m), and defenders Marco Alonso (£23m) and David Luiz (£30m). With the exception of the little-used Batshuayi, they all played key roles in a 3-4-2-1 formation that had worked for Conte with Juventus and Italy, and he used a heavy defeat against Arsenal in their sixth game to introduce it at Chelsea.
Luiz made a surprise return, having been sold to Paris Saint-German for £50m in 2016. The Brazilian flourished in a back three, while Alonso was deployed as a wing-back, along with the Nigerian winger Victor Moses, whose reinvention as a defender proved inspired by Conte.
Further forward, Kante was handed the same dynamic interceptor role he had performed with such effectiveness at Leicester, but perhaps Conte’s biggest achievement was to oversee the revitalisation of Eden Hazard, the talented Belgian who had been one of the poorest performers during Mourinho’s final months.
Conte also proved an adept “politician” off the pitch, steering former captain John Terry towards retirement and managing a January stand-off with top-scorer Diego Costa, whose agent appeared to be agitating for a lucrative move to China.
Crucially, Chelsea’s failure to qualify for Europe left them free to concentrate on their league challenge, while the other contenders faced a campaign on multiple fronts.
The season was supposed to be all about Manchester and the new men in town: Mourinho at United and Pep Guardiola at City.
Mourinho’s pragmatic approach delivered trophies in his first season: the League Cup and the Europa League, which means Champions League football next season despite United finishing a poor sixth. Indeed, Mourinho’s record at Old Trafford has been no better than his muchhounded predecessors, David Moyes and Louis Van Gaal, despite huge sums spent in the transfer market, including a world record fee for Paul Pogba.
But Mourinho is in danger of
sounding like a broken record. His well-rehearsed conspiracy theories – which worked so well at Porto, success-starved Chelsea and Inter – hold limited appeal when applied to the world’s richest club.
Mourinho and United remain an uneasy partnership, especially given United’s tradition for exciting attacking play. At least Zlatan Ibrahimovic, until a cruciate ligament injury in the Europa League semi-final curtailed the 35year-old’s season, offered some excitement. As did young striker Marcus Rashford, who once again demonstrated his vast potential for club and country.
Across town, Guardiola ended the season empty-handed for the first time in his coaching career. The Spaniard was heavily criticised for his mishandling of City’s goalkeeping situation, discarding national-team keeper Joe Hart and bringing in Claudio Bravo, supposedly for his “sweeper-keeper” skills. However, the Chilean proved weak and wobbly, rather than strong and stable, and his weaknesses impacted on Guardiola’s attempts to refresh the squad.
The early signs – the signing of Bernardo Silva from Monaco and Benfica’s Brazilian keeper Ederson – are that City will splash the cash this summer as Guardiola embarks on a wholesale rebuilding project.
City’s early form last term – winning nine of their first 13 league matches – prompted excitable talk about Guardiola’s tactical versatility. But the real tactical innovation of the season took place elsewhere, with Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal both following Chelsea in switching to a back three.
Tottenham continued their progress under Mauricio Pochettino, with a core of young English players – Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier – helping them emerge as the strongest contenders to Chelsea.
Their summer transfer dealings, meanwhile, had mixed success. Victor Wanyama offered midfield new options, but Dutch striker Vincent Janssen fell short of expectations and French midfielder Moussa Sissoko, at £30m from Newcastle, had limited impact.
Spurs had a disappointing Champions League campaign, where they played home games at Wembley but lost to Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen. Next season, the switch to Wembley while a new, bigger stadium is built at White Hart Lane, will pose a further challenge to Pochettino.
Spurs finished ahead of North London rivals Arsenal for first time in 22 years. Despite a promising start, Arsenal failed to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since Arsene Wenger
Tottenham finished ahead of North London rivals Arsenal for first time in 22 years
arrived at the club in 1996. Their season was salvaged by an FA Cup win – their third in four seasons and a record seventh for Wenger – but the campaign was dogged by the long-running saga of the manager’s contract extension. A prominent section of Arsenal fans became increasingly critical of the Frenchman as the season progressed; the agreement of a new two-year deal for Wenger is unlikely to silence them, especially as the future of star striker Alexis Sanchez remains uncertain.
Arsenal now face a new challenge to attract top players while playing in the Europa League. In contrast, Liverpool have made steady progress under Jurgen Klopp, with Sadio Mane proving to be an exciting, if injury-prone addition.
Although the TV-funding formula ensures a greater equality of revenue for Premier League clubs than in other leagues, the top six are in danger of pulling away from the rest of the pack. Everton are the one team who look capable of breaking into the top six, although the long-term futures of manager Ronald Koeman and striker Romelu Lukaku are unclear.
For the middle-ranking teams, managerial stability has proved more important than financial clout. Eddie Howe and Sean Dyche, at Bournemouth and Burnley respectively, offer hope for English bosses in the league.
Player power proved decisive in removing Claudio Ranieri from defending champions Leicester, who turned to assistant manager Craig Shakespeare to rescue a campaign that was in danger of ending in relegation.
There were also successful coaching changes at Crystal Palace (Sam Allardyce replacing Alan Pardew) and Swansea City (Paul Clement for Bob Bradley). But less successful were the changes at Hull City and Middlesbrough. Marco Silva almost pulled off a miracle at Hull, and although he failed to avoid the drop his efforts impressed Watford, who hired him for next season.
Sunderland stuck with David Moyes throughout the campaign but after flirting with the drop for a number of years, they finally went down.