STAN COLLYMORE My verdict on the class of 2017? Underachievers who must do lots)better

Fwolwloww. Tew. eurk: @peoplesport IF you look where Manchester City and Liverpool started the season, where Arsenal have come from in the past few years and how much Manchester United spent last summer, there is only one conclusion.

And it is that each and every one of them has failed this season.

No green ticks for Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Co.

Just big, bold crosses and disappointing marks out of 10.

The only thing to change that for United would be a victory in one game in Stockholm on Wednesday, because Mourinho can justifiably claim to have had a very good season with two trophies and a place in the Champions League booked for next term.

But if they lose the Europa League final against Ajax, then everything looks different.

Sixth place in the Premier League and the League Cup can only be seen as a poor return for a club of United’s stature. City and Liverpool could and should have done better, too.

So don’t let either set of supporters tell you they achieved their primary objective of a top-four finish because, at Christmas, both looked like they would challenge for the title.

Ultimately, neither did, which is why their fans should feel aggrieved.

As long as Guardiola learns what the Premier League is about – set-pieces, second balls and getting stuck in, as well as the pretty patterns – then he will do better next season.

Calibre

But he has to buy a central defender, maybe two, a full- back and a goalkeeper, he has to make sure his side defend properly and don’t take risks every time they try to play their way out from the back.

Klopp, meanwhile, has to buy a better calibre of keeper and defender and, if he doesn’t recruit well, then fourth will be as good as it gets next season as well.

I know Arsenal fans will point to Steven Gerrard’s slip against Chelsea and say anything can happen today, that they still have a chance of finishing in the top four. But I just don’t see Liverpool slipping up against Middlesbrough.

So, in terms of the top four, which I expect to stay the same this afternoon, I would give Chelsea a 10 out of 10, Tottenham a nine, Manchester City a four and Liverpool a seven.

City have the best manager in the world, a bottomless money pit, and a hugely talented and sizeable squad already, so third simply isn’t good enough and Guardiola knows that.

United, meanwhile, get a four out of 10 without the Europa League or a seven-and-a-half with it.

Which leaves us only Arsenal, for whom an FA Cup final will make this season marginally more palatable, but not by much.

I speak to a lot of Gooners on my American show, ex-pats who spend a great deal of money flying home to see their side, and I get the feeling there’s a real antipathy about them.

They feel there is nothing they can do, that they just have to get on with it, and that’s a shame really. It is sad, actually, to see the Gunners, who have had 20 seasons in the Champions League, getting done by 10 over two legs by Bayern Munich and dropping out of the top four.

And, with the top four, five or six teams all spending again, next season is not going to be any easier.

Even clubs like Everton are going to spend money, West Ham cannot get any worse, and that will ramp up the pressure on Wenger to even more ferocious levels if he does stay.

Antipathy