Timing, transfers and twist of fate tie up storylines on Premier League’s final day
For 325 days, Leicester were comforted by a spot in the top four and before the turn of the year, Brendan Rodgers became accustomed to fielding questions about a title tilt.
“So long as you’re still asking me about it come the business end of the season” would be his retort, but when the lights went out on a long and weird bio-secure campaign, his team had finished 37 points adrift of
champions Liverpool.
More painfully, they had surrendered their opportunity to sit amongst Europe’s elite with their final day opponents Manchester United returning to the table instead.
Leicester did not blow it at the last stretch; they had limped through most of 2020. One of the mindbending stats to emerge at the conclusion of the season was that since their 9-0 away demolition of Southampton on 25 October, Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side amassed two more points.
While Saints marched upwards, Leicester slowly slipped – injuries to James Maddison and Ricardo Pereira weren’t helpful, nor was the dearth of service to Jamie Vardy.
For a team that were 12th and ninth consecutively following their 5000-1 miracle season, a fifth-place finish should be celebrated. That should be even more pronounced given the squad is still young and developing together, and yet it’s hard to shake that this was a sizeable missed opportunity.
If Leicester’s halves of the term had been reversed, they would undoubtedly be receiving a more glowing appraisal.
“We need to keep perspective,” Rodgers said. “It’s the second-highest finish in our history, so I can be proud of that. Next year we have to add greater consistency, more ambition in the team and look to improve.”
While Leicester had burned bright and burnt out too early in the campaign, Bournemouth flickered to life too late.
Impressive victories over the Foxes and Everton, a hard-fought draw with Tottenham and a spirited performance in a narrow defeat to Manchester City offered reminders of how enterprising Eddie Howe’s team can be.
Those memos don’t cut it, though, when the script also reads home losses of 4-1 against Newcastle United and 3-0 against Watford, being turned over by Norwich and twice by Aston Villa – who secured safety over them by a point.
As written in these pages, Bournemouth’s victory was to stay in the Premier League for all this while. That they made it this far, clocking up five years of top-flight fixtures with finishes of 16th, 9th, 12th and 14th, is a success for a club that were on the brink of being disbanded in 2009.
Clubs with greater history and greater budgets have come and gone and while they made a fist of it in the last few weeks, it was one miracle too many for Howe’s men.
“It’s incredibly painful, we always believed we were capable of a last-minute escape,” the manager said as he
visibly tried to constrain his emotions. “When it went 3-1, our focus was glued to the West Ham score. We needed it to fall for us but ultimately you look at the points we’ve not got during the season that we should have got.
“Collectively over the course of it, we haven’t been good enough. The table doesn’t lie, it tells the story. We’ve dipped below the levels of previous seasons, there’s no denying that. I have to take this on my shoulders and I’ve no issues with that. It’s how you respond to the setback. At the moment it’s too difficult to see that.”
Captain Steve Cook’s appraisal was cutting and accurate. ”We haven’t scored the first goal enough this year, conceded too many soft goals... It’s a ruthless league and you don’t often get lucky, and we didn’t.”
Villa were recipients of almighty fortune, however. Given their survival by the scruff of a point, it is difficult not to dwell on their draw with Sheffield United on 17 June when goalline technology erred for the first time in more than 9,000 matches.
Dean Smith’s side, to their credit, channelled their luck into a strong streak. Wins against Crystal Palace and Arsenal as well as draws with Everton and at West Ham on the final day was enough to carry them over the line.
“I’m pleased, proud and every adjective to go with it,” Smith said. “A lot of people had us relegated but we have worked so hard. We used the pandemic well. We have looked strong. A lot has been made of what we spent, but we had to. I would have said this if we had been relegated or stayed up.
“It is an achievement from the players. They have grown and become Premier League players. We need to build on that and recruit in the summer.”
While Villa plot fortifying their squad, Watford will be seeking out the next manager they can rapidly sack. Three – Javier Gracia, Quique Sanchez Flores and Nigel Pearson – were axed in order to keep the club in the Premier League, but, well... Watford had a six-point cushion over the bottom three after beating Newcastle on 11 July, but ended second from bottom.
At the other end of the table, the biggest impact was not an exit, but a new recruit.
United’s presence in the top four is in the largest part owed to the talismanic Bruno Fernandes. Since making his debut in the league in February, the Portuguese international was directly involved in more goals (15) in the competition than any other player.
Beyond the numbers, his psychological impact on the squad has been obvious: he walked in, claimed responsibility and became the reference point. He made those around him better and has thrived as the
team’s luminary. Fernandes has shouldered the expectations of an underperforming super club with ease, sticking a slick new coating on United that made them look worthy of returning to the Champions League.
For Chelsea, their decisive edge at the end was provided not by someone new, but someone often overlooked: Oliver Giroud. At the age of 33, he became the oldest player to score in five consecutive Premier League starts, eclipsing Vardy.
“Oli has to take all the credit from January onwards,” Lampard said. “We all know that he wasn’t playing much at the start. Tammy [Abraham] played a lot.
“I was never unaware of Oli’s talents, but that was just the circumstance at the time.
“But to have the personality, strength of character and talent to come in and affect things the way he has before the lockdown and then carried it on.
“He has always been big on the training ground and changing room for me, but I don’t want to talk about that too much because we have to respect the talent of the goals he is scoring.
“Players love playing with him, he is a reference point for the team and I am delighted to have him.”
At the other end of the pitch, Kepa Arrizabalaga’s thankless time at Chelsea is edging towards a close. Lampard dropped the goalkeeper for the crucial finale against Wolves, a decision based “on recent form, recent situations for him, he’s had a tough time.”
Willy Caballero was a more assured presence between the sticks and while it is no secret Chelsea are scouting for a new No.1, the question remains which club is capable of taking a very expensive punt on Kepa in this financial climate?
Money still makes the football world go round and the Stamford Bridge side are poised to spend a lot of it this summer.
The curtain closes on another season, but there is sure to be similar storylines in the new campaign. After all, there is no telenova as dramatic as England’s top flight.