A Slip, a Headbutt and David Moyes...
A week after Manchester City won their second title in three seasons Kunal Wagle, Jonny Pratt and Football Columnist James White take a look at a Premier League season that really did have it all.
5 Moments that defined the title race - Jonny Pratt
City 4-1 United (September)
After a shaky start to the season City showed their intent, with a thorough defeat of their closest rivals, who had been doing alright till this point.
City 2-1 Liverpool (December)
Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool
Liverpool lose the top spot they held at Christmas and drop down to fifth. First signs of frustration from Rogers, who complains about referees and their postcodes.
Liverpool 5-1 Arsenal (February)
Liverpool follow a 4-0 win over Everton with this against Arsenal within ten days to announce themselves in the title race.
Chelsea 1-2 Sunderland (April)
José loses it with Mike Dean, delivering a press conference full of sarcasm that just seemed like he wasn’t handling the pressure well.
Liverpool 0-2 Chelsea (April)
Chelsea perform a smash and grab at Anfield, with Rogers complaining about them parking ‘two buses’. Gerrard’s slip will forever go down as the iconic image of thiscampaign.
5 Moments that defined the relegation battle - Kunal Wagle
Sunderland sack di Canio (September)
Sunderland takes the drastic step to replace Paolo di Canio with Sunderland bottom of the league. Gus Poyet would eventually keep the Black Cats up.
Pulis joins Palace (October)
In an unusual move, Ian Holloway admits that he isn’t the best man to keep Palace up and is replaced by Tony Pulis. Palace were 19th and already looking favourites for the drop.
Tan sacks Mackay (December)
After a period of turbulence at the club, Cardiff City parted ways with Malky Mackay on the 27th. They appointed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer a week later.
Chris Hughton departs (April)
With only five games to go, Norwich City gave Chris Hughton his marching orders. In the fans eyes it was probably long overdue, but still poor timing by the board, who would only pick up a single point after this.
Sunderland 4-0 Cardiff (April)
With Cardiff’s hopes and dreams of staying in the division hanging by a thread Sunderland destroy any realistic hope in a relegation six-pointer. They and Fulham would be relegated the following week.
James White's Weekly Predictions Put On Trial - Kunal Wagle
After the league ended on Sunday, Felix went through James White’s football columns to see how the league would have ended up if he controlled its destiny. The answer? Not a lot different.
The champions would have been the same (although with a marginally more thrilling finale), the top 4 would have been the same, and the three teams relegated would have been the same. The only major difference being that Man Utd came in seventh and thus missed out on European qualification for the first time in 25 years. Felix congratulates James and asks whether his services would be available in predicting next season’s table - the editorial team could do with some extra funds!
NB: Matches that James didn’t give a prediction for were recorded with the same scoreline as occurred in actuality.
