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Opinion

End of season report card: Grading each Premier League's season

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Roar Rookie
26th May, 2021
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Another year bites the dust. Time to looks back on a successful season of Premier League football and find who were the winners and losers of this campaign.

Arsenal – E
Simply not where Arsenal Football Club should be. A win on the final day took them up to eighth position.

Gunners fans are insistent on ‘trusting the process’ with Mikel Arteta, but there simply must be improvement next season. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was a shadow of the marquee player we’ve seen in years past this season. Willian was a massive let down as one of their biggest signing of the Summer, with his season peaking with his three assists in the first game.

One positive is the emergence of Bukayo Saka as a future world star, as well as the likes of Emile Smith Rowe who also shows great potential.

Mathew Ryan of Arsenal

Mathew Ryan of Arsenal (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

Aston Villa – B+
Villa managed to avoid relegation on the final day of the 2019-20 season. To then finish the 2020/21 campaign in 11th is a massive improvement. It goes without saying that they are still awfully reliant on a fit Jack Grealish, which was evident when their momentum was halted towards the end of the season when Grealish hit an injury.

However, the emergence of Emi Martinez as one of the league’s best keepers was a great bit of business. Not to mention as well, that 7-2 win over Liverpool will go down in Villa folklore as one of the club’s greatest days.

Brighton – D
Brighton demonstrated a surprising amount of defensive resilience, especially in the second half of the season. 12 clean sheets was joint fifth best in the league, and their overall goal difference is a positive outlier for the bottom half of the table.

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Where they struggled though was in attack, with no players managing to go on any periods of goalscoring form throughout the season. The off-season business for Brighton should no doubt be in attack.

Burnley – E
17th position means a narrow escape from relegation for Sean Dyche’s men. Nowhere near as defensively solid as last season, and no real attacking threat aside from Chris Wood’s 12 goals. Definitely work to be done in the off season.

Chelsea- B-
Despite doing their absolute best to bottle it on the final day, Chelsea secured Champions League football on the final day of the season. For this reason, I think perhaps this season was a bit of a letdown, because on paper it looked like Chelsea could challenge for the title this season, and their early season form suggested this could be a reality.

Tommy Tuchel appears to be getting them into a healthy shape for the future, reigniting N’Golo Kante and bringing the star quality out of Mason Mount. Edouard Mendy was an exceptional purchase by the Blues, as the keeper situation needed addressing. If certain players get some consistency about them, namely Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, there’s definitely title potential in this Chelsea side.

Kai Havertz of Chelsea

Kai Havertz (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Crystal Palace – C-
Around where Palace could’ve been predicted to finish. A win against Manchester United was a high point. A 7-0 thrashing to Liverpool was probably the lowest. A big plus was Chris Benteke finding some form, with Palace realising not many Premier League defenders will beat the big man in the air if they simply find his head.

Eberechi Eze also had some moments of brilliance, a good signing for the future. The age old questions remains though as we enter another off-season: will they find a way to keep Willy Zaha for another year?

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Everton – B-
A tenth place finish for the Toffees could be considered a bit of a letdown considering their early season form. Dominic Calvert-Lewin became the best striker in world football for a minute there, but his second-half of the season left a lot to be desired.

This could be down to the James Rodriguez effect, who was a magical addition to the league at the start of the year, but was plagued by injury. A bit more consistency and luck with injury could’ve helped Everton out a little, but overall a relatively successful campaign.

Fulham – F
Back to the Championship for Fulham. At one point looked to be making a late surge for safety, but in the end finished 11 points off the pace. A victory at Leicester was probably the high point, but it’s back to the drawing board for this Fulham side.

Leeds – A-
Leeds returned to the Premier League with a bang and became one of the most exciting teams to watch under Marcelo Bielsa. Patrick Bamford emerged as a top tier striker, to the surprise of many after his Championship form last season. Raphinha and Jack Harrison were guns in midfield, and Stu Dallas became a Fantasy Premier League legend.

A bit of work to be done defensively, with 54 goals conceded easily the most in the top half of the table. However, a 10th place finish is to be easily commended for a returning season.

Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa

Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa (Photo by Alex Dodd – CameraSport/Getty Images)

Leicester- B+
It’s hard to tell if Leicester are still punching above their weight these days, as they continually find themselves in the top quarter of the table battling with the big boys.

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Another agonising final day means they don’t play Champions League football this season, but finishing fifth and going to the Europa League is still an achievement.

Iheanacho emerged as one of the league’s best strikers in the late stages of the season, and Harvey Barnes was on fire prior to his season ending injury. Another strong showing by Brendan Rodgers’ boys.

Liverpool- C
Had they not made the late surge they did and wound up in third place, you’d be looking at a much harsher grade for Jurgen Klopp’s boys. However, they finally got their act together and put points on the board. As a title defence season however, it was poor.

Yes, injury played a massive part in this. Losing Virgil van Dijk cannot be understated as a massive blow enough. The constant changing of centre back pairings did nothing to help either, as well as serious purple patches in form for the like of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Allison and Sadio Mane.

However, they got to a respectable third place finish in the end, and can rebuild for another title crack next season with a fully fit side.

Jurgen Klopp smiles

(Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Manchester City- A
Only thing stopping them from an A+ is their own standards, as their 100 point season set the bar pretty high. Simply above and beyond the others, and they did with barely any appearances from the departing Sergio Aguero, as well as periods of injury to Kevin de Bruyne.

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Phil Foden announced himself as the future of world football, the kid is something special. Ilkay Gundogan also stepped up as a goal machine when no one else could.

The contribution of Ruben Dias at the back cannot be praised enough as well, not only playing great football himself but bringing out the best in John Stones. A terrific campaign for Pep’s troops.

Manchester United- B+
Good signs of growth at Old Trafford this year. Second place seemed locked in for quite a while there, and being the best of the rest in a year where City were on another level is a respectable finish.

Bruno Fernandes was out doing what Bruno does, Marcus Rashford was tallying healthy goal contributions. Luke Shaw suddenly became arguably the best left-back in the league, and Edison Cavani became an instant fan favourite, helped by that freakish chip against Fulham in GW37.

A win over Manchester City shows they’ve got the potential for a serious title challenge with a bit more consistency.

Newcastle – D+
For a while there I thought they were destined for relegation. It seemed that once Callum Wilson was injured they had nothing going forward. They then started winning, and winning a lot. Joe Willock started scoring for fun and suddenly propelled them to a 13th place finish. So all in all, not too bad for Steve Bruce.

Sheffield United- F-
Shocking. So much so that they could very well struggle in the Championship. I don’t know how much can be put down to Dean Henderson leaving last season, but the contrast from their successful last campaign was stark. A win against Manchester United was a surprise to all, and no doubt the high point.

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Southhampton- E+
At one point Southampton were top of the league. They finished in 15th, with their season remembered for that 9-0 loss to Manchester United, their second 9-0 loss in two seasons.

Their defence undoubtably needs bolstering, as on paper their attack is quite decent, especially with a fully fit Danny Ings playing in front of James Ward-Prowse. But overall a disappointing campaign for the Saints.

Spurs- D
What a weird campaign for Spurs. A seventh place finish, despite having Harry Kane topping both goals and assists in the league, Son Heung-Min in lethal form and Gareth Bale back from Real Madrid.

There was just no consistency to this Spurs team. One week they were out winning 6-1 at Old Trafford, the next they’re losing to Brighton. If Harry Kane leaves this Summer, I honestly believe they finish bottom half of the table. It’ll be a very interesting off season for Tottenham.

Harry Kane Tottenham English Premier League EPL Football 2017

(Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

West Brom- F
Not Premier League quality at all unfortunately. Just five wins all year compounds them to another year in the Championship. The one bright spark was Matheus Pereira, who seems like a genuine baller and could probably slot into a number of Premier League side. For the bulk of the others though, the quality just wasn’t there.

West Ham- A
Who would’ve thought it? David Moyes did a madness with West Ham this season. A sixth place finish was enough for Europa League football. Jesse Lingard rediscovered himself in new colours to the delight of all, Tomas Soucek became a goalscoring machine from midfield, and Aaron Creswell loves an assist from defence.

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Champions League football would’ve secured them an A+ rating, but take nothing away from this achievement. Europe beckons for the Hammers.

Wolves- D
Hurt massively by the unfortunate loss of Raul Jimenez, and never really found themselves this season. Neto and Podence showed glimpses of quality in attack, while Adama Traore couldn’t find his scintillating form last year.

There’s still a lot of quality in this side and hopefully with the return of Jimenez next season, they’ll become a threat again.

Let me know if you agree with the report card or not in the comments!

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