May 2019 in the Premier League

It’s hard to believe but the Premier League season is already over for another year. April had just 2 rounds of football left to play but there was still plenty of importance to these matches, as Cardiff’s 2-3 loss to Crystal Palace saw them become the final team to be relegated with 1 game left. At the other end of the table, Chelsea and Tottenham managed to hold onto the top 4 spots to earn Champions League football over Arsenal and Manchester United, while the title chase went down to the final day and saw Manchester City emerge victorious, beating Liverpool to the title by a single point.

A very special season

We have had title races finished later in the season (“Aguerooooooooooooooooooooo!”) but this season’s battle between Manchester City and Liverpool will be one that lives long in the memory. Coming into the day, it was highly likely that both teams would win their respective matches to give City the title, but there was still a chance that a miracle could happen for the Reds. It almost did too, as Sadio Mané put Liverpool ahead in their match against Wolves and Glenn Murray put Brighton ahead. Sergio Agüero equalised almost immediately and Aymeric Laporte put City ahead just 10 minutes later to put them back ahead in the title race and goals from Riyad Mahrez and İlkay Gündoğan confirmed the trophy would be staying at the Etihad for another year.

City and Liverpool were head and shoulders above the rest of the league this season. They were top 2 for goals scored (95 and 89 respectively, next was Arsenal with 73), goals conceded (23 and 22, Chelsea and Spurs were closest with 39) and clean sheets (20 and 21, next was Chelsea with 16), leaving the gap between 2^nd and 3^rd at 25 points and a goal difference of 43! Of the 10 preceding seasons, Liverpool’s 97 points would have won them the league in all but the 2017/18 season. They lost just 1 league match all season: a 2-1 loss at the Etihad, which involved John Stones clearing the ball off the line just 11mm before a goal would have been awarded. What ultimately cost Liverpool was too many draws in the early months of 2019, as they drew at home to Leicester and away at Manchester United (who struggled with injuries in this game), West Ham and Everton between January and March to throw away what had been a 7 point lead heading into 2019.

Both teams will be aiming to be as good, if not better, next season, while you would hope that the other teams from the top 6 will also improve. We could be in for a treat next season!

Going too far

Jefferson Lerma scored a beauty of a goal on the final day of the season in an eight-goal thriller between Crystal Palace and Bournemouth, but should he have even been on the pitch?

Just before halftime in the penultimate match against Tottenham, Lerma was involved in an awful moment with Son Heung-min. The Korean had won a foul but as h reached out for the ball well after the whistle was blown, Lerma came in to step on his outstretched hand. Son certainly overreacted by shoving Lerma in the face and was deserving of his red card, but Lerma pathetically chose to stay down on the ground curled up in a ball and should have received at least a yellow for his part in the altercation.

Later in the match, he and Dele Alli got into an altercation on halfway, which resulted in the pair receiving yellow cards, which should have seen Lerma dismissed at this point even if he had not been red carded earlier.

Against Palace, he may have scored a stunning goal off the woodwork, but was also involved in a couple of moments that left a bad taste in my mouth. In a moment reminiscent of the week before, Lerma reached out for the ball after being fouled, only for Zaha to kick the ball out of his hands, leading to a shoving match, however Lerma once again avoided any punishment and Zaha was cautioned. Lerma did not appear to let the issue lie, though, as the build-up to Palace’s final goal involved a strong run by Zaha that could have potentially been stopped by a good tackle by Lerma, only for him to instead try to body-check him and fail miserably.

From his altercations to his diving, Lerma was an embarrassment this month. Bournemouth would do well to move on from him quickly as he will likely bring bad press to the club if he continues in this vein.

Thanks everyone for reading this season! I have plans for a couple of Premier League posts over the summer and will back with a similar series of articles next season.