A fantastic 2023/24 season had a fitting finale on Sunday. Alex Keble looks at the key talking points and tactical lessons, including:
- Man City prove unstoppable in quest for title
- Why Arsenal should target a new forward
- Man Utd finish in lowest-ever position
- Pochettino's outstanding finish to the season
- Can Palace fly even higher under Glasner?
- Attacking impetus sparks strong finish by Newcastle
- Quansah's history-making goal fitting send-off for Klopp
- Nott'm Forest's late form offers hope for Nuno
- Postecoglou's positive signs of progress
- Luton's defensive woes apparent once more
Pep has (almost) no more mountains left to climb
Manchester City have become the first team to win four consecutive top-flight English titles, surely Pep Guardiola’s greatest achievement in this country.
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But where does that leave his future? With one year left on his contract, Guardiola appears to have hinted after the match that, with no mountains left to climb, his time at Man City might be coming to an end.
“Last year after Istanbul I said, ‘It’s over, there’s nothing left,'" Guardiola said immediately after Sunday's title-winning 3-1 victory over West Ham United. “But I had a contract and I start to think, ‘No one has done four in a row, why don't we try?’ And now I feel it’s done, so what next?
“Now I don't know what exactly the motivation is because it's difficult to find it when everything is done.”
He went even further when asked by Sky Sports, stating: “We have talked with the club - my feeling is that I want to stay now. I will stay next season and during the season we will talk. But eight or nine years - we will see.”
What is left for him to do? For starters, winning the FA Cup next weekend against rivals Manchester United would make it two Doubles in two years, another first in English football.
Beyond that, the only record on the horizon is to win a seventh Premier League title to put him outright second in the list behind Sir Alex Ferguson.
Most top-flight English titles won by managers
| Manager | English top-flight titles |
|---|---|
| Sir Alex Ferguson | 13 |
| Pep Guardiola, George Ramsay, Bob Paisley | 6 |
| Tom Watson, Matt Busby | 5 |
| Frank Watt, Herbert Chapman, Kenny Dalglish | 4 |
| Stan Cullis, Bill Shankly, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho | 3 |
Guardiola, with six league titles in seven years, has dominated English football to the point where rivals have started to lose faith he can be beaten. Their biggest hope is that he might only be around for another 12 months.
Arteta may need striker to continue progress
It has been a magnificent season for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, who should not be too disheartened by losing the title on the final day.
Arsenal have continued their relentless upward trajectory this season, and their 89 points is the Gunners' second-highest points tally of the Premier League era. They have also broken their record for most wins.
Arsenal's improvement under Arteta
| Full seasons | Points won |
|---|---|
| 2020/21 | 61 |
| 2021/22 | 69 |
| 2022/23 | 84 |
| 2023/24 | 89 |
If Arsenal are to continue their points-tally improvement into next season - and 90+ is generally what’s required to overcome Guardiola’s Man City - then Sunday’s narrow 2-1 victory over Everton pointed to the area that could most do with an upgrade.
Kai Havertz has been brilliant as a "false nine" over the last couple of months, and indeed he scored the winner against Everton, but for most of the match Arsenal struggled to look dangerous in a congested penalty area without an out-and-out goalscorer.
Bukayo Saka was Arsenal’s top scorer in the Premier League this season, with 16 goals, which is low for a team chasing the title.
What’s more, Arsenal didn’t win the league despite conceding a division-low 29 goals. All they need is a touch more firepower to bridge the gap. A new striker might do it.
Man Utd hit a new low despite victory
The 2023/24 Premier League season has ended badly for both of these sides.
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A poor run of form has led to Roberto De Zerbi departing Brighton & Hove Albion by mutual consent, and yet despite Sunday's 2-0 defeat by Man Utd, he leaves with 26 wins from 70 matches, an average of 37 per cent - the highest win percentage in the English top flight of any Brighton manager.
The numbers show things are not looking better for Man Utd. An FA Cup final could still save their season, but in the Premier League they have gained some unwanted records.
Newcastle United’s victory condemned Erik ten Hag’s side to eighth place, their lowest-ever finish in the competition. They also ended on a negative goal difference (-1) for the first time since 1989/90.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
38 | +15 | 68 |
| 5 |
Spurs
TOT
|
38 | +13 | 66 |
| 6 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
38 | +14 | 63 |
| 7 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
38 | +23 | 60 |
| 8 |
Man Utd
MUN
|
38 | -1 | 60 |
On the 10-year anniversary of their David Moyes season, when United came seventh, it is a bitter pill to swallow. A lot is riding on next Saturday’s FA Cup final.
Plenty of promise after Pochettino's first season
Chelsea could not have ended the season any better. They have won five consecutive Premier League matches for the first time since March 2022 to seal sixth spot and European football next season.
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Aston Villa’s defeat at Crystal Palace also means Chelsea ended 2023/24 a mere five points short of a UEFA Champions League spot, while their tally of 63 points represents a 19-point improvement on the previous campaign.
What’s more, they scored 77 Premier League goals this season, their third-most across a single campaign behind 2009/10 (103 goals) and 2016/17 (85), which were both title-winning campaigns.
That suggests that all Mauricio Pochettino needs to do is improve the defensive side of things, and with Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana returning from injury - alongside the recent returns of Benoit Badiashile and Reece James - there is a good chance of that happening in 2024/25.
All in all, this ought to be seen as a successful transitional year under Pochettino, who can go into his next meeting with the owners with pride.
Glasner’s revolution has Palace fans dreaming of Europe
It was the perfect way to end the season at Selhurst Park and leave supporters dreaming of something special happening in 2024/25.
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Surely even Oliver Glasner didn’t imagine things would go quite this well. Crystal Palace have ended the season with six wins and a draw from their last seven matches, a sequence that means they have equalled their Premier League record for points (49) - and managed to sneak into the top 10.
Incredibly, they’ve been in Champions League form since Glasner’s appointment - only Man City, with 35 points, Arsenal (34) and Chelsea (28) have won more than Palace’s 24 points from 13 matches.
A top-four finish is probably beyond them, but perhaps a push for the European places is on the cards if they can keep the team together.
Jean-Philippe Mateta’s hat-trick against Villa took him to 16 goals for the season in the Premier League; Michael Olise’s assist made it 16 goal involvements in only 14 starts; Eberechi Eze’s two goals and an assist took him to 11 goal contributions in his last 12 matches.
Mateta completes his hat-trick v Villa
Dean Henderson with the distribution.
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) May 19, 2024
Ebs with the link-up.
JP with the hat-trick.#CPFC | #CRYAVL pic.twitter.com/VOnYmNVaoR
All three will have suitors this summer. Glasner’s top-four form might just convince them to stay.
Newcastle victory completes Howe’s entertaining recovery
In late January, Newcastle were 10th in the Premier League and on a four-match losing streak, in danger of dropping all the way down to 13th spot. Some were starting to wonder if Eddie Howe’s time at the club was up.
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But a sequence of 31 points from the final 17 matches after that - the fifth-most in the Premier League in that time - has saved Newcastle’s season.
And their victory at Brentford on the final day, which sealed a top-seven finish and will mean Europa Conference League qualification, if Man City win the FA Cup, was in keeping with the attacking verve that has characterised their recovery.
Newcastle’s 85 league goals are the most they have scored in a top-flight campaign since 1960/61, when they struck 86. More than half of those goals, 44, were scored in the final 17 matches of the season at a rate of 2.59 per game.
What Howe will enjoy less is that Newcastle were entertaining at both ends. Their Premier League matches had a total of 147 goals scored this season, with 85 in their favour and 62 coming against them. Only Liverpool have ever seen more, scoring 101 and conceding 50 in 2013/14 for a total of 151.
Record-breaking goal is a fitting farewell for Klopp
Jurgen Klopp got the send-off he deserved. He became the first Liverpool manager to win his final match in charge since Matt McQueen in February 1928, but beyond the result the performance was a fitting tribute to the man.
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Liverpool recorded an Expected Goals tally (xG) of 4.74 in this match, their second-highest total of the season after the slightly surreal 7.11 accrued in the 4-2 victory over Newcastle United in January.
Klopp’s Liverpool were nothing if not furiously energetic and entertaining, and so it was in keeping with the spirit of his management that Liverpool attempted 21 shots in the first half on Sunday, the third-highest figure on record in a Premier League opening period.
But looking to Klopp’s influence beyond Liverpool, it was also fitting that Jarell Quansah netted the 1,223rd goal of the 2023/24 season, an all-time record. We ended on 1,246, making this the first time ever the Premier League has averaged over three goals per match, with 3.28.
Quansah's record-breaking goal v Wolves
The final goal of the Jürgen Klopp era 🥲 pic.twitter.com/XFVLAPKM1S
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) May 19, 2024
Nobody is more responsible for that than Klopp. His gegenpressing "heavy metal" football is what broke the dominance of the slower Spanish style and introduced fast transitions to English football, and it is chiefly because of this that the Premier League now has so many goals.
Almost every team look to pass out from the back and almost every team look to catch out their opponent with a high press and quick attacks when the ball is turned over. That is very much a legacy of the Guardiola-Klopp years and the pair's tactical influence on English football.
Forest’s 2024/25 looks bright after late surge
Although it was all-but confirmed before the weekend, it is now official - Nottingham Forest will play Premier League football for a third consecutive season, which is just the second time that has happened.
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They did it by recording back-to-back away wins for the first time since April 1995, enough to spark some optimism that next season may see further progress.
Nuno Esperito Santo won 22 points from 21 Premier League matches in charge, a tally that extended over a full season would mean 40 points - the magic number that has meant safety in all but one of the 31 Premier League seasons.
With Chris Wood scoring 14 league goals, Anthony Elanga getting 14 goal contributions (nine assists, five goals) and Morgan Gibbs-White starring throughout, Forest now have the foundations of a solid Premier League team.
Wood's opener v Burnley
Back at Burnley with a bang 💥 pic.twitter.com/5DOQDGQKKu
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) May 19, 2024
Much-needed win ends Ange's season on a high
Ange Postecoglou needed this victory.
He described the 2-0 midweek defeat to Manchester City as “probably the worst experience I’ve had as a football manager in a game” as he reflected on a difficult week that he believed exposed some “fragile foundations” at the club.
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But the 20th league win of their season - the most any Tottenham Hotspur manager has picked up in their debut campaign since Andre Villas-Boas 11 years ago - has put all that to bed by securing fifth spot.
Spurs ended the season with two wins from the last three matches to take them to 66 points - six more than last season - and only two points off the Champions League places. That represents a good first year in the job.
Luton’s season summed up by defeat
Luton Town’s relegation on the final day confirmed this to be only the second time in Premier League history that all three promoted clubs have gone straight back down.
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We already knew that, really, before Sunday, which meant we cannot read too much into Luton’s performance. But we saw their season in microcosm.
In a 20-team campaign, only Blackpool in 2010/11 have scored more than Luton’s 52 goals and still been relegated, with the Tangerines netting 55.
Goals were never the problem. Eleventh-placed Brighton scored only three more. Instead, dreadful luck with injuries left Luton’s defence decimated.
Fulham’s four goals on Sunday took Luton's goals against tally to 85, the second-worst total of this season - but also the second-worst tally of any side since Fulham also conceded 85 in 2013/14.
