12/05/2019

Premier League Final Day - Manchester City crowned champions

Manchester City have sealed the Premier League title, needing a 14-game winning run to keep themselves above Liverpool - the best second-placed team in English top-flight history.
Photo from BBC Sport
Second half of the season form guide
Man City: WWWWLWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Liverpool: WLWWDDWDWDWWWWWWWWW

Top two records
Most points in the top-flight - 195 
Most wins - 62
Fewest defeats - 5
Most top-of-the-table switches - 32

Liverpool have spent 141 days top of the Premier League - more than Manchester City's 125.
You have to go back 28 years for the last time Liverpool spent longer on top in a season - 163 days - when they also finished second. 

Only five top-flight title-winning teams have ever won 30 games in a season.
They are first team in English Football League history to win 30 games in three different seasons (2001-02 First Division, 2017-18 and 2018-19 Premier League).

City's 163 goals in all competitions breaks their own record from 2013-14 (156) for goals in an English top-flight season.

Liverpool's 97 points is the highest tally of a runner-up in any of Europe's top five leagues - eclipsing Real Madrid's 96 in 2009-10, when Guardiola's Barcelona won La Liga.
Their total would have won them the title in all but two Premier League seasons.

Sergio Aguero, with 21 goals, became only the second player (after Alan Shearer) to score 20 or more Premier League goals in six different seasons.
Aguero also becomes the second man (after Thierry Henry) to score 20 Premier League goals in five consecutive seasons.
Liverpool pair Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane shared this season's Golden Boot with Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on 22 goals.

Team-mates to score 20 goals or more in a Premier League season
1993-94: Newcastle United - Andrew Cole (34), Peter Beardsley (21)
2009-10: Chelsea - Didier Drogba (29), Frank Lampard (22)
2013-14: Liverpool - Luis Suarez (31), Daniel Sturridge (21)
2018-19: Liverpool - Mohamed Salah (22), Sadio Mane (22)

The battle for the title has gone to the final day seven times in the Premier League era but few have been as compelling as the one between Manchester City and Liverpool this year - the Reds were even top for 21 minutes on a nervy final day.

Liverpool came to Etihad Stadium on 3 January with a seven-point cushion at the top of the Premier League. 
Jurgen Klopp's side were unbeaten and knew that a win would put the defending champions 10 points behind them and potentially out of sight.
After 18 minutes, with the score locked at 0-0, Sadio Mane poked a shot past Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson that hit the post, only for Stones' attempted clearance to rebound off the keeper and come agonisingly close to crossing the line, before the defender hooked it away.
It was a moment that Stones described as "something special" as he celebrated on the final day.
Goal-line technology showed the ball was 11.7mm away from crossing the line. 

As it was, goals from Sergio Aguero and Leroy Sane gave City the win and inflicted Liverpool's only defeat of the whole campaign.
Fast forward a few months and Pep Guardiola's side were grateful for another bit of sharp work from the goalline technology cameras.
With Liverpool on top of the league again, City were being held to a frustrating draw at Burnley when Aguero squeezed off a shot in the 63rd minute.
Clarets defender Matthew Lowton blocked it on his chest and hoofed it away, only after it had crossed the line by 29.51mm.

In a title race so tight and so intense, the two head-to-head games were always going to be massively significant. 
City may have landed a crucial blow with that win in Manchester in January, but they missed a chance in October that would have helped them out even more.
Champions City had not won a league game at Anfield in 15 years. 
They had a great chance to end that run but Riyad Mahrez fired an 85th-minute penalty high over the bar. 
The game ended 0-0.
£60m summer signing Mahrez had missed three of his previous five penalties and unsurprisingly hasn't taken one since.

Liverpool had a few helping hands on the way, certainly from opposing goalkeepers.
Everton and England number one Jordan Pickford served up a howler in the Merseyside derby back in December, inexplicably shelling a hopeful punt on goal by Virgil van Dijk and allowing Divock Origi to head in.
A month later and Julian Speroni juggled a routine cross from James Milner back over his own head to gift Mohamed Salah a tap-in. 
A needed tap-in too, as Liverpool scraped a 4-3 win.
Fulham's Sergio Rico got in on the act in March, dropping a Salah effort at the feet of Sadio Mane and then hauling the Senegal striker over for a penalty just when it looked like a costly draw was on the cards. 
Milner converted from the spot to give the Reds another win.

When Arsenal's 'Invincibles' went unbeaten en route to the title in 2003-04 they picked up 90 points, while only one other side has gone through a whole season losing just once - Jose Mourinho's Chelsea team who were champions in 2004-05.

Final Day Results
Brighton and Hove Albion 1-4 Manchester City
Burnley 1-3 Arsenal
Crystal Palace 5-3 AFC Bournemouth
Fulham 0-4 Newcastle United
Leicester City 0-0 Chelsea
Liverpool 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Manchester United 0-2 Cardiff City
Southampton 1-1 Huddersfield Town
Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Everton
Watford 1-4 West Ham United

Final Premier League Table

#TeamPlWDLFAGDPts
CManchester City3832249523+7298
CLLiverpool3830718922+6797
CLChelsea3821986339+2472
CLTottenham Hotspur38232136739+2871
ELArsenal38217107351+2270
ELManchester United38199106554+1166
ELWolverhampton Wanderers38169134746+157
8Everton38159145446+854
9Leicester City38157165148+352
10West Ham United38157165255-352
11Watford38148165259-750
12Crystal Palace38147175153-249
13Newcastle United38129174248-645
14Bournemouth38136195670-1445
15Burnley38117204568-2340
16Southampton38912174565-2039
17Brighton and Hove Albion3899203560-2536
RCardiff City38104243469-3534
RFulham3875263481-4726
RHuddersfield Town3837282276-5416
Tie-breakers:
1) Points
2) Goal difference
3) Goals scored
4) Play-offs (only if needed to decide champion, teams for relegation or teams for UEFA competitions)


Season Stats
Most goals
Player, Team: Goals (Penalties)

Sadio Mane: Liverpool: 22 (0)
Mohamed Salah: Liverpool: 22 (3)

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: Arsenal: 22 (4)
Sergio Aguero: Manchester City: 21 (2)
Jamie Vardy: Leicester City: 18 (4)
Raheem Sterling: Manchester City: 17 (0)

Harry Kane: Tottenham Hotspur: 17 (4)
Eden Hazard: Chelsea: 16 (4)
Callum Wilson: AFC Bournemouth: 14 (1)
Raul Jimenez: Wolverhampton Wanderers: 13 (2)



Most assists
Player, Team: Assists
Eden Hazard, Chelsea: 15
Ryan Fraser, AFC Bournemouth: 14
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool: 12
Christian Eriksen, Tottenham Hotspur: 12
Andrew Robertson, Liverpool: 11
Leroy Sane, Manchester City: 10
Paul Pogba, Manchester United: 9
Raheem Sterling, Manchester City: 9
Callum Wilson, AFC Bournemouth: 9
Sergio Aguero, Manchester City: 8

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