Five Minutes Spares quick recap on the highs and lows of what turned out to be a historic Premier League season in more ways than one.
Manchester City Win A Historic Domestic Treble.
Although the League & FA Cup double has been won with some frequency since the Premier League was introduced in the 1990s The English Domestic treble which includes the League Cup has eluded every team since its inception back in 1960-1 season (although you could argue that Spurs probably would have won it in the inaugural season had they bothered to take part). Anyway that all changed this year as Manchester City did a clean sweep, and probably should have been in the Champions League Final too had it not been for the introduction of VAR. They also won the Community Shield for good measure making it four trophies overall.
The Carabao Cup
Winners Manchester City
In the Carabao Cup (the current name for The League Cup) they had a fairly uneventful passage to the final scoring 16 goals & only conceding 1, with only a penalty shoot-out win over Leicester giving them any cause for concern. In the Semi they beat League One Burton Albion 10-0 on aggregate. They met Chelsea, who reached the Final by beating Tottenham 4-2 on penalties after a 2-2 aggregate score. With two free-scoring and talented teams on display hopes for an entertaining final were high, alas the stats – three shots on target (all by City) and 29 fouls tell the story of a rather drab 0-0 draw. Manchester City took the first part of their historic treble with a 4-3 penalty shoot out win.
The FA Cup
Winners Manchester City
The 2019 FA Cup kicked off on 10th August with the Extra Preliminary Round but by the time Man City joined in rounds three the dreams of the majority of the non-league clubs had long expired and it was left to Woking & Barnet to keep the dream alive. Woking lost 2-0 to eventual finalists Watford, while Barnet put in one of the performances of the round winning 1-0 at Sheffield United, who would go on to win promotion to the Premier League. Newport & Wolves both had impressive third rounds with Wolves beating Liverpool and Newport seeing off Leicester. Manchester City beat Rotherham 7-0 and scored 20 goals in their 5 games on the way to the final.
The Semi-Finals ended up all-Premier League affairs, With man City taking on Brighton and Watford playing Wolves. The lack of top 6 teams was partially down to some harsh draws with Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United all meeting in the earlier rounds, and partially due to the disinterest which saw weakened sides being put out by some. Despite not making the Final Wolves had a tremendous run beating both Liverpool & Manchester United 2-1 before losing 3-2 in extra time to Watford – who equalised in the 94th minute of normal time.
The Final its self was a crushing affair with City rattling in six to match the highest ever score and winning margin. The other biggest FA Cup final win was when Bury beat Derby 6-0 in 1903.
So that was Two Down and one to go – The League.
The Premier League Title – Down To The Wire.
Winners Manchester City
Manchester City were Double Winners in 2017-18, winning the title in a canter, however, this year things were different as Liverpool had come to play. The title went down to the final game and for a few brief seconds (well just over 60 seconds) it looked like Liverpool might just snatch it when Brighton took a shock 1-0 lead over City. However, Agüero levelled things a minute later and Manchester City ran out comfortable 4-1 winners to clinch the Title with 98 points and record their second consecutive Double (again a first). Liverpool only lost once all season (at Man City) and couldn’t get a win in the tough away games drawing away at Arsenal Chelsea & Manchester United. It was hard on Liverpool though as their 97 point total would have been enough to win the title on most occasions.
The Fight For The Champions League Places
Qualifiers Liverpool Chelsea Tottenham
As we alluded to several times during the campaign it was almost a case of who wants one, with Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester United & Chelsea all conspiring to lose or draw games they really should have won. Still, in the end, The London Clubs prevailed.
Relegated
Huddersfield Fulham Cardiff
Fulham spent more than £100m on 12 new players last summer but the quality has been lacking all season. Down on 2nd April after 9 consecutive defeats, only one win all year to that point and knocked out of the FA Cup at home to League 2 Oldham. Cardiff & Huddersfield battled valiantly but they never looked like staying up.
jordonc ✅
