My Thoughts on the 2021-22 Premier League Campaign
By Jim James
After the most devastating storm I’ve ever been in, it’s a wonder I got to see the Premier League final day at all, but I did. Now I’ve gotten a chance to reflect on the campaign we just went through, and here is my recap and thoughts.
Premier League
Man City were the defending champeens going into this season, but 2 dropped points in the first 5 games saw them in 5th after 5 games, with Chelsea top, and even Man Utd, Brighton, Everton, and Brentford near them. As previously mentioned, Man Utd were flying in their first 5 games with a 5-1 win vs Leeds on opening day and 4 wins from their opening 5 games, with the other being a draw with Southampton due to a fluke deflection off Fred. After that, however, they’d only win one of their next 8 games, with a 4-2 loss vs Leicester, 1-0 loss at home vs Aston Villa, and the worst ones, a 5-0 loss at home to Liverpool and 4-1 loss to Watford after which manager of 2.5 years Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked. After this stretch of form, they dropped from 3rd and tied on points with the leaders to 8th and 12 points off the leaders by only 13 matches in.
Many people’s dark horses, Chelsea, started like a house on fire, only losing one of their first 14 matches, winning 10 of them (including a 7-0 win vs Norwich, 3-0 vs Spurs, 3-0 vs Villa, 3-0 vs Leicester, and 2-0 vs Arsenal).
Liverpool was an up-and-down carnival ride in the first part of the season, with one of the most underrated games of the season, a 3-3 draw with Brentford, 2-2 vs Man City, 2-2 vs Brighton, and 3-2 loss vs West Ham mixed with the aforementioned 5-0 win vs Man Utd, 5-0 vs Watford, 3-0 vs Norwich, 3-0 vs Leeds, 3-0 vs Palace, 4-0 vs Arsenal, 4-1 vs Everton, and 4-0 vs Southampton. Throughout all this chaos they were 1st for just one week. However, good results started to come and they became a well oiled machine thanks to the brilliance of Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, and a breakout season for Diogo Jota.
Getting back to Man City, after an opening week loss to Spurs, they were 14th. After that they started climbing and didn’t stop. Consecutive 5-0 wins vs Norwich and Arsenal saw that this team looked unstoppable and barring shock results vs Southampton and Crystal Palace, saw that every result was routine.
Forget all that, because in December, everything you know was wrong. Chelsea started the month top by 1 point, and ended it 3rd (this is with all teams having played all their games by the way), 8 points off the top with a loss vs West Ham, and draws vs Wolves, Everton and Brighton. This was also the month that Man City got a big lead vs the rest, winning all of their games that month, including a 7-0 win vs Leeds, 6-3 vs Leicester, and 4-0 vs Newcastle. It was part of a 12-game winning streak that started in Early November and ended in Mid-January, and with Liverpool dropping 3 games during that month, Man City got 1st by 6 points. Utd won all but 1 of their December games, and got into 5th.
The stage was set going into a big January window, but it was a bit of a dud. The only meaningful business in the top of the table was Luis Diaz to Liverpool, and that showed, with Liverpool holding a 10-point gap over 3rd place by Matchday 25, and yes, that does mean Chelsea fell by 17 points in 11 weeks, and by this point it was a 2-horse race, but City still looked like they would easily win the title. However, after a loss vs Spurs and draw vs Crystal Palace it was a 1-point race after 29 matchdays. We’ll get to that later.
We go to Man Utd, where it wasn’t a good start to 2022, winning 2 of their first 8 league games in the new year, and of the 6 dropped games, only one was to on-paper better opposition, a 4-1 Derby Day loss. In fact, of their 17 league games in 2022, they won just 5. This team was tipped by some as potential title rivals. Ouch.
There was also Arsenal who had a great blast back season and were in the top 4 race for the whole season, before choking at the final hurdle with a 3-0 loss to Spurs on matchday 36 and 2-0 loss to Newcastle in matchday 37. Despite a 5-1 humiliation of Everton on Sunday, it was not enough, and they finished in 5th, still enough for Europa League football.
Brentford were promoted to the top flight for the first time since 1947 in 2021 after Joe Bryan heroics in 2020 was the only thing stopping them then. Boy, did they not disappoint. They got a stupendous 2-0 win vs Arsenal in the first game altogether of the 21-22 season, and didn’t concede a goal until 193 minutes into their Premier League journey and didn’t lose until matchday 4 after a disappointing 1-0 loss at home. However, they somehow picked up 7 points from their next 3 games vs Wolves (2-0 W), Liverpool (3-3 D), and West Ham (2-1 W), and were 7th, 3 points off 2nd after 7 games. However, this would be the best they’d do this season, not winning again until matchday 13, and winning 3 of their next 20 games. The side had dropped 10 places and were 39 points off 2nd. They were in serious trouble until after 5 wins from their next 6 games, a 3-1 vs Norwich, 2-0 vs Burnley, 2-0 vs West Ham, 2-1 vs Watford, and the highlight of their season, FOUR-ONE vs Chelsea. By the end of the season, they finished 13th and 11 points off the relegation spots.
Perhaps an even greater great escape, however, was made by Newcastle. At the start of the season a takeover was out of the question, a dream, like so many others by people in 2020, was crushed. They didn’t win a game until early December, matchday 15, in a scrappy 1-0 vs Burnley. It took them until January 22 to win 2 league games, and also crashed out of the FA Cup in the 3rd round vs Cambridge United of League Two. However, in October, a takeover was completed out of nowhere, making the Toon the richest side in World Football. 7 months later, that still feels weird to say. After a January madness, bringing in the likes of Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood, and Bruno Guimares, they went crazy in February winning all but one of their games and going on an 8-game unbeaten run to finish 11th.
Back to the title race, where after a brilliant 2-2 game, Man City and Liverpool went into the final day almost deadlocked. Both sides went behind first, with Wolves going up inside 3 minutes vs Liverpool and Villa going up after 37 against City. Liverpool would get the next goal, City would not. Sadio Mane scored 24 minutes in to make the scores 1-1, but 69 minutes in, Philippe Coutinho made it 2-0 and almost certainly won it for Villa. Nope. Rodri scored a screamer 76 minutes in to keep the dream alive, then 2 minutes later substitute Ilkay Gundogan leveled it and 3 minutes after that scored again to make it 3-2. That would e the last of the scoring, and despite Liverpool going on to win 3-1 vs Wolves in the end, City would be the 2021-22 Premier League Champions.
Those were my thoughts on the Premier League 2021-22 season. I will be back.