1. Arsenal fall just short as Wenger’s future remains in doubt
IT’S BEEN A sad day for Arsenal, with the club finishing outside the top four for the first time in 21 years and missing out on Champions League qualification as a consequence.
Their performance against Everton today had a degree of the quality they are often accused of lacking — grit — as they earned a 3-1 victory over Everton despite Laurent Koscielny’s 14th-minute red card for a poor challenge on Enner Valencia.
Gunners fans will inevitably point to Martin Atkinson’s refusal to award Middlesbrough a clear penalty early on in their clash with Liverpool as a key moment in the climax to the top-four race, but over the course of the season, Arsenal largely have themselves to blame for their present situation.
Too many inept, toothless performances have led to this latest setback, with Arsene Wenger’s future still the subject of some doubt amid plenty of supporter disharmony at the club.
All the recent signs suggest Wenger will stay on at the North London outfit, however. A man who lives and breathes football 24/7 will hardly surrender all he knows and loves too readily.
But perhaps it would be best for the club if the Frenchman departed. His post-match interview after today’s events, in which he backed his players wholeheartedly, would suggest that Wenger is not prepared to implement the kind of substantial change seemingly required to make the Gunners a genuine force in English football once more.
There are several players at Arsenal who are simply not good enough for a side with title aspirations, and Wenger’s consistent indulgence of the individuals in question has done more harm than good in the long run.
- Paul Fennessy
2. Job done for the Reds
With Arsenal and Manchester City both taking early leads, there was a nervousness around Anfield during the opening 45 minutes this afternoon as the Reds were unable to convert several chances until Georginio Wijnaldum struck in first-half injury-time.
Quite understandably, that initial goal eased the pressure and the Reds would go on to run out comfortable winners — although things could have panned out differently had referee Martin Atkinson awarded Middlesbrough what looked to be a penalty when the game was still scoreless.
So it was job done for Jurgen Klopp, who has led the Reds to their best Premier League finish since they challenged Manchester City for the title under Brendan Rodgers in 2014.
A return to the Champions League is huge for the club, but they still have to negotiate their way through a two-legged play-off to make the group stages.
Klopp believes they have created “a wonderful base” to build on next season. However, much will depend on how successful Liverpool are in keeping hold of their top players and making key signings this summer.
- Ben Blake
3. Is Harry Kane the best striker in the Premier League?
It’s important not to get too carried away with Harry Kane’s impressive achievement of seven goals in his last two games.
Tottenham’s respective 6-1 and 7-1 thrashings of Leicester and Hull in the final two games come with the caveat that their opponents were effectively already on their summer holidays.
Yet the achievements of both Kane and Tottenham are still extremely impressive within the context of a full season.
Spurs may have fallen short in their title bid, but they haven’t done too badly at all for a side with only the sixth-biggest wage bill in the Premier League and who most pundits felt would struggle to get in the top four at the start of the season.
Their final tally of 86 points is a club record and one that would have been good enough to win the league in 10 of the past 21 Premier League seasons.
Kane’s achievements, meanwhile, are similarly impressive. Despite two spells out injured during the campaign, he finished on 29 goals and secured a second consecutive Golden Boot in the process.
In terms of consistency in front of goal in recent seasons, of all the Premier League strikers, only Sergio Aguero and Romelu Lukaku come close to matching Kane.
Tottenham fans will reflect on the season and wonder what might have been had their star man stayed fit throughout the campaign. Particularly during his first spell out, which coincided with a costly three-game winless run in the league, Spurs were lacklustre, as they slipped up against West Brom, Bournemouth and Leicester in the talismanic striker’s absence, while they also dropped points in two crucial Champions League games during that period.
- Paul Fennessy
4. One of English football’s greatest players waves goodbye to Chelsea
Despite the various controversies and petty disputes he’s been involved in over the years, John Terry leaves Chelsea as arguably the club’s greatest-ever player.
In winning his fifth Premier League medal, he overtakes some brilliant players on the medals list including Edwin van der Sar, Didier Drogba and Eric Cantona.
The manner in which the veteran centre-back bowed out, going off in the 26th minute with his teammates forming a guard of honour was slightly cringeworthy and over the top, but given that he won virtually every major honour in his club career, no one can say the 36-year-old defender doesn’t warrant considerable acclaim.
Terry has inevitably shown signs of decline at 36 and Antonio Conte was proven right, after his exclusion from the first XI coincided with Chelsea’s remarkable success this season.
At his peak, though, there is a case to be made for Terry being the best Premier League centre-back ever.
Joining Chelsea at 14, Terry became an established first-team player while still in his teens and was voted the club’s player of the year in his first season as a regular.
He captained the side to each of their Premier League successes, including their record-breaking 95-point season in 04-05, where they lost just one game and conceded only 15 goals in total.
The word ‘legend’ is thrown around far too often in football, but Terry genuinely merits the description for all he has achieved in the game.
- Paul Fennessy
5. All eyes turn to Stockholm for United
Jose Mourinho had promised to play the kids and jokingly pleaded with Crystal Palace boss Sam Allardyce for him to “go easy” on his Manchester United side during his press conference this week.
He stayed true to his word by handing out four first-team debuts from the start and one more off the bench. United’s starting line-up had an average age of 22 years and 284 days (their youngest in the Premier League era) but still featured the world’s most expensive player in Paul Pogba and captain Wayne Rooney — the club’s all-time leading goalscorer.
With Mourinho concentrating on Wednesday’s Europa League final and Palace’s top-flight status already secured, the game was very much a dead rubber. That said, fans who showed up to Old Trafford will have been pleased to see 21-year-old midfielder Josh Harrop mark his debut with a well-taken goal.
There was also a new record set as 16-year-old Angel Gomes replaced Rooney late on to become United’s youngest ever Premier League player.
Putting the result to one side, a sixth-place finish in the table isn’t good enough for the 20-time English champions and a Europa League final victory against Ajax in Stockholm on Wednesday is a must now.
- Ben Blake
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