The 2023-2024 Premier League season will officially come to an end on May 19 after a total of 380 games across England.
Just like in previous campaigns, this Premier League season has produced a lot of high and low moments which kept the followers of the league at the edge of their seats every weekend and sometimes, during midweeks.
In this piece, Naija News will bring to you virtually every important point of the 2023-2024 Premier League season including our best player, best young player, best coach, best newcomer, and every other statistic that made the campaign tick.
The underachiever of the 2023-2024 Premier League campaign
In the 2023-2024 Premier League season, some clubs and even some players performed far below expectations. But one club which most football enthusiasts would agree to be the biggest underachiever of the campaign is Manchester United.
Chelsea would have fallen into this category due to the massive number of players they have signed in the last three transfer windows, but we are cutting them some slack because this season, they improved on their performance from last season.
Recall that last season, Chelsea finished in the 12th spot on the league table but this season they are on the verge of finishing in either the 6th or 7th spot.
But as for Manchester United who finished 3rd last season, this season has been one of the worst campaigns in the history of the club.
Despite signing 9 new players ahead of the season including Rasmus Højlund (€73.9m), Mason Mount (€64.2m), and André Onana (€50.2 million), they have recorded just 17 wins in 37 league games. Other games ended in 6 draws and 14 defeats.
They are most likely to finish this campaign in the 8th spot with just 57 points except they beat Brighton on the last day of the campaign, May 19, and 7th-placed Newcastle United lose their last league game of the season.
All the same, Manchester United are the biggest underachievers in the 2023-2024 Premier League season and it wouldn’t be a big surprise if their coach, Erik Ten Hag, loses his job at the end of this campaign.
The Overachievers of the 2023-2024 Premier League campaign
This Premier League season has seen some underdogs perform what can qualify for magic.
The Premier League is known to be accommodating some gigantic clubs that spend heavily on signing players. So, when a club that doesn’t have that kind of spending power is thriving in the league, one can’t help but call it a divine run.
When you are talking about a divine run, two clubs come to mind this season, Aston Villa and Bournemouth.
Let us look at Bournemouth briefly.
The Cherries gained promotion to the Premier League ahead of the 2022-2023 season. They managed to survive relegation at the end of the season after a very rough start to the campaign.
However, this season has been a fairytale run for them as they were able to record 13 wins, 9 draws, and 15 defeats which left them in the 11th spot with 48 points in 37 games despite operating on a very slim budget.
While that run can be said to be impressive in Bournemouth’s standard, the most impressive run of all is that of Aston Villa.
Coach Unai Emery has completely changed the history of Villa just within two seasons in charge of the usual mid-table club.
This season is arguably the club’s best campaign in the last three decades as they were able to push beyond their fans’ expectations by recording an unprecedented 20 wins, 8 draws, and just 9 defeats. These stats have left them in the 4th spot with 68 points in 37 games.
With that, Aston Villa have qualified for the UEFA Champions League ahead of next season for the first time in their history.
They achieved that at the expense of other well-funded Premier League clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur. Hence, Villa are Naija New‘s biggest achiever in the 2023-2024 Premier League season.
2023-2024 Premier League Best signing
Cole Palmer wins the 2023-2024 Premier League Young Player of the Year award.
In the ongoing season, some clubs were very lucky to land players who were able to adapt to their style and make almost instant impact for them despite just arriving from a new system.
There were a couple of players that fell into this category but the name that outshines them all is Cole Palmer.
The 22-year-old English attacking midfielder left Manchester City, where he couldn’t play as much as he wanted, to Chelsea for just 47 million.
Initially, critics argued that the said amount was too much to be paid for a youngster who couldn’t prove himself at City.
Interestingly, some of those critics have had a change of heart after seeing how Cole Palmer carried Chelsea on his shoulder throughout the 2023-2024 Premier League season. He has been so good that some pundits now believe Chelsea won a jackpot for paying so little for such an incredible talent.
Despite being his debut season at struggling Chelsea, Palmer has been able to score 22 Premier League goals and provide 10 assists in 33 league games. He is currently the second-highest goalscorer in the league, five goals below first-placed Erling Haaland.
Palmer’s outstanding performance has won him the hearts of most Chelsea fans to the extent he won the club’s Player of the Season and the club’s Players’ Player of the Season. His incredible form has also won him the Premier League Young Player of the Season award.
More so, Palmer’s outstanding form at Chelsea landed him a Premier League Player of the Season award nomination and earned him a place in the England squad.
It will be interesting to see how Cole Palmer builds on these glorious stats next season in which Chelsea are expected to not only finish in the top four but contend for the Premier League title.
2023-2024 Premier League season Biggest Flop signing
If you are looking for players who moved to new Premier League clubs that didn’t perform close to expectation, especially after their new clubs paid heavily for them, Stamford Bridge is the place to go this season.
In the last two seasons, Chelsea have spent heavily to bring in youngsters across the world who are yet to do the magic expected of them.
One of the biggest flops at Chelsea and indeed the entire Premier League is Roman Lavia who joined the club from Southampton for a whooping £65 million transfer fee.
Since his arrival at the club on August 18, 2023, Chelsea fans waited until matchday 19 before they saw him in action due to fitness issues. On the said matchday, he managed to play for 30 minutes before he sustained a hamstring injury that ruled him out of the entire season.
The most outstanding manager of the season
It is very easy to give this to Pep Guardiola for being able to ignite the fire in his team and make them move from a cold start to the unstoppable ending they are currently having. But that is not a big surprise since Manchester City have been a winning machine in the league in the last five years.
Hence, the award for the best Premier League coach of the season should go to Unai Emery of Aston Villa for doing a lot with fewer resources than other top clubs.
The Spanish tactician invented a formula that worked almost perfectly for his side. His 4-2-3-1 formation worked fairly and helped them to win 20 of their 37 Premier League games with a 2.05 goal-per-match ratio.
Even though the most valuable player in the squad is 28-year-old forward, Ollie Watkins (€65 million), coach Emery found a way to rob shoulders with the biggest sides in the league this season. They were able to successfully pick at least a point from the six Premier League Big Six except Manchester United.
This season, Aston Villa beat Manchester City once, beat Arsenal home and away, beat Chelsea once, beat Tottenham once, and drew with Liverpool.
This run helped Villa to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history ahead of better-funded and star-studded teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, and Tottenham Hotspur, all thanks to the tactical prowess of Unai Emery.
The most interesting Premier League game of the Season
In the 2023-2024 Premier League season, some unbelievable games have been recorded which created football moments that might be impossible to forget. But one game that stood out for most football enthusiasts is the Premier League clash between Chelsea and Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on 12 November 2023.
Before Manchester City visited the Bridge for the game, they had recorded seven straight wins over the Blues, hence, the game was expected to end in City’s favour. Interestingly, the then-struggling Chelsea came from a goal down to draw 4-4 against the reigning Premier League champions to the amazement of most football lovers.
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland scored the match opener in the 25th minute, four minutes after, Thiago Silva equalized. In the 37th minute, Raheem Sterling gave Chelsea the lead which was cancelled out by Manuel Akanji in the injury time of the first half.
In the 47th minute of the second half, Haaland gave Manchester City the lead for the second time in the game. Nicolas Jackson brought Chelsea back in the 67th minute.
Rodri restored City’s lead in the 86th minute but in the 5th minute of injury time, Cole Palmer broke the heart of his former side from the penalty spot and forced the game to end in a 4-4 draw.
Biggest Moment In the 2023-2024 Premier League season
There were a series of big moments during the 2023-2024 season.
For instance, Aston Villa beating Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium with a 2-0 scoreline on April 14 was one of those moments because it changed the course of the Premier League title race in favour of Manchester City.
But in our books, the biggest moment this season was when substitute goalkeeper, Stefan Ortega made one of the biggest saves of the season during the Premier League title-deciding game between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, on May 14, 2024.
When Man City were hanging on a slim one-goal lead, Son Heung-min was one-on-one with Stefan Ortega, and all the German goalie needed to stop him was his outstretched leg.
Before the goalkeeper stopped the ball from going in with his leg in the 86th minute of the encounter, coach Pep Guardiola was captured falling on the pitch with the belief that Son would score and Spurs who were playing better in the game might be more motivated by the goal to go for the maximum three points.
Note that if Manchester City had drawn or lost the game to Tottenham Hotspur, that would have placed Arsenal in the driver’s seat of the title race either by a point (if it had ended in a defeat to City) or be a superior goals difference (if it had ended in a draw). But Erling Haaland ensured none of that happened as he sealed the 2-0 victory via the penalty spot in the first minute of injury time.
After the game, City’s coach, Pep Guardiola said: “Stefan Ortega has saved us. Otherwise, Arsenal are Premier League champions.”
Below are some key stats to note about the 2023-2024 Premier League season before the last game of the season on May 19:
Highest goalscorer: Erling Haaland of Manchester City with 27 goals, five goals more than second-placed Cole Palmer of Chelsea.
Best Assists Provider: Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa with 13 assists, three more than second-placed Kevin de Bruyne.
Player with most passes: Rodri of Man City with 3,508 passes, 296 passes more than second-placed Lewis Dunk of Brighton.
Clean Sheets: David Raya of Arsenal with 16 clean sheets, three more than Jordan Pickford of Everton.
Club with most goals: Manchester City with 93 goals, four goals more than second-placed Arsenal.
Club with most wins: Arsenal with 27 wins, the same as Manchester City, four wins above Liverpool.
Club with most defeats: Relegated Sheffield United with 27 defeats, four more than relegated Burnley.
The post Overview Of 2023-2024 Premier League Season, Best Player, Best Coach, Stats, Other Highlights appeared first on Naija News.