It's been a glorious campaign for certain coaches, clubs and players – but an absolute nightmare for others…
For some football fans, this wasn't a vintage Premier League season. Liverpool turned the title race into a procession, while Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton were so poor that nobody else has been in anything resembling relegation trouble for months.
However, a lack of excitement at both ends of tables didn't make for a lack of talking points. Liverpool's surprising – and record-equalling – 20th championship success was an incredible story in itself, while there was no shortage of final-day drama, with five clubs scrapping for three precious Champions League places.
Then there was the fact that Tottenham and Manchester United, two members of the supposed 'Big Six' (which is surely no longer a thing?!), endured historically-bad league campaigns and were, thus, driven down towards the foot of the table by a pack of admirable underdogs.
Below, GOAL runs through the big winners and losers of a quite remarkable 2024-25 Premier League season…
Getty Images SportWINNER: Arne Slot
Succeeding Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager was meant to be the impossible job. Arne Slot somehow made it look easy.
Klopp played his part, of course. He had Anfield singing his successor's name on the final day of last season, while he also left Liverpool in rude health, having overseen a successful midfield overhaul the summer before. Klopp also quipped that he'd also made Slot's life ever so slightly easier by failing to win the Premier League or the Champions League in his final season at the helm.
However, nobody was tipping the Reds for the title before the 2024-25 campaign because nobody had any idea how the players would react to a new coach after so many years playing – and winning – under the ridiculously charismatic Klopp. Liverpool had done their homework, though. Richard Hughes & Co. were convinced that Slot was the ideal replacement for Klopp – and so it proved.
Despite bringing in just one new player that the Dutchman barely used (Federico Chiesa), and constant distraction caused by the expiring contracts of three star players (Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold), Slot managed to lead Liverpool to just their second Premier League title – and with four games to spare – thanks to his small but significant tactical tweaks, crucial positional changes and soothing sense of calm (he only lost his head once, and in pretty exceptional circumstances at Goodison Park!).
For Slot to win the league would have been an outstanding achievement in itself, so for him to have turned the title race into a procession was simply staggering.
AdvertisementAFPLOSER: Phil Foden
Rarely have we seen someone suffer such a dramatic dip in form. Phil Foden was the best player in the Premier League last season. This year, he's arguably been its most disappointing.
Foden's dreadful displays at Euro 2024 were attributed to Gareth Southgate's inability to find a formula that worked for all of England's most gifted attacking talents. Consequently, the presumption was that once Foden was back at Manchester City, he would enjoy an immediate return to form.
But for all his undoubted ability, Foden yet to snap out of his funk because of a mix of niggling injury issues and off-field problems. The attacking midfielder has been involved in just nine Premier League goals – fewer than Tomas Soucek – and spent the majority of the last three months sitting on the bench, even though City were desperately scrapping for a top-five finish.
Even if Foden gets the break he very clearly needs to refresh himself mentally and physically, it's not going to be easy for him to reclaim his place in Pep Guardiola's starting line-up next season. Kevin De Bruyne may be departing, but speculation is mounting that Morgan Gibbs-White could be signed to replace the Belgian, while Omar Marmoush is getting better and better since arriving from Eintracht Frankfurt in January.
There's no suggestion that Foden's immediate future at the Etihad Stadium is in doubt, but it's clear that he's fallen out of favour with Guardiola – something that would have been utterly unthinkable this time last year.
Getty Images SportWINNER: Mid-table teams
There's been an awful lot of talk in recent weeks and months that this has been a 'weak' Premier League season. It's absolute rubbish, of course, a blatant and pathetic attempt by rival fans to diminish Liverpool's dominant title triumph.
The truth is that the Reds have done outrageously well to run away with a league of exceptional strength in depth. Several members of English football's elite have struggled this season, and while injuries caused by ever-increasing fixture congestion have undoubtedly played a part in their struggles, it's primarily down to the fact that the mid-tier teams are stronger than ever before.
As Pep Guardiola pointed out all the way back in February, it will be some time before another team even gets closer to Manchester City's historic 100-point Premier League haul because the competition is now stacked with talent.
"Gundo (Ilkay Gundogan) was in Barcelona for one year, came back and the difference in one year is unbelievable," the Catalan told reporters. "Teams are much, much, much better in all departments, people prepare so well because of the standards we dictate." Guardiola name-checked Bournemouth, Fulham and Wolves, but there is also Brighton, Brentford and Crystal Palace, who upset City in the FA Cup final to prove Pep's point.
Let us not forget either that some sleeping giants have also well and truly awoken this season, with Nottingham Forest fighting for a Champions League place, Newcastle winning the Carabao Cup by overwhelming Liverpool at Wembley and Aston Villa reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
So, while the gulf in quality between the Premier League and the Championship continues to grow, which is why the newly-promoted teams keep going straight back down, the gap between the supposed 'Big Six' and the rest of the top flight has shrunk dramatically thanks to the outstanding work being done at the City Ground, Vitality Stadium, Selhurst Park and beyond.
(C)Getty ImagesLOSER: Arsenal's process
Emmanuel Petit admitted last week that he is fed up with Arsenal's lack of trophies – and the 'Invincibles' midfielder is certainly not alone in that regard. A run to the semi-finals of the Champions League, which included a stirring win over Real Madrid in the last eight, has convinced some supporters to continue trusting in 'the process' – but plenty of others are losing faith.
After all, this was meant to be Arsenal's year in the Premier League, after two second-placed finishes in a row. Instead, they're runners-up again – and not to perennial champions Manchester City but to Liverpool, who weren't even expected to challenge for the title this season.
Make no mistake about it: Slot's instantaneous success has compounded Mikel Arteta's failure. There's widespread acknowledgement that the Spaniard did a great job putting Arsenal back among England's top teams – but doubts remain over whether he is really capable of winning them the Premier League title.
The same goes for Arteta's captain, Martin Odegaard. The Norwegian's talent is beyond dispute and he did miss seven games towards the start of the season, but three goals is a terrible return for an attacking midfielder and, more even damningly, when the going got tough this year, the skipper never got going.
Given the mounting concerns over the leadership at the Emirates, the fans will be hoping that new sporting director Andrea Berta will add the winning mentality (and the striker!) that Arteta and Odegaard are clearly missing.
