The English Premier League’s top flops

LONDON – It is not often that half of the English Premier League’s “Big Six” have had an underwhelming season.

After all, as the term suggests, the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur are expected to be challenging for the top-six positions every campaign.

However, the Premier League is always full of surprises, twists and turns, and Liverpool, United and Chelsea will surely regret that their season has turned out the way they had not envisioned at the start of the term.

Liverpool caught red-faced

To say that Jurgen Klopp’s Reds are “flops” could be a little harsh. But it is also a compliment to the Merseyside club that they were meant to achieve much more than a third-placed finish, going by their lofty standards.

Liverpool’s season must be judged on their results in all competitions which affected their league performance, and especially when it was Klopp’s final campaign in charge and fans had hoped for a fitting farewell.

When the manager announced his decision to leave in January, the team had big dreams of winning the quadruple.

They did clinch the League Cup a month later, but they then collapsed in the FA Cup (4-3 to United in the quarter-finals) and the Europa League (3-1 on aggregate to Atalanta in the last eight).

The two legs against Atalanta came before and after a damaging 1-0 defeat by Crystal Palace in the Premier League in the middle of April. Another shock 2-0 loss to Everton at the end of the month then all but ended their title hopes.

Ultimately, it was a poor run at the business end of the season that cost Liverpool – they were leading the standings with 10 games to go – and ensured that Klopp would not depart as a Premier League winner this season.

“We’ve had to accept we cannot be the best or the second-best team in the league, (but) that’s a good basis for the future and that’s all you can ask for,” he said, admitting defeat.

Wounded Red Devils lost bite

It was all going well at the end of Erik ten Hag’s first season as Man United manager. He had led his team to a third-placed finish and also won the club’s first piece of silverware since 2017 when they lifted the League Cup.

This season, instead of building on that revival, United have gone backwards.

The Red Devils finished the campaign eighth on 60 points. Their previous worst showing in the league was seventh in 2013-14 – the first season after Alex Ferguson’s retirement – on 64 points.

The under-fire ten Hag has pinpointed one main issue that has caused his side’s collapse – injuries.

According to reports, United have had 25 senior players suffering issues over the course of the season, totalling more than 1,200 missed days collectively.

“You can’t progress a team in certain key areas with so many injuries. It’s like swimming with your hands on your back and you have to keep your head above the water,” the United boss insisted.

Injuries aside, United players have massively underperformed even when they were fit, or simply lacked the right mentality.

Casemiro was a key player last term but looked a shadow of himself, while Marcus Rashford – who has often been criticised for walking around the pitch on many occasions – has not even made it to double digits in goals after scoring 30 last season.

More blues for Chelsea

The Blues may have finished the season strongly, but they have struggled for the most part.

After a mid-table finish last term, Chelsea had high hopes when they appointed Mauricio Pochettino to steady the ship and were even aiming to qualify for the Champions League.

But injuries – a common occurrence with many clubs – and the integration of inexperienced young players proved to be a big challenge for the Blues.

Chelsea’s transfer spending has gone beyond the €1 billion (S$1.46 billion) mark in just three windows since the Todd Boehly takeover in May 2022.

With a tremendously young squad after a clear-out of the experienced, that was not such a good idea as consistency has been a huge issue for players who needed time to gel.

For instance, the Blues managed only three wins in their first 10 league games, found it tough to keep a winning run going throughout the season, and only in late May did they manage to win more than three in a row for the first time.

“Our standard is not sustained. We had some good performances, but weren’t consistent enough. The bad days, when we have bad days, we are so bad,” said Pochettino, whose side finished sixth – not bad but not good enough.

He has pleaded for patience, saying that this is a “different project” to the title-winning Chelsea of old. But with all that money spent, the Champions League was always the bare minimum. Time is not on Pochettino’s side.