People have lately taken to calling it the season of the underdog, but in the end the top five of the 2024-25 Premier League had a reassuringly familiar composition: two American-owned sports-groups, two clubs owned by Gulf states, and whatever the hell Chelsea are.
Coming up behind them a couple of maverick oligarchs, followed by the streamlined professional gamblers’ outfits of Brighton and Brentford, then a rabble of mostly American-owned “sports groups” making up the numbers.
[ Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle seal Champions League places on final day ]
Chelsea’s victory at Nottingham Forest meant the long-awaited consummation of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali’s billion-dollar dream: Chelsea, after a three-season absence, back among Europe’s elite.
Enzo Maresca signed off the league campaign with a typically gracious flourish. “All the ones that have the answer, all the ones that have the truth, they were saying that we are too young, we are not good enough. They were saying we were not able to win in this pitch because too young, because not experience. Unfortunately for them they have been all wrong. All the ones that have the truth and have the answer for everything. So in English I would say, “eff off” – eh? – to all of them.”
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Such was Maresca’s triumphalism about finishing fourth you would almost forget this Chelsea squad has had €1.44 billion spent on it since the BlueCo takeover in 2022. Chelsea’s spending in those three years is €600 million more than second-placed PSG and more than twice as much as the next club, Manchester United, in this period.
Spending isn’t everything, as that ailing Anglo-American joint venture could tell you.
United’s 2-0 final-day victory against Aston Villa, who could have qualified for the Champions League with a win or perhaps even a draw, was the most surprising result of the final day.
First Emiliano Martinez – a rumoured transfer target for United – got himself sent off for bodyslamming Rasmus Højlund 30 yards from goal. Martinez has twice won the Fifa Best Goalkeeper of the Year award during his five seasons at Villa, but what is expected to be his final act in Villa colours was one of the most expensive mistakes in the history of the club.
Villa, though, would rather blame referee Thomas Bramall, who decided Morgan Rogers had fouled United’s goalkeeper Altay Bayindir in the process of dispossessing him and blew his whistle before Rogers’ shot had crossed the goal line. Replays showed Rogers hadn’t fouled Bayindir, but because Bramall had blown the whistle, VAR could not intervene to award the goal.
It seems Villa will lodge a complaint with the Premier League to the effect that Bramall was too inexperienced to referee a game of this magnitude.
But even very experienced referees are liable to make this mistake: the 2022 World Cup final referee, Szymon Marciniak, made a similar one in the closing minutes of last year’s Champions League semi-final between Bayern and Real Madrid, in effect knocking out Bayern.
It’s hard to criticise referees for simply doing what they have been trained to do all their lives: delivering instant decisions. The logic of VAR is that referees should hold off on the whistle and reserve judgment, just as assistant referees are now supposed to allow possibly-offside plays to proceed rather than immediately raising their flags.
But those who can remember as far back as two weeks ago, when Taiwo Awoniyi was injured after colliding with the post during an offside play that was allowed to develop as per the new protocol, will know that the assistants are just as often criticised for delaying their decisions.
Ruben Amorim addressed the Old Trafford crowd afterwards and promised the good times are about to roll. If they don’t come soon. he won’t be around in any case. On Friday, he told Alejandro Garnacho to find himself a new club: the third winger in five months he has sacrificed to the revolution. Amorim will spend his holiday working out the most important preseason training programme of his career.
United finished this season an all-time record 42 points behind Liverpool, who enjoyed a respect-off with FA Cup winners Crystal Palace at Anfield, the teams lining up to give each other guards of honour.
There was an apparent truce between the Anfield crowd and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Coming on at half-time in what would be his last game for the club, the full-back supplied one phenomenal pass for Darwin Nuñez that reminded the crowd what they would be missing.
Liverpool have moved quickly to dispel that gloom by moving for Bayer Leverkusen’s 22-year old Germany international Florian Wirtz. Should they complete the move it would be a statement signing unmatched in the club’s history. The top German talent snubbing Bayern for Liverpool is unheard of. For Liverpool to invest as much as €150 million in a single player tells you they think Wirtz is special.
That move also suggests the champions will be evolving towards a new shape next season. It hardly makes sense to sign Wirtz as an €80 million upgrade on Dominik Szoboszlai. The plan is surely for both to play together – but how?
Could Arne Slot be planning to use the German as the central link player in the front three, in a withdrawn role similar to how Roberto Firmino used to play and Luis Diaz has often played this season?
Or might Wirtz and Szoboszlai play as double 10s – a system Slot used in the 2-0 February win at Manchester City? Liverpool have, after all, had much better luck with unconventional, flexible forwards of this type than with orthodox number nines: Andy Carroll, Christian Benteke and Nuñez all rank among their worst signings.
