Manchester City's inevitability - A review of the 2022/23 Premier League season

The 2022/23 season is over as far as the Premier League is concerned, and although it is often described as the most competitive in the world, it no longer surprises anyone that the crown still belongs to Manchester City. Pep Guardiola has led his side to five titles in the English top flight over the past six seasons, with only Liverpool briefly ousting them from the throne in 2019/20.

Arsenal stumble in the home stretch

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It's been a great campaign for the most part for Arsenal, the team under former Guardiola assistant Mikel Arteta.

Having obviously signed the right players over the past two years, namely goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, defenders Ben White and Tahekiro Tomiyasu, as well as William Saliba who returned from loan with Olympique de Marseille, the midfielder turned fullback Oleksandr Zinchenko, and forward Gabriel Jesus, Arteta gradually put the pieces together to form a truly formidable team capable of beating anyone and going on long winning streaks. Young strikers Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah also played important roles, as did Martin Odegaard, Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey in the middle of the park.

It was believed at the start of the season that the Gunners were aiming for a top-four finish and the Champions League spot that goes with it, but they ended up facing Manchester City for the title for a long time. Their downfall arguably began at Anfield, where they lost a two-goal lead to find themselves with no more than a point against Liverpool in April. Disappointing results against West Ham and Southampton followed, before a comprehensive loss to City at the Etihad put the defending champions out of reach for Arsenal.

In the end, the gap between the two teams was five points, but Arteta and his men hope to have learned something and put this experience to good use next season.

Liverpool and Chelsea disappoint

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Meanwhile Liverpool, who were mostly City's biggest rivals for years as Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp continued to fight back from the Bundesliga, have endured a hugely disappointing campaign. There were times when they even found themselves in the bottom half of the table, and performances so miserable that even their usually optimistic supporters began to think they would be lucky to avoid being in the running. to relegation.

The injuries of several important players, including forwards Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino, can be used to explain the Merseysiders' woes to some degree. Liverpool were believed to be in the hunt for Aurélien Tchouameni last summer, and when the France international chose Real Madrid instead, they apparently decided to wait until 2023 to move on to Jude Bellingham and signed Arthur Melo on loan of Juventus as a temporary solution. .

However, the former Barcelona man proved to be anything but a fix of any kind, not even appearing once in the Premier League as a serious thigh injury forced him to undergo surgery and got him out for a long, long time. Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also struggled with injuries and contributed little more than Arthur.

Towards the end, Klopp managed to draw his side again, stringing together seven straight wins to be part of the top four conversation again, but they still ended up missing out and will now play in the Europa League as that consequence. Places three and four were won by Manchester United and Newcastle, and both of these teams deserved more of the Champions League, even as Liverpool beat United 7-0 at Anfield and scored a league double at Newcastle.

Even though Liverpool ended up dropping Bellingham, they seem to be doing a lot at the moment to rebuild their midfield ranks, and if they are successful next season should look very different from their perspective.

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But while Liverpool have been heavily criticized for their lack of investment in the squad in recent years, Chelsea have done the complete opposite. The Blues spent over €600m on new players in the summer of 2022 and January 2023, listed one poor performance after another and changed managers twice, to no avail. Thomas Tuchel, who led them to Champions League glory in 2021, and Graham Potter, Tuchel's replacement who previously worked wonders with Brighton and Hove Albion, have both been sacked. Frank Lampard, sacked by the club before Tuchel's appointment in January 2021, was brought back as goalkeeper without improvement.