Premier League Review: Top 5

Tottenham Hotspur - 5th (64 points)
This was just another season of transition in a line of many for Spurs after hiring Mauricio Pochettino as their third manager inside a year during the summer. It wasn't exactly a bright season for the team, minus some new talents coming through from the academy. Pochettino was still left with a lot of work to get the squad working well together. 

They made a winning start to the season after a 1-0 win over West Ham, which they then followed up with an emphatic 4-0 win over QPR. This was followed by a run of 4 games without a win though, which pretty much summed up Spurs' season. They would earn a really good win one week, but then follow it up with a number of weeks without a win. 

By November, Harry Kane had made a name for himself after being brought in from the youth team and became the first-choice striker for the club. This seemed to boost the morale of the team, and their form was slightly more consistent than earlier in the season. The festive period especially proved to be a good period for Spurs. They went unbeaten in these games, and it was topped by a brilliant 5-3 win over eventual champions Chelsea on New Year's Day. 

Although they made an early exit out of the FA Cup, they did make it to the final of the Capital One Cup, but went on to lose in the final 2-0 to Chelsea. Despite this, it did look like they were going to enjoy a much better second half to the season and possibly push on to challenge for a top four spot. 

Again though, their consistency proved to be a big problem as they dropped many points in games they would be expected to win. They recorded good wins over local rivals Arsenal, as well as the likes of Leicester and Newcastle, but ultimately, it seemed they had started their challenge for Champions League too late. They finished the season on a positive note after two consecutive wins which secured their fifth place finish and Europa League place.

Manchester United - 4th (70 points)
It was a second new start for United in as many season as Louis van Gaal took charge of the club. Even though they had a near perfect pre-season in terms of results, coupled with the array of new names brought in, van Gaal just couldn't get his team going when the time came. 

Before the first international break of the season, United struggled to win. In their first 10 games of the season they only managed to record 3 wins. During this spell, they also lost 5-3 to Leicester, and were held to draws by Burnley, West Brom and Sunderland. Along with this came the embarrassing 4-0 Capital One Cup defeat to League One's MK Dons. This sequence of results was brought to an end on their 1-0 derby defeat to Manchester City.

A 1-0 win over Crystal Palace marked the start of better times for the club. Following this, United went on a 10 game unbeaten streak which saw them through from November to January. They registered good wins against Arsenal, Southampton and Liverpool in this time before Southampton beat them in the reverse fixture 1-0. However, United still weren't convincing in the manner that they won these games, but it seemed to help in boosting their confidence during the second half of the season. 

At the quarter final stage of the FA Cup, after a relatively easy run in the competition compared to their opponents, United old boy Danny Welbeck - a player van Gaal judged to be an unneeded asset to his team - sealed their fate after scoring the winning goal for Arsenal. 

They did have a brilliant run of performances and results from mid-March to mid-April after the convincingly dispatched of Spurs, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Man City. However, their form for the majority of the season was inconsistent, which was proven as they lost 3-0 to Everton not long after this run. Van Gaal will also be hoping he can get the best out of his record signing Angel di Maria as he pushes for a higher league finish next time out. 

Arsenal - 3rd (75 points)

It was a very up and down season for Arsenal. They suffered their worst start to a season since 1982 which saw a lot of pressure piled onto Arsene Wenger once again, but after Christmas, they were the in-form team which had the fans dreaming of a title success. 

Their opening games didn't include any losses, but it did include a lot of needlessly dropped points in their collective draws. One of the biggest problems for Arsenal seemed to when they faced off against the big teams. In the beginning of the season, they managed to rack up a couple of points, but they struggled to beat them in the early stages. 

Their Champions League campaign also didn't start great as they lost to Borussia Dortmund, but they qualified the group stages with ease with only one other slip up. It also looked like they would reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2010 after they drew Monaco, but they threw this chance away after a terrible result in the home tie. Although they won the return leg, it just wasn't enough to take them through. 

They did improve dramatically after Christmas which saw them rocket up the table to sit snugly in the top four, very close to the top and to the leaders Chelsea. They went on a long unbeaten streak and secured good wins against Manchester City and Liverpool, as well as good draws against Chelsea and Manchester United. They did endure some frustrating games and losses to the likes of Swansea towards the end of the season, but they still finished the season on a high. 

After their final weekend win against West Brom, they faced Aston Villa in the FA Cup Final. Last season, Arsenal didn't start quickly enough and needed an extra time goal to seal their win. This season, it seemed they had learnt their lesson. With a few brilliant goals, they sealed their trophy win in style, while overtaking all other teams to become the one with the most FA Cup wins. 

Manchester City- 2nd (79 points)
Man City started the season as the defending champions and added two additional players to the squad in the hopes of retaining their trophy. However, just like the last time they were in this situation, they struggled to maintain performance levels in order to challenge Chelsea throughout the campaign. 

They had a particularly good first half to the season. In this period, they suffered only two losses - to Stoke and West Ham - but also dropped a lot of points through draws in games they would normally be expected to win. During the previous season, Yaya Toure proved to be a star player by helping to push his team to the title by scoring 20 goals, but his 2 goals by late November definitely didn't reflect this, and results for City also showed this. 

Their Champions League group stage wasn't the brightest, but they put together enough good performances at the end of it to see their name in the draw for the last 16. This included a brilliant performance to earn a 3-2 win over Bayern Munich. They went out to the eventual champions Barcelona at this stage after a 3-1 aggregate defeat, which could have been a lot worse if it hadn't been for keeper Joe Hart. 

In the Premier League, there was no separating City and Chelsea at the top of the table on New Year's Day, but they were unable to keep their momentum. After this, they went 4 games without a win, which included a lucky last-minute draw with Hull. It was their consistency that let them down during the second half of the season. After losing two consecutive games to Crystal Palace and Manchester United at the beginning of April, they managed to turn it around. 

The season ended with City rediscovering their form from the beginning of the season. They finished in style by recording 6 consecutive wins, including a very good performance to beat QPR 6-0. Even though they had such a strong finish to the season, by not winning a trophy this term, their under-achievements were highlighted as this is the first time this has happened since the season that Mark Hughes started at the helm. 

Chelsea - 1st (87 points)

The summer signings that Jose Mourinho brought in at the beginning of the season proved to be the best business by a mile. Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas proved their worth instantly. Costa scored 7 goals in his first 4 appearances alone and the latter easily earned the title of top play maker. Along with bringing Thibaut Courtois back to the club and installing him as the number 1, he created a team that was pretty much unstoppable. 

They hit the top spot on the Monday night after beating Burnley and became the dominant team from then onwards. They picked up 36 points in their first 14 games which included some magnificent performances. They put 6 past Everton, beat Liverpool at Anfield and eased past Arsenal. They also earned two good draws against both Manchester teams. 

They did suffer a few blips along the way, but they only suffered three losses in the league to Newcastle, West Brom and Spurs. The last of the three was quite a heavy defeat, but it was a reality check for them. After this match they went 16 Premier League games unbeaten which left them extremely well off as they hit the home straight before they claimed their trophy. 

They did wrap up the title with three games to go. A lot of people mocked the performances of Mourinho's team in the latter stages of the season, but it still proved to be effective for them which is why Mourinho defended his tactics so relentlessly. 

The Premier League wasn't the only trophy they picked up this season. They beat Spurs 2-1 to lift the Capital One Cup at Wembley, and although many fans thought they could go on to win the quadruple, they were proved wrong. 

The FA Cup and the Champions League were the only major disappointments for them. Chelsea breezed past Watford in the third round of the FA Cup, but came unstuck after a brilliant comeback from Bradford in the next. They also looked pretty comfortable after the group stages of the Champions League. They got the ever important away goal in the first leg, and after scoring a penalty in extra time of the second, it looked good for them, only for a late goal from PSG which sealed their fate. This leaves Mourinho room to improve for next season though as they are once again going in as favourites. 

Premier League Review: 6-10

Crystal Palace - 10th (48 points)

After Tony Pulis, the man who turned Palace's season around last year, decided to leave the club only 48 hours before the opening game, a lot of people wrote them off. When Neil Warnock started his second stint in charge of the club, people still didn't know what was going to happen. 

In their first four games, they picked up two wins and two draws. It was starting to look up, but all too soon, things turned around. In this period of poor form they did pull together for a memorable win over Liverpool at Selhurst Park in late November, but that was the only bright spark at this time. They went their next 6 games without a win. By the time the club came to the decision to sack Warnock at the end of December, he had a dismal record of only 1 win in 12 games which had landed his team in the bottom three.

This was the point in the season where everything turned around again, but this time for the better. Alan Pardew was installed as manager and he injected some new life into his squad. He brought the best out of many of the players, including Yannick Bolasie, Wilfried Zaha, Jason Puncheon and Glenn Murray among others. His first match in charge saw him lead them to a 4-0 win against Dover in the FA Cup, and he followed this up with a 2-1 win over Spurs in the Premier League. After winning 10 games out of Pardew's first 15, Palace started their move up the table. Other highlights of their season was their 2-1 win over Manchester City and a Bolasie hat-trick that helped to seal a 4-1 win away at Sunderland. 

However, they did have a small slip up towards the end of the season and went on a run of four consecutive defeats after the win at Sunderland. These losses included very narrow defeats to both Chelsea and Manchester United, but they bounced back in brilliant style. Three of the players that had been invigorated under Pardew helped their team to come from a goal down to ruin Steven Gerrard's final farewell at Anfield. Taking all of this into consideration, the future for Palace looks extremely bright.

Stoke City - 9th (54 points)
This was a brilliant season for Stoke in many ways; they've never won as many games or accumulated as many points in a Premier League season before. However, many fans, along with Mark Hughes, will be left wondering just how different things would have been if they had found some much needed consistency. 

It took Stoke until the third weekend to register their first win of the campaign, and they did it in style. A 1-0 win over Manchester City at the Etihad looked like it would propel them onto a good run, but this wasn't the case. It took another 3 games for Stoke to register their next win. 

The home fans also had to wait until the end of September for their team's first win at the Brittania, and other losses to Burnley, Manchester United and Liverpool left them just 3 points above the drop at the beginning of December.

In the game against Arsenal at this point in the season, they put in a remarkable first half performance which saw them take a 3-0 lead at the break, and then hold on for a 3-2 win. This result kick-started a strong mid-season for the team and they only lost 3 of their next 14 games. In this period, Jonathan Walters became the first Stoke player to score a Premier League hat-trick to earn his team a win over QPR, and late goals against Newcastle, Aston Villa and Everton secured the points to lift their team up the eighth. 

Consecutive defeats following this to West Brom, Crystal Palace and Chelsea - despite a wonder strike from Charlie Adam from inside his own half - stopped their brilliant progress. However, they were further boosted again after recording impressive wins over West Ham, Southampton and Spurs. They saved the best until last though when they rounded off the season in style with a 6-1 thrashing of Liverpool at the Brittania Stadium. 

Two three-game losing streaks was as bad as it got for Stoke throughout the season and after registering wins over Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and doing the double over Spurs, they can have a lot of hope and confidence going into the new season.

Swansea City - 8th (56 points)
In Garry Monk's first full season in charge, he led the club to its highest Premier League finish and passed a previous top points tally with games to spare, making this one a very successful season. He also made some great signings in the shape of Federico Fernandez, Jefferson Montero, Lukasz Fabianski and Gylfi Sigurdsson who helped lift Swansea to this position. 

They started the season with three consecutive wins, including an opening day 2-1 win over Manchester United. However, they then followed this up with a 3 match losing streak, which left a lot of people questioning the manager. Swansea did find their form again though for a short time following this which left them in and around the Europa League spots. Monk did suffer through some difficulties such as injuries, suspensions and the big money departure of Wilfried Bony to Manchester City in the January transfer window. This didn't dampen their team spirit in any way though. 

The festive season and into the New Year wasn't exactly great for Swansea, but they still managed to pick up a lot of points from their many draws. The first match of their FA Cup campaign ended in a brilliant 6-2 away victory to boost morale, but it was quickly over for them in the fourth round after defeat to Blackburn. 

Bafetimbi Gomis found his form after Bony left the club, which boosted them and led them to more victories and draws due to his goals. They also managed to do the double over both Manchester United and Arsenal which sent out a strong message to the rest of their opposition. 

Leading towards the final weekend it was looking up for Swansea, especially after a hard fought win in the Arsenal game, but it didn't end in the best way. It looks like Swansea will be in for another good season under Monk if they can recreate even some of the performances from this one. 

Southampton - 7th (60 points)
It's safe to say that Southampton defied all expectations this season. After losing many of their star players - Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Rickie Lambert, Luke Shaw and Calum Chambers - and their manager, many had them tipped for relegation. Instead, Ronald Koeman recruited wisely and had the critics eating their words just a few weeks into the season.

Summer signings Graziano Pelle and Dusan Tadic surprised many and took the Premier League by storm along with helping Southampton to 11 wins out of their first 14 games. This included a superb display in their 8-0 thrashing of Sunderland at St Mary's and a 2-1 win away at Arsenal in the Capital One Cup. A few hiccups along the way simply remained just that, as the brilliance of the team took them away with another great performance a week later. 

They also recorded another win over Arsenal on New Year's Day which saw Southampton sitting in fourth place with a 2 point advantage over Spurs and their former manager, Mauricio Pochettino. Then, in their next Premier League game, they rallied for a great 2-1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford. These performances looked to have cemented them in their challenge for a Champions League spot. 

However, they couldn't quite recreate their consistency from the first half of the season. Their challenge for a Champions League spot faded over the remainder of the season, but the fans were still left with plenty to cheer about. 

Their challenge for a Europa League place remained alive until the end. Southampton may have had a rocky second half to their season, but they certainly ended it in style. Their last match at home ended in a brilliant 6-1 win over Aston Villa, and Saido Mane scored the fastest Premier League hat-trick in history. Due to Arsenal winning the FA Cup as well, Southampton's seventh place finish earned them a well-earned place in next season's Europa League. 

Liverpool - 6th (62 points)
Last season was an absolute high for Liverpool and for a long time towards the end of the season, it looked like they would be crowned the champions. However, one terrible moment prevented that from happening. Many fans still believed that their momentum would carry them forward into the new season, but everything came crashing down around them instead. They lost both of their main strikers; Luis Suarez made the summer move to Barcelona and Daniel Sturridge was out for the majority of the season with a host of different injuries. 

They did win their first game of the season, but from then, their form was incredibly inconsistent. By the end of November, they found themselves out of the title race due to losing 6 games out of their opening 12, which left them 18 points behind Chelsea. That run included losses to Aston Villa, West Ham, Newcastle and Crystal Palace. At this point, they has also been eliminated from the Champions League after a poor run during the group stages. It was clear to everyone watching just how much they missed the presence and fire power of Suarez and Sturridge. 

The festive period was a turning point for Liverpool though and they seemed to find some much needed form. From the end of December, they went on a 12 match unbeaten run. The return of Sturridge in this period also helped to boost morale and it looked like they would be in with the chance of claiming an unlikely top-four finish and possibly a first trophy win under Brendan Rodgers as well. 

However, semi-final defeats in both domestic cup competitions, by Chelsea and Aston Villa respectively, ended hopes of a trophy. Also, with the knowledge that the final games of the season would mark Steven Gerrard's last games for the club, everyone was hoping for a bright end to the season. They only won once in their last six games though and two of the losses were devastating for them. Gerrard lost his last game at Anfield to Crystal Palace and got thrashed 6-1 by Stoke in his last game in the Premier League. Overall, this is probably a season many Liverpool fans will want to forget in a hurry, but they'll also be in for a rough summer as the transfer saga surrounding Raheem Sterling goes on. 

Premier League Review: 11-15

Newcastle United - 15th (39 points) 

It's a season that Newcastle fans will be wanting to forget in a hurry. They suffered a horrendous start to the campaign after failing to win in August and September. Their first win came midway through October after they faced Leicester. This game marked the start of a brilliant turn around by Alan Pardew to set Newcastle on a 5 match winning streak.

Things got even better following this when the team became the first to inflict defeat on Chelsea in all competitions when they recorded a 2-1 victory at St James' Park, but then at the end of the month, Pardew saw himself facing the exit door. His tenure ended in a 3-2 win over Everton when he left to become the Crystal Palace boss. This was definitely a turning point in their season.

Fans had been calling for Pardew to get sacked for a long time, but they could never have anticipated just how bad things would get under the leadership of his successor, John Carver. Newcastle were in ninth upon Pardew's departure and Carver took a few matches to get in his stride and eventually got his first win against Hull, but struggled to get any consistency going. They embarked on a terrible run of 8 consecutive defeats from March onwards. This marked their worst run in the Premier League history and the worst by any club this season.

Possibly the lowest moment in their season was the 3-0 defeat to Leicester. Daryl Janmaat and Mike Williamson were both sent off, and the latter was accused of deliberately getting a red by Carver. They did scrape a point against West Brom but followed this up with defeat to QPR which left them in an extremely dangerous position going into the last weekend. 

The situation pushed Newcastle into playing possibly the best game of their season. They needed a win to stand a chance of staying up and did it in emphatic style. The game ended in a 2-0 win, which included a goal from recent cancer survivor Jonas Gutierrez on his final game for the club. The fans will be hoping this isn't going to become a regular position for them in the table and that they can go onto better things in the next campaign. 

Leicester City - 14th (41 points)

Arguably, Leicester's successful survival mission was the story of the season. Their first month in the Premier League would never have suggested that they would have been in trouble. They recorded two great draws against Everton and Arsenal and an extremely memorable 5-3 win against Manchester United at the King Power stadium. 

For them, the international break came at the wrong time. Following the United game, Nigel Pearson's side went on a dismal run of 13 games without a win which left them down at the bottom of the table with very little hope. They picked up their first win after this against Hull City and a lot of people thought they were finally getting what some of their previous performances had deserved. It looked as if the ship had steadied when they won four of their first six games after Christmas. This included a brilliant comeback against Spurs in an FA Cup tie, where it took two late strikes from Leonardo Ulloa and Jeffrey Schlupp to secure their progress to the next round. 

However, it was around this time that Pearson landed himself in the headlines for the wrong reasons. He got a lot of attention after footage of him grabbing James McArthur around the neck and reports emerged stating that he'd been sacked. These claims were quickly retracted though, but it still looked to have affected the team. Leicester failed to win their next 6 games which left them 7 points adrift of safety and to many people they looked like they would be the first team relegated.

Then the miracle happened. A late 2-1 win at him to West Ham ended a run of 8 games without a win, which they followed up with a 3-2 triumph over West Brom; sealed through an injury time winner. The manager found himself in the headlines again after losing his temper with a journalist following the Chelsea game, but this was soon forgotten. They recorded impressive victories over Newcastle and Southampton before rounding off the season with an astonishing 5-1 win over already relegated QPR. If the end of the season is anything to go by, next season will be promising for them.

West Bromwich Albion - 13th (44 points)

West Brom eventually finished the season with little problems and without being dragged into a relegation battle after Tony Pulis steadied the ship. 

At the end of the previous season after Pepe Mel left the club, Alan Irvine was his surprise replacement. He didn't have the greatest start with the team, and it took them a few weeks to pick up their first win of the season against Spurs, which they followed with a big victory over Burnley. Consistency was a problem for them though, and they only picked up another 2 wins between then and January. At this point, they were just one point above the drop, with a lot of terrible statistics trailing closely behind them.

With the turn of the New Year, came their turn of fortune. Pulis completely flipped around the club and took a very different approach to Irvine. He put in place a more defensive outlook which saw his team lose only 6 league games in the second half of the season.

He also led the team to some incredibly good wins against the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea towards the end of the season. He also brought the best out of Saido Berahino who hit double figures in his goal tally and helped his team claim some very important points.

The fans will be looking forward to next season now they've had a taste of what Pulis can do for their team. Even though their campaign finished in a 4-1 defeat to Arsenal, they'll have confidence to push on into the beginning of next season. 

West Ham United - 12th (47 points)

Sam Allardyce was one of the early picks to be the first manager sacked at the beginning of the season, but he went on to prove a lot of his critics wrong. In an attempt to appease the owners who wanted a more free-flowing style of football, he brought in Teddy Sheringham to help with the attacking side of things. 

West Ham had a particularly good start to the season. After losing their first game, they went on to pick up a lot of important points including beating Liverpool 3-1 and Manchester City 2-1 at home. 

Due to a lot of the teams that fans expect to see at the table not playing as well as previous seasons, West Ham took full advantage. On Christmas Day, West Ham were sitting in fourth place, and were looking extremely strong. 

However, Boxing Day was the big turning point in their season. They lost to both Chelsea and Arsenal before drawing with West Brom on New Year's Day. But this was just the beginning of their nose-dive in form. The players like Diafra Sakho, Enner Valencia, Alex Song and Stewart Downing who had helped their team to this point all failed to replicate their stunning form from the first half of the season. 

Although they were collecting less points, their defensive record was still impressive. They conceded fewer goals than in the last two seasons, and their disciplinary record was so good that it earned them a place in the qualifiers of next season's Europa League. Neither of these things took away from the fact that performances were dwindling though. If the season had begun on Boxing Day, West Ham would have been sitting in 17th position come the final day. Their season finished in a 2-0 defeat to Newcastle and this proved to be the final nail in Allardyce's managerial coffin at West Ham as he lost his job at the end of the season. 

Everton - 11th (47 points)

Last season showed so much promise for the blue side of Liverpool, but in the end, it couldn't have ended worse for them. 

After finishing fifth and adding the talents of Romelu Lukaku to their squad, it looked like they would push onto even better things this season. However, they only won one of their first seven games, which seemed to set the tone for the rest of their season. Many of their fans expected them to be challenging for Champions League this term, so this kind of run was definitely unexpected. Things didn't look up for them in the league any time soon and one of their defeats was a heavy blow dealt by Chelsea which gave no one hope.

Even the darkest of moments include some good times though. For Everton, this was in the Europa League. They beat Wolfsburg both home and away and Lille at Goodison which helped them to secure the top spot in their group.

Even after these great performances, Everton still struggled domestically, especially over the festive period. They only put together to wins throughout December and January, but even then their European form continued to impress. On their return to Europe, they beat Young Boys 7-2 on aggregate to reach the last 16. The next leg of the competition looked good for them as they beat Dynamo Kiev at home 2-1, but the return leg was disastrous. The bright spark of their campaign came to an end through a 5-2 loss. 

Their exit from the Europa League allowed them to put all of their focus into the league. 4 wins from 5 matches, including a very good performance against Manchester United to win 3-0, soon took away the relegation worries of the fans and helped them to climb up to mid-table by the end of the season. Without the added pressure of the Europa League next season, Everton may mount more of a challenge if they can sort out their consistency problems.