Assessing the success, and failure, of the 2024-25 Premier League season

Finishing in second place in the Premier League is quite impressive! It’s the best league in the world, and only one team was better than the Gunners this year. In fact, Arsenal have finished second three seasons in a row now. Finishing in second could never be a disappointment. However, this is Arsenal. It’s one of the biggest, most-successful football clubs in the world. The time has come to actually win the league, right? To take home a trophy with some substance? It’s been over 20 years since Arsenal’s last Premier League title. The clock is ticking.

Last season, Aston Villa surprised many by finishing in the top four and qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in decades. It wasn’t expected that Villa would finish in the top four again and, indeed, it did not. Instead, the club finished sixth, missing out on the Champions League. Also, Villa’s plus-7 goal differential was tied for ninth. Still, for this club, finishing sixth is still solid, and it made the most of its Champions League run, which had to be fun for fans.

Bournemouth have steadily climbed since returning to the Premier League three seasons ago, having gone from 15th to 12th to ninth this season. The Cherries did that even with Dominic Solanke moving on. That’s good, but Bournemouth lost 12 games and finished on 56 points as well. It was a slight improvement, and thus a slight success. This is not a “just happy to be here” club, so finishing inside the top half of the table by a narrow margin can only yield so much success.

Brentford also finished on 56 points. It was 10th because Bournemouth had a slightly better goal differential. So why does Bournemouth’s season qualify as a slight success and Brentford’s a full-on success? Well, prior to the 2021-22 season the Bees hadn’t played in the top flight since the 1946-47 campaign. Brentford are a club with a lower budget getting by on guile and analytics. Finishing top half of the table is big for them.

Brighton finished eighth this season, though with a plus-7 goal differential. The club has now finished between sixth and 11th over the last four Premier League campaigns. This was a successful season, though. They lost Pascal Gross from the midfield and saw Roberto De Zerbi move on to Marseille. Brighton hired Fabian Hurzeler, barely over 30, as its new manager. That felt like a rebuilding move. Instead, Brighton didn’t miss a beat.

Chelsea have spent so much money and shuffled through so many managers. Once again it yielded results that are fine for a club like this. The Blues finished fourth, which means a trip to the Champions League. Only three of the best clubs in the world over the last decade finished above them. And yet, Chelsea don’t spend that kind of money to finish fourth. The club is staying in the mix, but that’s a muted success.

Who cares that Palace finished 12th with a goal differential of straight-up zero? Frankly, that would have been enough for a pat on the back and a “Good job, lads.” However, the club went on a remarkable (if somewhat cynical, from a tactical perspective) run to win the FA Cup. For the first time in the club’s history — a history that goes back over a century — Crystal Palace have won a major trophy. It gets to play in Europa League next season. That FA Cup win will live on in club lore for decades.

Granted, this season Everton finished on 48 points, its best total since the 2020-21 season. However, this is not a club that should be finishing 13th in the table, nor with a negative goal differential. The Toffees had to sack Sean Dyche and hire David Moyes to right the ship. Sure, that worked, and saved Everton from sweating relegation, but the slog has to stop for the club — and stop next season.

Fulham finished 11th with a goal differential of zero. It won 15 games and lost 14. Fulham didn’t have to worry about relegation, but it didn’t even sniff Europe. That’s about right — it’s where this club has found itself as of late. Fulham play unremarkable football and yield unremarkable campaigns. Given that not too far in the past they were usually relegation fodder, that’ll suffice.

Sure, it was a swift rise for Ipswich. Two seasons ago they were in League One, and this season the Premier League. That was a fun ride, we’re sure. However, the 2024-25 season was a reality check. Ipswich were bad. It was comfortably relegated on 22 points. Ipswich finished 19th and only won four games. The only reason this wasn’t a massive failure is because of the fact that, well, it was a club in the third tier of English football not all that long ago.

We can compare Ipswich’s season to Leicester, fittingly enough. Leicester, like Ipswich, were promoted from the Championship prior to this season. The Foxes also got relegated, finishing with 25 points and ending up 18th. The difference? Expectations. There was reason to believe Leicester would stay up. The club had been in the Premier League for years prior to being relegated. Hell, the club won the Premier League title in one of those seasons. To be a yo-yo team is a real fall from grace for Leicester. That makes for significant failure.

Granted, the end of the season was more slog than celebration, but let’s look at the big picture here. Liverpool replaced Jurgen Klopp as manager with Arne Slot. The club then went on to win the Premier League title. Comfortably, at that. Even with the bad vibes down the stretch, the Reds finished on 84 points, 10 more than Arsenal. Liverpool’s goal differential was 10 better than the Gunners’ as well. Also, the club got Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk signed to new deals during the campaign for good measure. This can’t be called anything other than a great success.

City have been the creme de la creme in Europe, and arguably in the world, for years. This is a club that expects to not just contend for a title, but win it. Trophies are the norm. So, when Manchester City wins no trophies, it draws attention. City finished third in the Premier League this year. That’s its worst finish since the 2016-17 season. When you make it clear it’s all about titles and trophies, a season like that is maybe not a failure, but a definite disappointment. Certainly, it isn’t a success.

Well, at least the blue half of Manchester can still talk trash about the red half. What a woeful season from Manchester United. The club finished 15th in the Premier League. Yes, 15th. Manchester United, one of the most-storied clubs in football, wasn’t within striking distance of Brentford, much less Manchester City. The club did manage to make it to the Europa League final, and a win there would have salvaged something. Instead, it lost, and any hope of this campaign being anything other than a total failure was lost as well.

Newcastle won a trophy for the first time in years, but it was the Carabao Cup. It qualified for the Champions League, but only because England earned a fifth spot in the new, expanded field. Newcastle actually finished even on points with Aston Villa and only qualified due to better goal differential. That’s all well and good, for sure. However, it is easy to forget that Newcastle are one of the wealthiest clubs in the world, because it still doesn’t look or feel like one. So yeah, good job, we guess? There has to be more to it than this soon enough though, right?

Forest couldn’t keep the wonderful run going all season. Eventually, clubs like Man City, Chelsea, and Newcastle played well enough to jump over them. Of course, those clubs are rich as all get out and have been good-to-great Premier League clubs for years. Forest do not have any recent history along those lines. The club finished seventh, and with two more points would have qualified for the Champions League. That’s good stuff.

Late in the season, Southampton played a style of soccer Manchester City’s Ruben Dias called “not football.” The club earned a scoreless draw. What was the point of that? Well, that point got Southampton to 12, which kept it from equaling 2007-08 Derby County for the worst season in Premier League history. However, let’s reframe that. Southampton finished on 12 points! It won two games and lost 30! This was an all-time terrible Premier League season.

Spurs had about the funniest season possible. It finished with 38 points but a minus-1 goal differential. The club scored 64 goals and allowed 65. Tottenham were either winning soundly or getting smashed. It finished 17th in the Premier League. Yes, only the relegated teams finished lower. Oh, and Spurs won Europa League and will play in the Champions League next season. What a world.

In 2022-23, West Ham finished 14th. The next season, i.e. last season, the Hammers finished ninth. However, West Ham fans finally got what they wanted: Moyes out! Yeah, about that. Julen Lopetegui didn’t even last a full season before getting sacked and replaced by Graham Potter. Potter was able to help get West Ham into 14th, but its minus-16 goal differential was better than only the relegated squads.

Sure, maybe we are framing this a bit in a way to not end on a low note. Wolves finished 16th in the table on 42 points. On the other hand, Wolves had more points than Spurs and just as many as Man United! Plus, early in the season it seemed like the Wanderers were going down, and going down with gusto. Instead, the club righted the ship (somewhat) and finished well out of the relegation race, points-wise. So, hey, there’s that!