[Football] Which PL team had the best season?

[Bry Nylon]

Surely overcoming difficulties, especially with key injuries, is success.

I don't deny it is success. I was simply pondering which team could reasonably claim to have had the best season? There are all sorts of criteria, including winning things, achieving European placing, out-performing expectations, defying adversity etc. I'm not sure there is a simple answer - unless of course the simple metric of 'who won the most?' is used but then I reckon deep down many Man City and Liverpool supporters will be marginally disappointed with how their respective seasons have finished, given their expectations / hopes.

Funny old game, I think is the expression.

It could be that (apart from us) Spurs fans are actually among the happiest about how their season finished up.

 

[arfer guinness]

I'd go with Brentford. It's taken us 5 years to get our highest points total, yet come the last day we could have finished below the Bees. Mention must go to Vieira as well, he's taken a crap side under a previous crap manager to one that has caused a few upsets.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I don't deny it is success. I was simply pondering which team could reasonably claim to have had the best season? There are all sorts of criteria, including winning things, achieving European placing, out-performing expectations, defying adversity etc. I'm not sure there is a simple answer - unless of course the simple metric of 'who won the most?' is used but then I reckon deep down many Man City and Liverpool supporters will be marginally disappointed with how their respective seasons have finished, given their expectations / hopes.

Funny old game, I think is the expression.

Silverware isn't the only measure of success. How many teams attained a record number of points in their history? A personal best is an achievement.

 

[Simster]

Liverpool, Spurs, Brentford, West Ham and Brighton have clearly all had very good seasons. You could arguably add Arsenal to that list given where they were.

Liverpool ended up "only" winning the 3rd and 4th most important trophies but were in all 4 until the very last week. Had they beaten Madrid or City to one of those trophies, I'd have said it was them.

Spurs have exceeded expectations and surprised everyone by somehow staying the course, somewhat unexpectedly while Arsenal, West Ham and Man Utd all stuttered or just downright imploded.

A midtable finish from Brentford is an incredible achievement. Yes, Eriksen helped but I'm not convinced they'd have gone down without him. Their form dipped before they signed him but we all know that well run teams are capable of turning things round and from what I saw of Brentford, they rarely looked like they didn't belong in the top flight.

West Ham were in the hunt for a top 4 spot for half the season and some of their already good players looked superb at times. It's a shame for them that their season petered out a bit, but they were a joy to watch at times.

The Albion just get better and better and are now an established Premier League club. We are now at the point where it would be a genuine surprise to see us in a relegation struggle next season - we're like Leicester, West Ham and Wolves in that regard. A best ever league position is a tremendous achievement.

Whose season was best? Well Liverpool were two results away from a perfect season, so I'd have to give it to them personally.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I thought Norwich did really well




for Norwich.

 

[happypig]

Leeds, because the other 19 clubs failed to be Leeds

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Liverpool.

Barely scraped into the top four last season and then this season have played in every game it was possible for them to play in, a total of 63 games I think. They only lost three of them, too. Unfortunately the third defeat was the champions league final which, coming a week after missing out on the league title by a point, has left their season feeling a bit anticlimactic.

They were so close to achieving something incredible and unique that winning two cups, finishing second in the league by a point(with a points total that would have won the league most years before peps City came into town) and making the champions league final seems disappointing. It's actually a fantastic season.

Brentford 2nd. They've done an excellent job. Tiny club, tiny budget and have coped brilliantly with the premier league.

West Ham 3rd. Had a very solid season finishing the best of the rest and having a proper European adventure.

Man City 4th, they did after all win the league.

Brighton 5th. Record points and league position.

Palace sixth. I thought htis might be the year they went down but Vieira to his credit has done a decent job. Sadly.

Spurs 7th. They kept Kane and somehow made the champions league. They've got to be pleased with that.

Chelsea 8th. Two cup finals and third in the league is a pretty solid effort.

Newcastle 9th. It wasn't a miracle they stayed up, they were about a point form safety when Howe took over. The bottom four were all absolute dogshit in the first half of the season but a) one of them had to stay up and b)they spent a fair old whack. They did have a very decent second half of the season though so they can sneak into the top half.

Arsenal 10th. They appear to have stopped the slide and are slowly making their way back towards the top with a young, talented but flawed team.

Leicester 11th. finished 8th in the league which is more or less where they'd expect to be if not a place or two lower than they would have hoped. Pretty bang average for most of the season but had a little run at the end and a European semi final is not be sniffed at.

Southampton 12th. Achieved about what you'd expect.

Wolves 13th. Top half finish but struggled for goals and looked pretty poor for the final third of the season.

Villa 14th. Probably not what they were hoping for at the start of the season. Gerrard has steadied the ship a bit and the signing of Coutinho has got to be pleasing.

Man Utd 15th. Lucky to be this high up.

Leeds 16th. Stayed up just about. A very poor season that saw the killing of God. That's never going to be good.

Everton 17th. What a shitshow that was from the blue half of Merseyside. While Liverpool were trying to win everything, Everton were trying their best to get relegated. They even failed at that.

Norwich 18th. They got relegated again. Probably expected it. Again.

Watford. 19th. They got relegated it again. Probably expected it. Again. Had about 17 different managers. Again.

Burnley 20th. I've put them last because they got relegated and at the start of the season probably didn't expect it. They lost their long serving and pretty successful manager and could be away from the premier league for a long while(alternately they'll join Watford and Norwich in gaining promotion at the first attempt).

 

[AmexRuislip]

Call me biased but it was Albion by a country mile

Brentford were heading one way until World Class Eriksen arrived
Smug spent a shit load of money on a team that was underperforming but already had decent players

Liverpool and City have too many of the world's top players, anything less than first or second would have been a failure

We owned WHU as we always do

Afternoon @biased
Again the Albion by a country km, its what it's all about.
The rest of the usurpers just get in our way

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

I suppose it's Man City as they won the league, but if you're looking at lower teams who exceeded expectations, yeh, Us, Palace and Brentford. I'd go Brentford as well

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Earlier this morning I had a look at the predictions made by the 'experts' at the beginning of the season. To be fair, most of them hold their hands up when they got things majorly wrong (e.g. Brighton, Everton, Manchester United).

For example:

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-season-review-our-predictions-versus-reality

https://www.givemesport.com/8801304...r-premier-league-table-prediction-for-2021-22

Answering who had the best season is a bit subjective, but I would say that Brighton, Brentford and Palace overachieved, from the perspective of the fans and pundits.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I'm going with Brentford:

1. They finished 7 places higher that their budget.
2. The manager looks every inch Prem quality.
3. Bringing in a world class midfielder like Eriksen was a masterstroke.
4. They have a genuine Prem quality striker in Toney.
5. Excellent team spirit, started well, finished strongly.
6. Took 12 points out of 18 from the bottom 3 - key to surviving season 1.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Brentford by a mile, surely?

Never really in danger, smart transfer business in Jan to get back on track and smashed Chelsea away.

Spurs had a better season than expected
Brighton improving as well
Palace moving away from the old style of football

Not sure Newcastle should be mentioned - they were awful for a decent chunk of season

 

[kentgully]

If by that you mean Brighton & Hove Albion then yes, and no I suppose.

Yes, we comfortably out-performed our budget, won plaudits for some great football and achieved our best ever top flight finish and points total. However, we won nothing and didn't achieve a European placing of any description.

Plus, the long streak when we couldn't win a raffle and the number of draws / inability to get over the line in many matches can't be ignored either. Personally I think we have had a great season - our best ever in fact. But if the question is which club has had the best PL season, I'm not sure the answer is 'Brighton.'

Of course its us...

 

[albionalbino]

Waiting for the Liverpool supporters on the CL thread to show up....

 

[BN41Albion]

Call me biased but it was Albion by a country mile

Brentford were heading one way until World Class Eriksen arrived
Smug spent a shit load of money on a team that was underperforming but already had decent players

Liverpool and City have too many of the world's top players, anything less than first or second would have been a failure

We owned WHU as we always do

This, esp re Brentford. Always take a team new to/back in the PL after a stint out of it finishing half way up with a pinch of salt. First season bounce and all that (unless you're watford or norwich). Second season says a lot more about a team's quality... see sheff United, huddersfield, Leeds, etc

 

[SAC]

Earlier this morning I had a look at the predictions made by the 'experts' at the beginning of the season. To be fair, most of them hold their hands up when they got things majorly wrong (e.g. Brighton, Everton, Manchester United).

For example:

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-season-review-our-predictions-versus-reality

https://www.givemesport.com/8801304...r-premier-league-table-prediction-for-2021-22

Answering who had the best season is a bit subjective, but I would say that Brighton, Brentford and Palace overachieved, from the perspective of the fans and pundits.

If you go with the combined difference in the two links then Palace did the best, Albion 2nd and Brentford joint 3rd with West Ham.
At the other end, Everton, Leeds and then Villa.

For me, Brentford had the best season although I think they will could struggle next season.

 

[Audax]

Call me biased but it was Albion by a country mile

I'd agree with you if we hadn't had that form slump mid-season. Looking back at it and playing the "what if...?" game, if we'd maintained form across the whole season and not had the slump I reckon we add at least 7 points to our tally. That's enough to claim 6th on the table, ahead of Man U (GD improves by enough as a result of the improved match results).

 

[The Fits]

Brentford did. Closely followed by us and then Palace.

 

[jessiejames]

Man City have under performed only winning the keague with the resources they have, in a Way Liverpool have had an average performance for the players at their disposal, other than that only West Ham have done anything of note in Eurwith the budget they have had.

 

[Stat Brother]

If by that you mean Brighton & Hove Albion then yes, and no I suppose.

Yes, we comfortably out-performed our budget, won plaudits for some great football and achieved our best ever top flight finish and points total. However, we won nothing and didn't achieve a European placing of any description.

Plus, the long streak when we couldn't win a raffle and the number of draws / inability to get over the line in many matches can't be ignored either. Personally I think we have had a great season - our best ever in fact. But if the question is which club has had the best PL season, I'm not sure the answer is 'Brighton.'

Theres no way the answer is The Albion, passing tired horses doesn't make for a great race.