Three key battles of the 2013-14 Premier League season

Title Race

It will be defined as the first season of the post-Ferguson era. While it should have been a reason to celebrate, there was a sense in the closing stages that no one truly wanted to win it. The EPL as “crabs in a bucket,” essentially.

Arsenal were the first to turn heads, top of the table from September 14th through to February 2nd with a few exceptions with City swapping spots a few times in January.

The turning point was Liverpool’s 5-1 victory over Arsenal on February 8th.  Chelsea moved top, and Arsenal’s dreadful run in mid to late March saw them fall out of the running. Chelsea went on to open up a 7 point lead on Liverpool, before a poor end of March performance from the Blues led to Liverpool’s surprise ascendancy to first for what seemed would be their chance to win the league for the first time in 24 years.

Then Gerrard’s slip, a 0-2 loss to Chelsea and 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace, and Manchester City, who had always been near or around the top for much of the season, took their chance at the right time.

In all, though all the talk was of Liverpool, in the long term this was arguably Arsenal’s title to lose.

The Winner

Edin Dzeko, for being fairly important in a campaign in which many thought he’d be crowded out. He scored 16 goals to Aguero’s 17.

The Loser

Jose Mourinho. It was the first time in his managerial career in which he finished outside the top two.

Champions League/Europa League

Everton threatened the final Champions League spot for much of the season, though it seemed an inconsistent February and early March might see them fall out of the running for any European place altogether.

The rest of the Spring turned out very well though for Roberto Martinez’s side. They’ve lost three in their last five matches, which, coupled with Arsenal’s six consecutive wins, handed the final CL spot to Arsene Wenger.

Spurs have been, well, not good all season, Tim Sherwood not being able to do much of anything to improve on the shot heavy, goal light reign of Andre Villas-Boas. They were in second place as of six games in the season though!

Southampton, who were in 3rd as late as November 9th, didn’t have it in them to complete a European push under Pochettino, and after a lousy couple of months leading into the new year crashed down to 9th. Man United, well, we all know what happened there.

The Winner

Roberto Martinez, for pushing Everton to new frontiers not thought possible under David Moyes. Honourable mention for Per Mertesacker.

The Loser

David Moyes. You know why. No need to pile on.

Relegation Fight

This was never that interesting. The only thing to muse on was Sunderland’s incredible end of season Hail Mary, which started with their 1-2 victory over Stamford Bridge on April 19th. coming after a 2-2 draw with City. This kickstarted a four consecutive win run which pulled Sunderland off the bottom of the table, essentially overtaking Norwich City.

The Canaries looked fairly safe until late March, when, following a 2-0 defeat over Sunderland (irony!), Norwich lost six and drew one in their remaining fixtures.

Fulham, who had been statistically awful all year posting basement bottom shot ratios, were almost never in doubt for the drop from February on, save for a few wins against Villa and Norwich later in the season.

Cardiff were...well. Bad. Throughout. They never looked like escaping in 2014, timed roughly with Malky Mackay’s sacking as manager, replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

The Winner

Gus Poyet? Maybe, but the real victory came from the resurgence of Fabio Borini, perhaps spurred by young teammate Connor Wickham. He scored 7 goals all campaign, four of which came in late April and early May.

The Loser

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. It doesn’t look good for the former Manchester United player, though perhaps Vincent Tan will have mercy.