Premier League Review

     What a season. Goals, gaffes, changing expectations, slip ups and bizarre decisions - all reasons why the Premier League is the best in the world. The early bets were placed on Manchester City and Chelsea, set to take the league by storm once again. Spurs were tipped for the title after their summer spending - how wrong were those predictions? Their North London rivals, Arsenal, were on the hunt for their first piece of silverware since 2005. However, injury to Aaron Ramsey and heavy away defeats saw the title slip out of their fingers. And who would have expected Liverpool, 7th last season, to finish 2nd just two points off the winners on 11th May. Not to forget the decline of Manchester United - after panic buying on deadline day, the Red Devils never showed faith in the new manager and saw them not qualify for Europe for the first time since 1990. All that whilst David Moyes' former team, Everton, rose to the Europa League once more.

     Not to forget the relegation scrap. Cardiff looked as though they would defy all the odds to stay up after a shock victory over Manchester City early doors. But off field issues effected the squad and cost them dearly. Fulham struggled for momentum after employing three different managers. Felix Magath turned out to be the unlucky one as the Cottagers were relegated with games to spare. It was a dogfight  all season for the final relegation place. Norwich, Villa and Sunderland were in there all season. But it was the Canaries, who sacked their manager with five games to go, that dropped a division. Sunderland also pulled off a great escape to survive the drop. Paulo Di Canio had left the club in turmoil but Gus Poyet managed to spearhead a brilliant cup run which replicated in their league results. A dip in form saw them back at the bottom, but an in form Connor Wickham helped them to survive in April.

     And then there were the gaffes. Alan Pardew, putting his head into the chest of Hull midfielder David Meyler. Completely needless, earned himself a 7 game ban and his side picked up just three points from the next ten games. What about referee Andre Marriner, who gave a penalty for handball from Oxlade-Chamberlin which would almost certainly put Chelsea three up against Arsenal. The ball looked to be going wide when it hit the Ox's hand, but to make matters worse, he sent off Kieran Gibbs instead! And who can forget (sorry it has to be said) when Steven Gerrard, the people champion, ultimately handed the title to City with his costly slip against Chelsea.

     All in all it was a great year for football. The title swayed, swayed and swayed again, Liverpool are back where they belong and the tide looks to have turned in Manchester. It may not have had the dramatic last day of 2011-12, but it has the drama on every other day of the year -whether it was on or off field controversies, goals or gaffes we can safely say the 2013-14 Premier League season will live long in the memory...