Gameweek 38: The Headlines

Before we get started, we need to talk about the (very big, very blue) elephant in the room.

Congrats to Manchester City on winning the league for a fourth consecutive time, something no Premier League side in history has accomplished thus far.

There, I said it.

The words tasted bad coming out of my mouth as I read them aloud, so please don't make me write them again.

Obviously I'm a Gooner, but I'm going to try and be as impartial as possible. This means I won't be acting like I've been sunk so deep in a depressive funk that even watching Amazon Prime's "The Idea of You" — a very fun rom-com, BTW — hasn't been able to cure my malaise.

Coincidentally, both leads in the film (Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine) are Arsenal fans so I'm sure they feel my pain. *Cries

Manchester City are champions (again)

I'm not above stating the obvious: Manchester City is an INCREDIBLE side, and perhaps the single most accomplished football team we've ever seen. For sure, they'd give the 1970 Brazilian national team a run for their money.

Champion's League winners, FA Cup winners, 6 Premier League wins in the last 7 years ... if you can name it, Manchester City has won it. *Cries more

Now, the Premier League prides itself on being a more balanced league than the Bundesliga, where Bayern Munich wins every single year except for the year when Harry Kane moved to Germany.

Or La Liga, where Real Madrid are so overwhelmingly dominant that everyone falls asleep in front of the TV and then nods awake in time to see Jude Bellingham score a banger.

The Premier League is supposed to be different! It's supposed to be a league for the every man, a league where even Leicester City can, and did, go on to win it all. (2016, look it up.)

But given City's stranglehold on the league, the likelihood of anyone else hoisting the trophy feels slimmer with every passing year.

This year's runner-up, Arsenal, had a historic season in which they:

• Scored the most goals in their team history
• Conceded the least amount of goals in the league
• Won the most games and amassed the most league points in their team history
• Finished with the same goal difference as Manchester City
• Won all but ONE of their games in the 2024 calendar year
• Beat more "Big Six" teams than any other team, including Manchester City

... And they still lost the league to Manchester City by two points.

Arsenal isn't unique in this way, either. I'm painfully reminded of the 2018-2019 Liverpool side that racked up an astonishing 97 points and recorded just one loss all season. It was the most points any team has ever had without winning the league.

That's because Liverpool lost out on the trophy to City.

This transcends comparisons to the 2000s New England Patriots, the 1960s Boston Celtics, or current era Kansas City Chiefs.

If you want to win the Premier League today, you have to be pretty goddamn infallible to best City. Or as my brother texted in our group chat, "If you want to beat City, you have to win every single game from Christmas until May."

The Premier League has a rabid fan base (myself included), whom I don't think are going to stop watching or attending games anytime soon. However, I will say that the league feels more boring when one team is so overwhelmingly dominant.

And this says nothing of Manchester City's 115 pending charges! City is arguably the biggest offender of the Premier League's Financial Fair Play rules. How do you think the Everton/Nottingham Forest fan base feels when they see City lifting the trophy, knowing that they were deducted points and had to fight just to stay in the league? City has arguably offended far worse than these other teams, yet their punishment is still pending.

Apparently, 2025 will bring closure, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thank you

As we close out the season, it feels apropos that I quit sulking and dish out credit where credit is due. On that note:

• Thank you to Jurgen Klopp, for eight-and-a-half incredible seasons at Liverpool. Thank you for making "heavy metal football" a thing, for going toe-to-toe with Pep Guardiola, and for reminding us that managers don't have to resort to Jose Mourinho levels of entitlement to win. You and your veneers will be missed at Anfield.

• Thank you to David Moyes for four-and-a-half special seasons at West Ham. Thank you for your class in the face of West Ham's internal dysfunction, for loving Declan Rice even after he departed to North London (where he belongs), and for being so unflappably Scottish in every media interview. You and your ill-fitting tracksuits will be missed at the London Stadium.

• Thank you to Roberto de Zerbi for two memorable seasons at Brighton. Thank you for your emphatic touchline celebrations and sulks (in equal measure), for expressing your opinion that Graham Potter's shoes really weren't too big to fill, thank you very much, and for introducing the world to Evan Ferguson's right foot. You and your hair gel will be missed at the Amex Stadium.

• Thank you to Mauricio Pochettino for one interesting season at Chelsea. Thank you for reminding Chelsea players that penalty shots are not opportunities to throw punches, for overseeing one of the most bonkers matches I've ever experienced (against Tottenham), and for proving that Mykhailo Mudryk was worth his €70 million price tag (JK). You and your touchline frown will be missed at Stamford Bridge.

• And thank you to you, if you've read this far. I started this blog as an experiment because I love to write and I love the Premier League. All of your supportive comments and follows mean the world to me. I've yet to set up a comments section (because I'm lazy), but if the urge strikes, you can always email me with any thoughts at brookehardington@gmail.com.

The season might be over, but don't go anywhere. I'll still have feature content and it's not like I'm counting down the (24) days until the Euros or anything.

See you in Munich!