Winners and Losers from the 2022/23 EPL Season

It has also been a fascinating one, and a season filled with a huge number of surprises, even for the Premier League’s standard which has a high bar when it comes to shocks.
Now the dust has settled, we look at the winners and losers of this momentous season and discover it’s not quite as easy as it would first appear.
It is hard to think of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City as anything other than winners. At the time of writing they are going for the treble, with the prized Champions League still to be played. City reinvented themselves this season, and with Erling Haaland leading the line look like they could roll over everyone for years to come domestically and in Europe.
Few would have predicted those three to drop out of the league last August. Leeds’ defensive woes meant they were never going to score enough goals to the requisite number of points on the board, while Southampton recruited poorly in the summer, and never looked like a team equipped for a relegation fight. Leicester, league winners less than a year ago, are an example of just how cruel the league can be. Poor decisions throughout the club have cost them dear, and unless they are able to right their ship and fashion a quick return, there could be even darker days ahead for the Foxes.
Midway through the season, Polish fans tracking Matty Cash’s Villa would have been forgiven for thinking their time in England’s top tier was up. Few football betting tips would have predicted the meteoric rise that Unai Emery oversaw, guiding them into a European place. Brentford and Brighton continue to impress and show that you don’t need to be bankrolled by foreign billionaires to enjoy success in the EPL, and have done it by playing fantastic football to boot.
For all three promoted teams to stay up is an incredible feat, and all three did it in different ways. At certain times both Forest and Bournemouth looked doomed, but it is testament to good managers and the board’s nerve to stick with them that saw them through. Fulham exceeded everyone’s expectations, and achieving a top ten finish is a remarkable achievement.
Midway through the season, it looked like the Hammers could well drop out of the league. There was also a very real possibility that Moyes would be pushed or walk. Neither of those things happened, they rallied, finished in the relative safety of 14th place and won their first trophy for a generation.
The 2022/23 season was a season to forget for both these London clubs. Finishing 12th and 8th respectively, the concern for both clubs is not just their own fall from grace, but the number of clubs who have stepped into the void they have left. Liverpool look to be nearing a return to the Klopp teams of recent years, and Manchester United will step up again next season. Newcastle are a genuine top three contender, and we haven’t even mentioned Manchester City or Arsenal. Chelsea and Spurs have been left so far behind, it could take far more than a season to catch up, never mind overtake.
It is hard to think of a team that finishes second as a loser, but this season will be hard to take for the manager, players and fans. It was theirs to win or lose, and unfortunately for them they went for the latter. They must hope this is the start of something as opposed to a flash in the pan.