Premier League 2022/23 - Season review
The Premier League season is now over and everyone has their own opinions of who has been the best and the worst, so here are my takes on some of the most debated topics
So, a few days ago I replied to a tweet with my personal winners (or losers for some of them) for different categories:
Obviously, Twitter only give you a finite amount of characters (yes, I know you can pay for it and no, I won’t), so there’s not really much nuance to any of my choices. Therefore, I wanted to explain some of them further here and also give some honourable mentions to the different categories.
Manager of the season: Unai Emery (Aston Villa)
This was a tough category, and a lot of managers could very easily be worthy winners. Pep Guardiola obviously won the league, but that’s pretty much expected of Man City by now. Even though this is Premier League awards it would be hard to deny him if they end up winning the treble though, but as of now I think there’s other managers more deserving. Arsenal also had a really good season, but their mini-collapse at the end doesn’t look good for Mikel Arteta when it comes to the manager of the season category. My reasoning for picking Emery was because of the massive turnaround they saw when he came in. Villa were sitting in 16th after 13 games when Emery was appointed, and they ended up finishing 7th and securing European football next season. Even though Brighton finished above Villa and De Zerbi would also be a worthy choice, I personally had higher expectations for Brighton before the season started, so that’s why Emery edges it for me.
Honourable mentions: Steve Cooper (Nottingham Forest), Gary O’Neil (Bournemouth), Marco Silva (Fulham), Roberto De Zerbi (Brighton)
Player of the season: Erling Braut Haaland (Manchester City)
I was tempted to go for fellow countryman Martin Ødegaard, and it just makes me happy to see two Norwegians be in contention for Premier League player of the season, but ultimately I went for Erling Braut Haaland. First of all, it’s very hard to argue against 36 league goals, but I also think he’s adjusted better and better to the Man City system as the season has gone on. He’s still no typical Pep player, but I think it’s harder to make the “Does Haaland make Manchester City worse” arguments now than it was a few months ago. I can absolutely see the arguments that Harry Kane scoring 30 goals for Tottenham is a greater achievement than Haaland scoring 36 for Man City, but breaking the goalscoring record (for both a 38 and 42 game season) in your debut campaign should be enough to be crowned player of the season.
Honourable mentions: Harry Kane (Tottenham), Martin Ødegaard (Arsenal), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
Young player of the season: Romeo Lavia (Southampton)
I’ll start this category off with the caveat that I am not using the same stipulations that the Premier League and the PFA use when choosing the YPOTY. All of Haaland, Saka and Ødegaard also qualify for the young player of the year award as well as the actual player of the year. Instead of giving the award to an already established player, I want to award someone who has broken through this season.
Yes Southampton went down, but that was not because of Romeo Lavia. He has been excellent, and is definitely in for a big move this summer. He’s a Premier League starter at the age of 19, and any of the top teams in the Premier League could do with someone of Lavia’s qualities. Chelsea and Liverpool have both been linked recently, and he could probably be a regular starter for both of them next season. Some would argue that standing out in a poor team is easier, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the case with Lavia (or some of the other honourable mentions)
Honourable mentions: Evan Ferguson (Brighton), Moises Caicedo (Brighton), Stefan Bajcetic (Liverpool), Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United), Rico Lewis (Manchester City)
Signing of the season: Erling Braut Haaland (Manchester City)
I only came to this conclusion a few weeks ago to be honest. Like I talked about in the player of the season section, it took a while before Haaland fully settled into the City system, even though he himself had incredible goalscoring numbers. And I’m not basing signing of the season purely on individual performances, but also how a signing has affected the team. For the longest time I had Casemiro above Haaland, but with the suspensions Casemiro picked up, along with Haaland’s continuous impact on the City team made me switch them around. Don’t get it confused, I think Haaland has had a way better season than Casemiro overall, but I also believe Casemiro has improved Manchester United more than Haaland has improved Manchester City. Haaland’s individual performances is what puts him slightly ahead for me though.
Honourable mentions: Casemiro (Manchester United), Sven Botman (Newcastle), Nick Pope (Newcastle), Palhinha (Fulham), Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest), Ben Mee (Brentford)
Overachievers: Fulham
It still feels harsh not to give Brighton any awards, considering they finished 6th and will play Europa League football next season. The reason I chose Fulham here is basically the same reason I chose Emery over De Zerbi for manager of the season, and that’s pre-season expectations. I, amongst many others I imagine, had Fulham to go down or at the very least to be in a relegation battle. The fact that they finished top half, without having every been in danger of going down is just mighty impressive to me. Brighton were a razor close second though, and this is absolutely not an attempt to downplay their incredible season.
Honourable mentions: Brighton, Aston Villa, Brentford, Arsenal, Bournemouth
Underachievers: Chelsea
I mean, is there really any other option here? Chelsea spent £600m (Yes, SIX-HUNDRED MILLION) during the course of the season, and finished in 12th. I would go so far as to say that it might be the worst season by any club in Premier League history (according to pre-season expectations obviously. I haven’t forgotten about 07/08 Derby). With Pochettino coming in I’m confident they will improve massively for next season, but this season can’t be described as anything else than a total disaster. As a Liverpool fan I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention them also, but the late season resurgence is enough to not consider them amongst the worst.
Honourable mentions: Tottenham, Liverpool, Leicester
As for the two remaining categories (Team of the season and surprise of the season), they don’t need as much in-depth explanation as the others. All the promoted teams staying up is something that hasn’t happened in a long time, and also they were all favourites to go back down. “Team of the season” (which really means “club of the season) is a bit weird, as it would feel wrong not to say City as they are on for a treble (even though these are Premier League awards), but as of now that hasn’t happened yet.
I was thinking of ending this article with my team of the season but that would bring a whole lot more discussion and reasoning for each position, so I’ll save that for another article that will hopefully be out in the coming days.