2021–22 Premier League

The 2021–22 Premier League was the 30th season of the Premier League, the top English professional league for association football clubs since its establishment in 1992, and the 123rd season of top-flight English football overall. The start and end dates for the season were released on 25 March 2021, and the fixtures were released on 16 June 2021.
Manchester City successfully defended their title, winning for the second time in a row securing a sixth Premier League title and eighth English league title overall on the final day of the season; it was also the club's fourth title in the last five seasons.
Manchester City were the defending champions, having won their fifth Premier League title during the previous season.
This season saw the return of full attendance, after the final third of the 2019–20 and the entirety of the 2020–21 seasons were held with limited or no attendance due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This season was the second season to feature a winter break, with no Premier League matches scheduled between 23 January and 7 February 2022.
The early title race was dominated by Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea, who were separated by two points by early December. By December, Chelsea led the way following a run of just one defeat in 14 matches until a shock defeat to West Ham United gave City the edge. A run of 12 consecutive victories, concluding in a victory over Chelsea that essentially ended their title hopes, gave Manchester City a 13-point lead by January (though Liverpool had two games in hand due to COVID-19 postponements). Liverpool then went on a 10-game winning run, including both their games in hand, helped by a costly 2–3 home loss for City to Tottenham Hotspur in February, to cut City's lead to a single point ahead of their meeting at the Etihad on 10 April. A 2–2 draw retained City's narrow lead going into the final weeks of the season.
On 7 October, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund purchased an 80% stake and completed the £300m takeover of Newcastle United, ending the 14-year ownership of Mike Ashley. On 12 October 2021, an emergency meeting was convened by the other 19 Premier League clubs between themselves and the Premier League, where they voiced their anger at the league's decision to ratify the takeover; Newcastle United were the only Premier League club to be excluded from attending the meeting. On 18 November 2021, Premier League clubs voted to tighten the Premier League's financial controls in order to limit Newcastle United's spending power.
At the time of the takeover, Newcastle were in 19th position having failed to win any of their first seven games. The new ownership announced the departure of Steve Bruce and hired Eddie Howe; while Newcastle did not win a game until the 15th attempt, their form improved dramatically after five signings in the January transfer window. A run of 12 wins in their final 18 games secured an 11th place finish.
In December 2021, multiple matches were postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreaks in multiple clubs, with many clubs calling for the league to shut down until 2022. Following a meeting on 20 December involving all 20 Premier League clubs, a decision was made to fulfil the fixtures over the Christmas period "where it is safe to do so". Clubs were advised that if they had 13 fit players, plus a goalkeeper, then they should fulfil their fixtures.
On 2 March, Roman Abramovich announced that he planned to sell Chelsea, stating his intent to donate all proceeds of the sale to the victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the following days, numerous reports about interested buyers surfaced including Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, Los Angeles Dodgers and Lakers shareholder Todd Boehly, Pakistani businessman Javed Afridi, and other unnamed parties.
On 10 March, the British government froze all of Roman Abramovich's assets due to his close personal ties with Vladimir Putin, leaving Chelsea unable to sell tickets or merchandise, buy or sell players, and negotiate contracts. The UK government issued Chelsea a licence that allowed the club to continue footballing activities, ensured that employees continued to be paid, and allowed season-ticket holders to continue to attend games.
The end of the season saw the title race, Champions League, Europa League, Conference League qualifications, and the relegation battle all decided on the final day for the first time in Premier League history.
Heading into the final day of the season, Manchester City led by a solitary point, meaning City needed to match or better Liverpool's result to clinch back-to-back titles. Liverpool needed to win and hope that Manchester City dropped points to Aston Villa, managed by former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard.
Liverpool went behind to Wolves in the 3rd minute, but quickly equalised. Aston Villa took a shock 2–0 lead after 63 minutes thanks to goals from Matty Cash and Philippe Coutinho. Manchester City then scored three goals (from substitute Ilkay Gundogan and Rodri) in under six minutes to take the lead in the match. Two late goals from Liverpool meant they won their game 3–1, but the final results confirmed City as champions for the fourth time in five seasons.
This season is mainly remembered for the great quality of play expressed by Manchester City and Liverpool, which gave rise to a fantastic title fight (as was the case in the 2018-2019 season that also ended with the Citizens' victory) but it is also true that VAR in its third season in England caused various problems, often due to a "high bar" that forced and twisted the protocol and made VAR intervene on very few occasions, the goal was to intervene in a targeted manner as UEFA did at EURO 2020, but despite the good will, some mistakes were made, among the most glaring being the failure to award a penalty in Everton-Manchester City in favor of the home team due to a handball of Rodri, an episode that affected the title race.
Norwich City, who were promoted from the Championship last season, suffered relegation with four games to spare following a 10th loss in 12 matches, against Aston Villa. Norwich also recorded the worst goal difference since Derby County in 2007–08. The next weekend Watford, who were also promoted, were the second to go down after defeat to Crystal Palace.
The final relegation spot was contested by Everton, Burnley and Leeds United, all of whom spent time in the bottom three in the final months of the season. Everton endured a run of just three wins between October and April, but victories against Manchester United, Chelsea and Leicester City meant that victory over Crystal Palace in their final home game of the season would secure safety. Although they went 2–0 down at half time, Dominic Calvert-Lewin's goal in the 85th minute to put Everton 3–2 ahead had fans invading the pitch. Fans stormed the pitch again at full time, after avoiding what would have been the club's first relegation since 1951 and prolonging their top-flight status for a 69th year running.
Burnley and Leeds went into the final day level on 35 points, with Burnley having the edge over Leeds due to a superior goal difference. Burnley fell behind 2–0 to Newcastle, while a Raphinha penalty put Leeds ahead against Brentford in the 54th minute. A 78th minute equaliser from Brentford and a Maxwel Cornet goal gave Burnley hope of survival, but an added time winner from Jack Harrison confirmed safety for Leeds and relegated Burnley after six consecutive seasons in the Premier League.
With Chelsea securing a top-four finish for a fourth straight season, only Tottenham and Arsenal were in the hunt for the final Champions League spot. Arsenal were in 4th with three games remaining, but Arsenal's defeats against Tottenham in the North London derby and Newcastle in their final away game combined with Tottenham victory against Burnley in their final home game saw Tottenham leapfrog them with one game remaining. Spurs just needed a point against already relegated Norwich on the final day to secure Champions League qualification for the first time in three years, and won 5–0 with two goals from Son Heung-min, who secured a joint Golden Boot with Mohamed Salah. Arsenal failed to qualify for the Champions League for a sixth season, despite beating Everton 5–1.
Manchester United suffered another difficult season, culminating in the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjær on 21 November 2021, which followed a humiliating 4–1 defeat to Watford. Ralf Rangnick would be appointed as interim manager for the rest of the season. The club ultimately finished the season in 6th, with a goal difference of zero and their worst points tally in the Premier League era, at just 58, as well as losing on the final day. United still managed to qualify for the Europa League, as West Ham's 3–1 defeat at Brighton prevented them from qualifying for back-to-back Europa League spots; they instead had to settle for a spot in the Europa Conference League.
Brentford manager Thomas Frank had a promising first season in the Premier League. Thanks to January signing Christian Eriksen, the team won seven out of their last 11 games of the season, which included a 4–1 victory against Chelsea. The Dane guided the Bees to a 13th place finish, 11 points above the relegation zone and not spending a single week in the relegation zone.
Brighton had their best season in the top-flight with Graham Potter's side finishing ninth with a total of 51 points, despite their poor home record. Their 4–0 win against Manchester United was another new high for them, as it was also their biggest top-flight win.
Twenty teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the Championship. The promoted teams were Norwich City, Watford (who both returned to the top flight after a year's absence) and Brentford (who returned to the top flight after a seventy-four year absence). This was also Brentford's first season in the Premier League. They replaced Fulham, West Bromwich Albion (both teams relegated to the Championship after just one year in the top flight) and Sheffield United (relegated after a two-year top flight spell).
Player scored 4 goals(H) – Home team(A) – Away team