Matchweek 38 - Results 

Well here we are folks, matchday 38 was wrapped up on Monday, which means our beloved Premier League 2024 / 25 season is over ................................ and what a season it's been !!

Liverpool took the top spot with relative ease in the end, racking up a historic 20th top flight league title, a feat only matched by arch rivals Manchester United, who on the flip side, had their worst-ever Premier League campaign, scraping a 15th place finish on goal difference, one place above the (once) mighty Wolverhampton Wanderers.  

Unsurprisingly, this years golden boot was taken by Reds main man Mr Mo Salah, with a none too shabby 29 goals, a full 6 goals clear of second place (Newcastle's) Alexander Isak, leaving some guy called Erling Haaland languishing in 3rd place with a pitiful 22.  

Not content with the most goals, Salah also topped the assists table with 18, 6 ahead of second place Jacob Murphy, also of Newcastle United and not content with goals and assists, The Red's captain and arguably the best centre back on the planet right now, Virgil van Dijk, completed the most passes, with no less than 2923, a full 328 more than second best, Chelsea's Levi Colwill !

For the third year in a row (and in the end, a full 10 points behind The Red Men), serial bridesmaids Arsenal once again finished runners up, despite stick man David Raya (along with Notts Forests Matz Sels) heading the clean sheet table with 13, a stat highlighting the fact that The Gunners problem is possibly up the other end of the pitch?

Despite their 'average' season in comparison to previous years, Man City finished strong, only dropping 2 points in their last 5 games to secure themselves Champions League football next year, along with Chelsea, nudging Aston Villa and Newcastle into the Europa Cup and with their 7th place finish, Nottingham Forest will be competing in Europe for the first time in 3 decades.

Outside of the Prem, we saw English clubs bag all but one of the major European trophies, Chelsea became the first club to have their name on all of the European trophies, taking the Europa Conference and proving miracles do happen, Tottenham Hotspurs were victorious in the all English Europa League final, beating season losers Man United and despite the best efforts of 'usual European Cup suspects' Liverpool, Man City & Arsenal, joined this year by Aston Villa, French giants PSG became Champions of Europe earlier today in their 5-0 drubbing of Inter Milan.

Closer to home, our 2 domestic cups went to clubs they had not been to for a very long time, in the case of The FA Cup, Crystal Palace, winners for the first time in their history and The League Cup headed up to Newcastle.

On the whole, great to see so many 'different' clubs finish as winners this year............in my opinion anyhow !!

Back to our comp, specifically Matchweek 38 and no last gasp full houses I'm afraid, in fact, if you managed 5 or 6 points, you can give yourself a pat on the back.

The Cherries sent The Foxes packing back to the second tier of English football courtesy of their 2-0 victory. Man City beat Fulham 2-0, a result that secured an 11th place finish for The Cottagers. Wolves final home game against The Bees finished all square 1-1, meaning Brentford took out 10th (more on that later) and saw the mighty Wolves finish one place above Europa winners Spurs, who went down 4-1 to The Seagulls.  Notts Forest's Europa Cup dreams were shattered by Chelsea, going down 1-0.  Having failed in their attempt to secure silverware only last week, Manchester United finished strong and upset Aston Villa's European cup plans in their 2-0 win.  It was business as usual for The Saints, finishing their current stint in the top flight with yet another loss, this week going down 2-1 to Arsenal.  Newcastle went down 1-0 to Everton and one place above them in the table Crystal Palace grabbed a point in their 1-1 draw against champions Liverpool. Finally, West Ham bagged themselves 3 points, courtesy of 3 goals, in their last game of the season against relegated Ipswich Town, final score 3-1 to The Hammers.

With all of that over and done with, our final matchweek winner with an impressive 7 points for the second time this season is ........... Mr Craig Newell...........well done sir, kudos to you my friend, we salute you !!!!

Did you enjoy the pickers comp this year?