Another season, another Italian manager picking up the title for a team in blue, another relegation zone featuring teams from the North East, and another year of Big Sam somehow not being in that zone. We've taken some time to have a look at the key stats this season, and here's what we've concluded.
Kane warrants every bit of hype he gets
Harry Kane has officially joined the ranks of Alan Shearer as he equalled his record of scoring 5 hat-tricks in one season. He’s now joint 5th on the all-time table along with Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez. It is also the 3rd consecutive season that he’s scored 20+ goals and this year also saw Son and Alli score more than 20 each in all competitions, a statistic any attacking trio in Europe would be proud of.
There have been six hat-tricks in the Premier League in 2017 - Harry Kane has scored FOUR of them.
— James Maw (@JamesTMaw) May 21, 2017
Swansea's game with West Brom turned out to be worth a lot more to them than you'd expect
It just looked like one of your standard last day games with half of each squad mentally on the beach, but Jordan Ayew and Fernando Llorente's goals in the last twenty minutes pocketed the club about £4m. The result propelled the Swans up to 15th place scoring them £109m as opposed to a pitiful £105m. Another mindblowing stat related to this is that Sunderland, the worst performing team this year, still pocketed £99m. Meanwhile, in Germany, Bayern Munich are believed to be in receipt of about £67m for winning the Bundesliga.
Updated Premier League prize forecast for 2016-17. Biggest winners of final day: Swansea. Their 2-1 v West Brom earned them almost £4m extra pic.twitter.com/JsqP0n8C54
— Nick Harris (@sportingintel) May 21, 2017
Cesar is a combination of Dirk Kuyt and John O Shea
Azpilicueta played every minute of the season and is 4th outfield player to achieve feet along with John Terry, Wes Morgan, and Gary Pallister. Dave’s versatility has been a huge factor in this, comfortable playing right or left and fine in a 3-man backline which Conte looked upon favorably. He’s also shown huge reliability and composure on the ball completing over 60 passes per game embodying the ideal ‘modern defender’.
Cesar Azpilicueta's Premier League season by numbers:
2345 passes
70 interceptions
61 tackles won
5 through balls completed
4 assists
🎯 pic.twitter.com/gMzZGzmHg7— Squawka (@Squawka) May 16, 2017
Nobody passes more than Jordan Henderson
The Englishman may have only made 24 appearances this season, but his average passes per game were significantly higher than anyone else. Hendo managed an average of 85.7 per game - ten more than his predecessor Xabi Alonso has managed in the Bundesliga this year. He also has an accuracy level of 86% which is also significantly higher than most in the league.
Wenger is at least consistent
It is the first time since 1979 that both Manchester United and Arsenal have finished outside the top 4, but in Arsenal’s defence, 75pts is the highest amount any 5th place team has ever racked up. In fact, had they replicated it in the 96/97 season they would have won the league on goal difference. This probably won’t stop the #Wengerout brigade who will have seen this season as a complete failure, but maybe if they take the time to look at the stats they’ll see that Arsene has done exactly as much as he always has and no more.
1996 - Arsenal have finished outside the top four in the Premier League for the first time since 1995-96 (5th under Bruce Rioch). Europa.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 21, 2017
Arsene Wenger not joining the players on the lap of honour. 😔
It's a real shame that he feels like he has to make that decision.— Moh Haider (@ArsenalMoh8) May 21, 2017
