2020/21 Premier League season review

Manchester City won the 2020/21 Premier League with 86 points, 12 clear of Manchester United, in a season played almost entirely behind closed doors. They were mid-table in late November, then won 15 league games in a row from 19 December and went top for good in late January.

Harry Kane won both the Golden Boot and the Playmaker award, with 23 goals and 14 assists. In Fantasy Premier League, Bruno Fernandes was the top scorer with 244 points, and Michael Coone won the game with a record 2,680 points from more than 8 million managers.

You can replay the season here with a £100m squad picked from 357 players across all 20 clubs, or read on for how it unfolded.

A season without crowds

The 2020/21 season started on 12 September 2020, seven weeks after the delayed 2019/20 campaign finished, and almost all of it was played in empty stadiums. Fans were allowed back in small numbers from 2 December, but a third national lockdown on 4 January closed the grounds again. Crowds of up to 10,000 returned only from 17 May, in time for the last two rounds of matches. It was also the first Premier League season in which every game was shown live on television.

Liverpool started as defending champions. Leeds United, West Bromwich Albion and Fulham came up from the Championship.

Chelsea spent the most, around £200m. Frank Lampard's side added Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech, Ben Chilwell and Édouard Mendy, and signed Thiago Silva on a free transfer. Elsewhere:

• Manchester City spent more than £100m on two centre-backs, Rúben Dias and Nathan Aké, and signed Ferran Torres.
• Liverpool brought in Thiago Alcántara from Bayern Munich and Diogo Jota from Wolves.
• Manchester United signed Donny van de Beek and Alex Telles, then Edinson Cavani on deadline day.
• Arsenal added Thomas Partey and Gabriel Magalhães.
• Tottenham brought Gareth Bale back on loan from Real Madrid and signed Sergio Reguilón, Matt Doherty and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg.

How City went from mid-table to champions

Manchester City's season started slowly. A 2-0 defeat at Tottenham on 21 November left them with 12 points from eight games, and goalless and 1-1 draws against Manchester United and West Brom in mid-December kept them well off the pace.

The lead changed hands repeatedly in those months. Tottenham were top in late November and early December, Liverpool over Christmas, and Manchester United in mid-January.

Then City stopped dropping points. From a 1-0 win at Southampton on 19 December, they won 15 league games in a row and went top for good on 26 January. The run, which reached 21 wins in all competitions, ended in the Manchester derby on 7 March. Bruno Fernandes scored a penalty after 34 seconds and Luke Shaw added a second for United, but City were still 11 points clear.

City's title was built at the back. Rúben Dias, signed in the summer, anchored a defence that conceded 32 league goals, the fewest in the division. Ederson kept 19 clean sheets. The goals were shared around: İlkay Gündoğan, a midfielder, was the club's top league scorer with 13.

The title was confirmed on 12 May 2021, with three games to spare, when Manchester United lost 2-1 at home to Leicester. City finished on 86 points. Dias was named the Premier League's Player of the Season, Kevin De Bruyne won the PFA Players' Player of the Year, Phil Foden was Young Player of the Year and Pep Guardiola Manager of the Season. A week after the league ended, City lost the Champions League final to Chelsea.

Liverpool's title defence and the race for the top four

Liverpool's defence of the title went wrong early. On 4 October they lost 7-2 at Aston Villa, on the same afternoon that Manchester United lost 6-1 at home to Tottenham. In January a 1-0 home defeat by Burnley was their first at Anfield in 69 league games, and it began a run of six straight home defeats.

They recovered in the final weeks. On 16 May Alisson headed a 95th-minute winner from a corner at West Brom, and Liverpool went on to finish third on 69 points.

The rest of the European places:

• Manchester United finished second on 74 points. They went the whole league season unbeaten away from home, which only Arsenal had done before in the Premier League, and beat Southampton 9-0 at Old Trafford in February.
• Chelsea sacked Frank Lampard on 25 January with the team ninth, and appointed Thomas Tuchel the next day. They finished fourth on 67 points, lost the FA Cup final to Leicester, then beat City in the Champions League final.
• Leicester finished fifth, a point behind Chelsea, but won the FA Cup.
• West Ham were sixth on 65 points, which took them into the Europa League.
• Tottenham were seventh. José Mourinho was sacked on 19 April, and Ryan Mason took over for the rest of the season.
• Arsenal finished eighth and missed out on Europe. Leeds were ninth on 59 points in their first season back.

The Super League's 48 hours

On 18 April 2021, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham were named among 12 founding clubs of a breakaway European Super League. It did not last. Manchester City were the first Premier League club to confirm they were withdrawing, on the evening of 20 April, and the other five followed within hours.

The relegation fight

All three relegated clubs were down with at least three games to spare:

• Sheffield United finished bottom with 23 points. They went 17 league games without a win and lost eight in a row at one stage. Chris Wilder left on 13 March, and relegation was confirmed on 17 April after a 1-0 defeat at Wolves.
• West Bromwich Albion sacked Slaven Bilić on 16 December, with the club 19th, and appointed Sam Allardyce the same day. They went down on 9 May after a 3-1 defeat at Arsenal.
• Fulham finished 18th with 28 points and were relegated on 10 May after a 2-0 home defeat by Burnley.

Burnley finished 17th, 11 points clear of the drop.

Surprises and disappointments

Several clubs and players did far better than expected.

• Aston Villa produced the season's most remarkable result, beating the champions 7-2 on 4 October. Ollie Watkins scored a hat-trick and Jack Grealish scored twice and set up three. Watkins finished with 14 league goals, Emiliano Martínez kept 15 clean sheets, and Villa finished 11th.
• Leeds United finished ninth in their first season back. Patrick Bamford scored 17 league goals, joint fourth in the scoring charts with Son Heung-min.
• Jesse Lingard scored nine goals in 16 league games after joining West Ham midway through the season, as they finished sixth.
• Son and Kane started the season together at speed. In September, Son scored four at Southampton, with Kane providing four assists in the same game.
• Gareth Bale, back at Tottenham on loan, scored 11 league goals in only 912 minutes.

Others had seasons to forget:

• Everton won their first four league games and led the table in early October, but finished tenth. Dominic Calvert-Lewin still scored 16 league goals.
• Tottenham were top of the table in early December and finished seventh, and their manager was gone before the end of the season.
• Chelsea's new forwards took time to settle. Timo Werner scored six league goals and Kai Havertz four, though both ended the season as European champions.

2020/21 in Fantasy Premier League

About 8.15 million managers played Fantasy Premier League in 2020/21, almost double the 4.5 million of four years earlier. Michael Coone, from Ireland, won with his team Teddy Bears Utd and 2,680 points. At the time it was the highest total in the game's history, beating Jon Reeson's 2,668 from 2009/10. A final-day haul from Sadio Mané, who scored twice, settled it.

Bruno Fernandes was the game's top scorer with 244 points from 18 league goals, and by the end of the season nearly half of all managers owned him. Harry Kane (242), Mohamed Salah (231), Son Heung-min (228) and Patrick Bamford (194) followed.

A few other numbers stand out from the season:

• Stuart Dallas was listed as a defender, scored eight league goals and finished as the game's top-scoring defender.
• Emiliano Martínez was the top-scoring goalkeeper, ahead of Ederson despite keeping four fewer clean sheets.
• The biggest single-gameweek scores were 24 points each, for Son's four goals at Southampton and for Grealish's two goals and three assists against Liverpool.

The PFA Team of the Year

The champions dominated the players' own Team of the Year, with six Manchester City players in the XI.

The season's other awards:

2020/21 quick answers

Who won the Premier League in 2020/21? Manchester City, with 86 points, 12 ahead of Manchester United.

Who was relegated in 2020/21? Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield United.

Who was the Premier League top scorer in 2020/21? Harry Kane, with 23 league goals. He also had the most assists, 14.

Who was PFA Player of the Year in 2020/21? Kevin De Bruyne. Phil Foden was Young Player of the Year.

Were fans allowed in during 2020/21? Only briefly. Small crowds returned in December before another lockdown, and up to 10,000 fans were allowed in from 17 May for the last two rounds.

Who scored the most FPL points in 2020/21? Bruno Fernandes, with 244.

Who won Fantasy Premier League in 2020/21? Michael Coone, with 2,680 points.