Arne Slot, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the biggest winners and losers of the 2024-25 Premier League season

Succeeding Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager was meant to be the impossible job. Arne Slot somehow made it look easy.

Klopp played his part, of course. He had Anfield singing his successor's name on the final day of last season, while he also left Liverpool in rude health, having overseen a successful midfield overhaul the summer before. Klopp also quipped that he'd also made Slot's life ever so slightly easier by failing to win the Premier League or the Champions League in his final season at the helm.

However, nobody was tipping the Reds for the title before the 2024-25 campaign because nobody had any idea how the players would react to a new coach after so many years playing - and winning - under the ridiculously charismatic Klopp. Liverpool had done their homework, though. Richard Hughes & Co. were convinced that Slot was the ideal replacement for Klopp - and so it proved.

Despite bringing in just one new player that the Dutchman barely used (Federico Chiesa), and constant distraction caused by the expiring contracts of three star players (Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold), Slot managed to lead Liverpool to just their second Premier League title - and with four games to spare - thanks to his small but significant tactical tweaks, crucial positional changes and soothing sense of calm (he only lost his head once, and in pretty exceptional circumstances at Goodison Park!).

For Slot to win the league would have been an outstanding achievement in itself, so for him to have turned the title race into a procession was simply staggering.

Rarely have we seen someone suffer such a dramatic dip in form. Phil Foden was the best player in the Premier League last season. This year, he's arguably been its most disappointing.

Foden's dreadful displays at Euro 2024 were attributed to Gareth Southgate's inability to find a formula that worked for all of England's most gifted attacking talents. Consequently, the presumption was that once Foden was back at Manchester City, he would enjoy an immediate return to form.

But for all his undoubted ability, Foden yet to snap out of his funk because of a mix of niggling injury issues and off-field problems. The attacking midfielder has been involved in just nine Premier League goals - fewer than Tomas Soucek - and spent the majority of the last three months sitting on the bench, even though City were desperately scrapping for a top-five finish.

Even if Foden gets the break he very clearly needs to refresh himself mentally and physically, it's not going to be easy for him to reclaim his place in Pep Guardiola's starting line-up next season. Kevin De Bruyne may be departing, but speculation is mounting that Morgan Gibbs-White could be signed to replace the Belgian, while Omar Marmoush is getting better and better since arriving from Eintracht Frankfurt in January.

There's no suggestion that Foden's immediate future at the Etihad Stadium is in doubt, but it's clear that he's fallen out of favour with Guardiola - something that would have been utterly unthinkable this time last year.

There's been an awful lot of talk in recent weeks and months that this has been a 'weak' Premier League season. It's absolute rubbish, of course, a blatant and pathetic attempt by rival fans to diminish Liverpool's dominant title triumph.

The truth is that the Reds have done outrageously well to run away with a league of exceptional strength in depth. Several members of English football's elite have struggled this season, and while injuries caused by ever-increasing fixture congestion have undoubtedly played a part in their struggles, it's primarily down to the fact that the mid-tier teams are stronger than ever before.

As Pep Guardiola pointed out all the way back in February, it will be some time before another team even gets closer to Manchester City's historic 100-point Premier League haul because the competition is now stacked with talent.

"Gundo (Ilkay Gundogan) was in Barcelona for one year, came back and the difference in one year is unbelievable," the Catalan told reporters. "Teams are much, much, much better in all departments, people prepare so well because of the standards we dictate." Guardiola name-checked Bournemouth, Fulham and Wolves, but there is also Brighton, Brentford and Crystal Palace, who upset City in the FA Cup final to prove Pep's point.

Let us not forget either that some sleeping giants have also well and truly awoken this season, with Nottingham Forest fighting for a Champions League place, Newcastle winning the Carabao Cup by overwhelming Liverpool at Wembley and Aston Villa reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

So, while the gulf in quality between the Premier League and the Championship continues to grow, which is why the newly-promoted teams keep going straight back down, the gap between the supposed 'Big Six' and the rest of the top flight has shrunk dramatically thanks to the outstanding work being done at the City Ground, Vitality Stadium, Selhurst Park and beyond.

Emmanuel Petit admitted last week that he is fed up with Arsenal's lack of trophies - and the 'Invincibles' midfielder is certainly not alone in that regard. A run to the semi-finals of the Champions League, which included a stirring win over Real Madrid in the last eight, has convinced some supporters to continue trusting in 'the process' - but plenty of others are losing faith.

After all, this was meant to be Arsenal's year in the Premier League, after two second-placed finishes in a row. Instead, they're runners-up again - and not to perennial champions Manchester City but to Liverpool, who weren't even expected to challenge for the title this season.

Make no mistake about it: Slot's instantaneous success has compounded Mikel Arteta's failure. There's widespread acknowledgement that the Spaniard did a great job putting Arsenal back among England's top teams - but doubts remain over whether he is really capable of winning them the Premier League title.

The same goes for Arteta's captain, Martin Odegaard. The Norwegian's talent is beyond dispute and he did miss seven games towards the start of the season, but three goals is a terrible return for an attacking midfielder and, more even damningly, when the going got tough this year, the skipper never got going.

Given the mounting concerns over the leadership at the Emirates, the fans will be hoping that new sporting director Andrea Berta will add the winning mentality (and the striker!) that Arteta and Odegaard are clearly missing.

Comparing a Premier League player to Thierry Henry is borderline sacrilegious. The Frenchman remains the standard by which all others are judged. However, there are undoubted shades of Henry about Alexander Isak, a tall, slender, lightning-fast forward with lethal finishing skills.

Isak hit a career-high 23 goals during their thrilling 2024-25 campaign, while at the same time chipping in with six assists, which resulted in the Swedish striker being nominated for the Premier League's Player of the Season award for the second year in a row.

Far more importantly than that, though, Isak's fantastic form helped the Magpies qualify for the Champions League (albeit only just!) and that has only increased the club's chances of holding onto a striker that every top club in Europe would dearly love to sign.

Indeed, even Henry himself is a massive fan of the 25-year-old. "The sky's the limit for him," the Arsenal legend said of Newcastle's Carabao Cup hero in an interview with SPORTbible. "Who knows how far he's going to go? It’s on him to show us."

Pep Guardiola can try to big up the Community Shield all he wants, but the fact of the matter is that, as far as everyone else is concerned, Manchester City finished the 2024-25 season trophy-less - which unquestionably constitutes the biggest failure of the Catalan's illustrious coaching career to date.

Granted, City suffered a significant number of injuries (18) - but fewer than many of their main rivals, including Arsenal (27), who still managed to finish above them in the Premier League, and go far further in the Champions League. Losing Rodri for almost the entire season was obviously particularly problematic but the absence of Pep's most important player was no excuse for City's shocking form in the run-up to Christmas.

The players were still there, after all. Guardiola subsequently admitted himself that he overlooked the club's talented crop of youngsters for far too long, particularly as many of the senior stars, such as Foden, Kyle Walker and Jack Grealish, were underperforming terribly - and that's on the manager, who looked utterly powerless to turn things around after neglecting to rejuvenate his squad last summer.

Consequently, Guardiola begged his Abu Dhabi-based bosses for reinforcements and they responded by spending approximately £175 million ($235m) on new players during the January transfer window. And what did they get in return? The bare minimum (a top-five finish), but with some peculiar criticism thrown in for good measure.

Just days after a humiliating FA Cup final loss to Crystal Palace at Wembley, Guardiola publicly stated that he will leave the Etihad if the club doesn't give him a smaller squad to work with next season. "I don't want to leave five or six players in the freezer," he told reporters after the 3-1 win over Bournemouth. "It's impossible for my soul to [tell] my players in the tribune that they cannot play."

Just like the scratches that appeared on Guardiola's forehead, it felt like another bizarre sign that one of the game's greatest-ever tacticians is starting to feel the mental strain caused by an increasingly demanding profession.

You really have to give it to Mohamed Salah: putting together arguably the greatest individual campaigns in Premier League history was a pretty spectacular way of convincing notoriously prudent employers to issue a lucrative new contract to a 32-year-old winger.

If this season has taught us nothing else, though, it's that Salah is no ordinary 32-year-old. We're talking about one of the finest footballers ever to grace English football - and the truly crazy thing is that he's arguably playing better than ever before.

Of course, he's always scored goals - bags of them - so it wasn't that surprising to see him win a fourth Golden Boot, thus equalling Thierry Henry's longstanding record. However, the fact that he also racked up more assists than anyone else (18) is insane and, according to the man himself, it's partially down to Slot agreeing to decrease his defensive duties so that he could focus solely on increasing his offensive output.

"I am glad that I [spoke to the manager]," Salah told Sky Sports after Liverpool clinched the title. "He listened and now you can see the numbers." Which suggests that the Egyptian will break many more records by the time that extension expires in two years' time. In fact, he may even force them into giving him a new one!

Sir Jim Ratcliffe was hailed as a potential saviour when his INEOS firm took control of football operations at Old Trafford in December 2023 - but Manchester United have since descended into complete disarray. The Monaco-based British billionaire has overseen two rounds of redundancies, implemented a raft of unpopular cost-cutting measures and even raised ticket prices in order to improve the club's financial position - and yet INEOS have squandered millions of pounds because of their atrocious decision-making.

An awful lot of time, money and effort was invested in recruiting Dan Ashworth as sporting director, but he was sacked just five months later because of what Ratcliffe called a lack of "chemistry". Meanwhile, former manager Erik ten Hag was foolishly given a contract extension for winning last year's FA Cup at the end of an abysmal Premier League campaign - only to then be dismissed in October after United's form unsurprisingly failed to improve.

It was subsequently revealed that those two "mistakes" had cost approximately £15 million but, of even greater significance, is the fact that £180m was spent acquiring players for Ten Hag that are now facing uncertain futures under new manager Ruben Amorim.

The latter is already under enormous pressure himself, of course. Ratcliffe insisted in March that Amorim was "doing a great job in the circumstances" - but nothing could be further from the truth. United's Premier League results have been nothing short of disgraceful, while last week's Europa League final loss to Tottenham was considered the ultimate humiliation in the eyes of many supporters, who have seen scant evidence to suggest that Amorim is actually improving the team in any way, shape or form.

Indeed, while trying to look for positives in Bilbao on Wednesday, Luke Shaw said he could only find one. "We can only go up from here," the defender told reporters. "We're at rock bottom now."

However, if Manchester United have taught us nothing else over the past 18 months, it's that things can always get worse when a club is being so poorly run.

Things were once again looking pretty grim for Everton's long-suffering supporters as Christmas approached. Their team had only won three of their first 16 Premier League games and was sitting 16th in the table, sparking fears that the Toffees' might start life in their new stadium next season in the Championship - and even worse financial straits.

However, on December 19, it was finally confirmed that The Friedkin Group had completed its acquisition of the club from the much-reviled Farhad Moshiri, and one of the new owners' first acts was to sack Sean Dyche, who had done a decent job in difficult circumstances at Everton but lost the support of the fans with his tedious tactics.

David Moyes, of course, is hardly renowned for his 'Champagne football', while there's an old adage in football that one should 'never go back'. However, Moyes has enjoyed a rousing return to Goodison Park, which was absolutely rocking on the night of February 12, after James Tarkowski's injury-time equaliser in the last Merseyside derby to be played at Everton's home of 133 years.

Everton have continued to impress since that dramatic 2-2 draw with city rivals Liverpool, staving off the threat of relegation with ease, and gave Goodison the final send-off it deserved with a 2-0 win over Southampton on the penultimate day of the season. As a result, Everton's supporters can look forward to the 2025-26 campaign at the impressive Hill Dickinson Stadium with renewed hope under ambitious new owners.

The vast majority of West Ham supporters couldn't wait for the season to end. It's been that much of a struggle for them. Perhaps expectations were too high in the first place, but some pre-season excitement was at least understandable, given the Hammers spent more than £130m in last summer's transfer market.

However, while Max Kilman and Aaron Wan-Bissaka have proven shrewd signings, Crysencio Summerville and Luis Guilherme have only shown brief glimpses of their talent. As for Niclas Fullkrug, he's been one of the most disappointing signings of the season, with the veteran German struggling for both form and fitness since his arrival from Borussia Dortmund.

Consequently, it didn't come as a major surprise to see Tim Steidten sacked as the club's technical director in February. Julen Lopetegui was also gone by that stage, as the Spaniard proved a disastrous replacement for the unpopular but effective Moyes and was dismissed in January after a couple of heavy defeats to Liverpool and Manchester City with West Ham 14th in the table. Frustratingly for the fans, things haven't improved much under Graham Potter, who went eight games without a win at one point.

Of course, the former Brighton and Chelsea boss deserves more time to restore his reputation at the London Stadium and the Hammers do still have some talented players on their books, including the talismanic Jarrod Bowen (where would they be without him?!). However, Lucas Paqueta's future remains shrouded in doubt because of a betting investigation, while Soucek and Mohammed Kudus, who has endured a dreadful dip in form, are both being linked with summer moves away from the London Stadium.

Right now, it seems that the only certainty is that next season will begin with a lot less optimism around West Ham.

It's obviously a little hard for Nottingham Forest fans not to wonder about what might have been. Champions League qualification was there for the taking for Nuno Espirito Santo's side, who were third in the table with five rounds remaining. However, they ended up finishing seventh after losing to Chelsea on the final day of the season.

"We didn't achieve the dream," Nuno admitted in his interview with Match of the Day. However, the Portuguese insisted that he was nonetheless "proud" of his team's campaign - and rightly so.

When he took over at the City Ground 18 months ago, Forest were 17th in the table and, thus, in real danger of relegation. Now, they're looking forward to European football for the first time since 1996 - and Nuno is the main reason why.

Forest have signed a hell of a lot of players over the past two seasons, but the manager has somehow managed to turn them into a cohesive defensive unit that has proven very difficult to break down, while at the same taking attackers such as Chris Wood and Morgan Gibbs-White to a whole other level. And he's done all of this while working for one of the most ridiculous characters in football...

Nuno's reputation took a real battering during his ill-fated spell at Spursm but if he were to leave the City Ground this summer, he wouldn't be short on offers.

Missing out on Champions League football would have come as a bitter disappointment for Aston Villa no matter the circumstances. However, the way in which Unai Emery and his players were denied a top-five finish is going to be seriously tough to take - and to get over.

Had Morgan Rogers' perfectly legitimate goal been allowed to stand at Manchester United, it's highly likely that 10-man Villa would have at least picked up the point they needed to qualify for the Champions League. Instead, Thomas Bramall wrongly ruled it out for a perceived foul on Altay Bayindir and, because the whistle had been blown before Rogers guided the ball into the net, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was not permitted to intervene - which was just the latest infuriating example of how poorly technology is utilised by the game's law-makers.

Maybe this farcical episode will prompt a rule change (like Julian Alvarez's double-kick penalty in the Champions League last 16), but that will be of absolutely no consolation to Villa, who are going to pay a seriously heavy price for the incompetence of others.

As captain John McGinn told TNT Sports, "Because of the impact it has on us as players and our careers, the club, you are obviously angry. It's just an incredible decision and makes today even worse than it should be."

Chelsea have the youngest squad in the Premier League, so, after the Blues qualified for the Champions League, captain Reece James tried to make out that they were some sort of remarkable underdog story. "So many people before the season, during the season had disbelief," the defender told BBC Radio 5 Live. "They told us that we were too young, inexperienced and were not going to make it. But here we are."

For Chelsea, though, Champions League qualification was the absolutely bare minimum requirement for the 2024-25 campaign. Enzo Maresca's players may be young, but they were also assembled at a cost of more than £1 billion ($1.35bn). Consequently, it was absolutely imperative from a financial perspective that they secured a top-five finish after two seasons in the Champions League wilderness.

Chelsea still have some problems, of course, problems that selling property to themselves won't solve. It's fair to say that a lot of fans are not exactly enamoured with Maresca's style of play, while it's clear that his squad is still sorely lacking a good goalkeeper, a prolific No.9 and a world-class centre-back.

However, reclaiming their seat at Europe's top table, before participating in the lucrative Club World Cup, is only going to help Chelsea attract even more promising young players to Stamford Bridge this summer.

Pep Guardiola insisted his decision to leave Jack Grealish out of the matchday squad for Manchester City's final game of the season was nothing personal. The thinking behind the omission is pretty irrelevant at this stage, though. It doesn't really matter if Guardiola has an issue with Grealish's character - or the way in which he leads his life. The only thing that counts is that the Catalan no longer thinks the Birmingham native is even worthy of a seat on the City bench.

Of course, the writing was on the wall for Grealish after his FA Cup final snub, but it's now abundantly clear that he simply has to leave the Etihad this summer after losing the complete trust of the manager who convinced his employers to pay £100m ($135m) for his services.

The common consensus within the English press is that Grealish will thrive elsewhere, under a coach willing to give him greater freedom. However, one cannot help but wonder if Guardiola's tactical restraints are really the problem - or whether the real issue might lie with a winger who never managed more than five Premier League goals across four seasons with one of the strongest sides in Premier League history...