With the season at a close, it’s time to reflect and look back over the last year of football. With plenty of highs and lows, this season has been arguably one of the strongest we’ve had for some time. With the title, top 4 and relegation spots all heading to the final weekend and a jam packed schedule all season, it’s now time to breathe, and remember those great parts of the 2021/2022 Premier League season.

As with every vote and football opinion on the internet, these are subjective and a personal opinion. If you disagree on the choices made, feel free to head over to Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) and have a discussion on who you’d select in our chosen categories.

While these are all celebratory and positive awards, our negative awards will be following this post in the coming days, so keep your eyes peeled for those as things could get interesting with them.

Enjoy.

Team Of The Season – West Ham United

We start off by potentially detouring from just the Premier League, as our choice for the team of the season are the side that not only exceed expectations once again domestically, but mainly in their European exploits. David Moyes has turned West Ham into European contenders and is slowly but surely edging up the table with his side.

On paper, the side is a mixed bag, with obvious stars in Declan Rice and Jarrod Bowen, however as a team they come together and become a seriously tough side to beat. Their Europa League run was a sublime experience to watch even as a neutral, and their domestic performances have also been strong.

Admittedly towards the end of the season, they took their eye off the league to go all-in on the Europa League, however they kept in contention for Europe once again, and just couldn’t scrape past Manchester United and Arsenal to reach the Europa League, meaning they will be in the Conference League next season, however they will feel massively confident entering this tournament.

Many would likely look straight to the title winners who were dominant all season, or Liverpool with their quadruple attempt, however for me West Ham have been the definition of a unified team who all contributed and helped the side as a whole progress. I expect many to disagree with this, but West Ham throughout their squad have been my team of the season this year.

Player Of The Season – Mo Salah

The most obvious selection we have made in our awards, as the player of the year is Liverpool’s star man, Mo Salah. Despite a tough end to many of the biggest moments throughout his season, from the AFCON final through to the Champions League loss, in the league he should hold his head high, as he has excelled yet again for his side.

With Liverpool still to agree a contract extension, and with Mane set to be departing England this summer, Mo Salah will become even more crucial to Klopp’s side next season. The obvious arrival of Nunez will potentially ease the pressure for goals, however Salah is the key to holding the attacking line-up together.

The 2021/2022 season was individually superb from the Egyptian, as he was the shared golden boot winner with Son, who both bagged 23 across the season, while also edging teammate TAA to the assist leader with 13. Totalling 36 goal involvements across his 35 league appearances, he has averaged over 1 goal involvement per game. These stats are just remarkable in the Premier League, and he ends his joint second most prolific individual season of his entire career as our player of the season.

Young Player Of The Season – Conor Gallagher

Going out on loan is never an easy thing for a young player to do, however Gallagher being part of the Chelsea loan system has certainly taken his chances this year at Crystal Palace and Patrick Viera. His 4th loan spell and a truly breakthrough year for the youngster, he has impressed massively and Tuchel has already indicated he may want to discuss his future for next season at Chelsea.

This season, Gallagher netted 8 in his 34 appearances, and 3 assists which earnt him the Crystal Palace player of the year, and of course the prestigious NextGoalWinner young player of the year award. He has demonstrated an ability to play as an all-round midfielder with the goal threat and high work rate. His manager compared him to Chelsea legend Frank Lampard, which from Patrick Viera is high praise indeed.

Manager Of The Season – Thomas Frank

Brentford were odds on to face relegation in their first season in the Premier League, however the work of Thomas Frank has seen his side sail comfortably to mid-table and a 13th placed finish. There was little/no doubt of relegation as we reached the conclusion of the season, and this is primarily down to their manager maintaining their high performance levels.

Of course the likes of Guardiola, Klopp and Tuchel have had respectable and impressive years, however I think the work of Frank has gone highly under the radar. Brentford have stunned the likes of Arsenal who they demolished on the dramatic opening day, Chelsea, West Ham twice and then earning highly impressive draws with Liverpool and Spurs. Of course they aren’t expecting to be European challengers, however Brentford fans have been in dreamland this season with the results they have picked up, and for that Thomas Frank edges the big named managers at the top.

Goal Of The Season – Mo Salah (vs Manchester City)

This goal looks straight out of the Lionel Messi highlight reel, as Mo Salah, in one of the biggest games of the whole season for his side, gave Liverpool the lead to make it 2-1 against their title rivals, and what a goal it was.

Salah picked the ball up on the right hand side, surrounded by 3 City defenders he holds onto it and escapes their swarm with a lovely piece of footwork that leaves Bernardo Silva on the floor. Salah then takes the ball into the box still pushed out to the right, has 3 players in there looking for the cut across but goes himself by taking on 2 more City defenders who are left helpless, and smashed the ball inside the left post. Cue a finger to the ear celebration to pump the crowd up further and there you have it, the goal of the season and just another day in the office for Mo Salah.

Moment Of The Season – Final Day Drama

It has been such an exciting and enjoyable season (except for Man United fans) that choosing just one moment wouldn’t be possible, and so we’ve stretched our own rules a bit and selected the final day as our moment of the season.

If you were like us, you’d have no doubt had the 5+ screens on the go, keeping an eye on the title race, top 4 race and relegation battle which all went down to the wire. With City and Liverpool both struggling in the opening 45, the top 4 race was as good as settled with Spurs running riot at relegated Norwich, while Leeds diced with the drop until the bitter end. So much going on and trying to keep across it all and the obvious social media discussions was chaotic to say the least, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. The festival of football with us acting like Bielsa and his VHS tapes had everything we wanted, and although ultimately very little changed, the drama was of the highest order.

With so much going on, nobody even seemed to notice Man United losing again, that’s how much was happening in the final 90 minutes of the season.

Signing Of The Season – Dejan Kulusevski

Perhaps we’ve been a bit biased on this one as we did have our eye on Kulusevski from way back doing a Euro’s preview of his Sweden side, however since arriving in January, he has added a whole new dimension to the Spurs attack, and contributed 5 goals and 8 assists in the league in just 18 matches. Arriving on loan, Conte has been clear in his desire to make this move permanent as the Swedish forward looks to go a full season linking up with goal machine Harry Kane and golden boot winner Son. The 3 of these on their day compete with any side in the league as an attacking presence, and with Kulusevski at just 22 years of age, this could be the start of a solid run for Spurs under trophy magnet Antonio Conte. Perhaps not a long-term setup for them, however this signing got them back into the Champions League and will set them up perfectly for the forthcoming season.

Game Of The Season – Liverpool 2-2 Manchester City

A possible early title decider, as Liverpool and Manchester City went head-to-head in this clash, and filled with high-intensity football from both at the very top of their game, and our goal of the season, combined to give us the game of the season. Both sides pressing the other into making a mistake, and packed with top quality football, this game is one you should go back and re-watch. It seems almost wrong to put a draw as our game of the season, however it summarised just how evenly matched these sides were and have been all year.

As all 4 goals came in the second half, it was Salah for Liverpool’s 2nd that took the plaudits, and as we mentioned previously it’s obvious why. In the context of the whole season it meant little as both sides battled until the very end, however neither side could afford to lose and both were going all out to win.

More of the same next year? Yes please.