Crazy Gang | Part 17 | FM Analysis: Craziest Premier League Season Ever?

In the aftermath of somehow sneaking a first-ever league title, it took Trebor Mahtal a little while to get his head around just how his AFC Wimbledon side had done it. And upon reflection, it was fairly clear that this was the craziest Premier League season ever. So I thought it’d be worth breaking the season down a little.

2033/34 season breakdown

We’ll break it down based on how Wimbledon managed to nick the title and look at how some other teams absolutely bottled it.

Wimbledon’s season overview

Wimbledon made a pretty poor start to the campaign, sitting 14th after 5 games and 12th after 14 games. We only got into the top half after 18 games and were down in 6th after 32. And we suddenly spiked up the league in the last few games, only hitting the top of the league after the final game of the season!

We shouldn’t even have been close to winning the title, if you believe xG. The xG table shows that we conceded 23 goals fewer than we should have and scored 9 more goals. And we overachieved our expected points by a ridiculous 25!

As a result, it’s fairly clear that Andrés Araújo – who’s now known as a world-class goalkeeper – was the key man behind our success. He makes more saves than any other keeper and prevented 22.62 expected goals – more than double any other keeper – and had an 85% save percentage and 88% expected save percentage. He also saved 3 out of 4 penalties he faced in the league!

We also had Eli and Valentin Schumann-Blaschke to thank. Striker Eli was joint-top scorer in the league and set a new club record 32 goals in call competitions. While VSB got the second-most assists of 12 and set a new club record 20 assists.

The role of our old-timers also can’t be overestimated. Theo Hernández scored 6 and got 4 assists and Benjamin Sesko got injured in his first game but scored the winner at Sheffield United, which kept us in the title race going into the final day. And we have an exciting fellow old-timer joining them next season!

Tottenham’s epic Spursy collapse

Spurs hit the top of the league after 3 games and stayed there for 7 gameweeks. They then returned to the top after 15 games and stayed there all the way through to gameweek 30. However, they then went 9 games without a league win, including 5 defeats on the bounce, and slipped all the way down to 8th. Spurs were 10 points ahead of us after 20 games, 3 clear with 8 remaining, and finished 11 points behind us! Epic Spursy happenings.

Liverpool bottle job

Liverpool were up around the top of the table all season, but hit the top of the league on 31 games and stayed there through to the final day of the season. But they inexplicably lost 4-1 away to us then, even worse, 3-1 at Norwich on the final day.

“Big club” woes

Some of the bigger, more fancied clubs had nightmare seasons. To put this in context, we spend £87m per year on wages. Chelsea spend £208m, Man UFC spend £189m and City spend £169m. While UFC won the league the previous season with City in 2nd.

But Man UFC were 8th after game 2 – which was their highest league position all season. They were as low as 14th for a while during midseason and were 13th going into the final day, before climbing to 12th.

Man City started well and were 3rd after 5 games. But they fell apart massively, dropping to 10th after 20 games then stayed in 13th for through to gameweek 32. And they eventually climbed to a dire 11th place. What a bizarre season!

Chelsea were in the bottom half for most of the campaign, only getting into the top half after 29 games and eventually finished 7th.

Interesting overachievers

The top 4 contained Wimbledon and Brighton, while the top 10 contained Leeds, Forest and West Ham. While Fulham won the Carabao Cup to qualify for Europe and Spurs won the FA Cup. I’m intrigued to see if these teams can continue to overperform and outperform the bigger spenders. And, if they can, how that will affect the bigger spenders.

We won the title with the lowest-ever title-winning points tally of just 75 – which wouldn’t even have qualified for the Champions League in 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2030. And all of the factors above make this probably the craziest Premier League season ever.