It was a bad year for managers.
TheSolskjaer was sacked by Manchester United.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be the last manager to lose his job in the English top flight in 2021. It wasn't a good year for club legends who wanted to return to their former glories.
The first season in charge of the Blues was a positive one, despite their transfer ban, but expectations were changed with the investment that followed, and there are no regrets about appointing Thomas Tuchel.
Tuchel is vastly experienced as a coach but with only a modest playing background and no ties to the club he is taking over, and Manchester United have gone down the same route by replacing Solskjaer with Tuchel's countryman.
They would love to see a similar impact from Rangnick. Tuchel's transformation of Chelsea shows how much can be achieved in a short time.
So what are the next steps in the search for a new coach?
Despite his apprenticeship under the man himself at Manchester City, Mikel Arteta is still the only manager in the top flight who has previously worked at the club.
Steven will privately hope that his work at Villa can help him fulfill his ambition of returning to his hometown. While at Crystal Palace, Patrick Vieira may have the same thoughts. Do events at Manchester United and Chelsea show a better way forward?
The European Super League was a flop.
The chief executives of the premier league back-peddled on joining the European Super League.
The grand plan was followed by the grovelling apologies.
The European Super League went from bad to worse in a few days, prompting executives to come out and plead for fans' forgiveness. "We got it wrong," said the Manchester United co-owner. John W Henry, the owner ofLiverpool, apologized.
The story broke during Manchester United's 3-1 win over Burnley at Old Trafford on April 18 and, by the time the official announcement arrived later that evening, it had already caused a furious reaction among fans, pundits and, well, just about everyone.
Sky Sports' Gary Neville set the tone for the outcry with an emotional speech while covering the game at Old Manchester. He has been a fan of Manchester United for 40 years, but he is disgusted.
If you have already erased it from your memory, the proposal consisted of 12 founding clubs, who would be unmovable members.
It was not the only one who saw it for what it was. In England, fans put their loyalties to one side and joined together in condemnation of the idea, causing the big six to withdraw and leave the plan in tatters.
The summer was big-spending.
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The Man Utd player scored his 800th career goal.
The summer transfer window was an opportunity for the clubs involved in the European Super League fiasco to rebuild their relationships with their fans.
The five leading spenders were: Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea.
Jack Grealish's £100m transfer from Villa to Manchester City was the most expensive transfer in the history of the English game, followed by Romelu Lukaku's £97.5m move from Belgian club Anderlecht.
The final days of the window were dramatic, when Manchester United hijacked the proposed move to Manchester City by CR7 The end of the transfer window was fitting.
The purse strings were tightened after the swine flu.
The English are about to dominate?
The trophy was won by Man City.
The spending of the English league was larger than that of Europe's other major leagues, it came after Manchester City and Chelsea had competed in the all-English final of the European Championship, the second in three years.
The same clubs are even stronger this season, which makes a repeat scenario a distinct possibility. The last-16 will be played with at least a game to spare. Some of the results were fortunate, but others were not.
The AC Milan second string was defeated by the second string from the Reds. In the history of the competition, it was the most one-sided defeat. One of the few sides in Europe with resources to rival Manchester City.
It is certain that there will be a strong English representation in the final stages of the competition. There is a sizeable obstacle. Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain should not be discounted. This year has provided the perfect conditions for a period of dominance in Europe by the premier league.
In danger, but transformed.
Eddie Howe poses with the director of Newcastle.
After years of drift and discontent under MikeAshley, the long wait for new ownership finally ended with the confirmation of a Saudi Arabian-backed takeover worth £300m in October.
After 18 months of delay and uncertainty, the takeover transformed the club into the richest in the world. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has assets worth more than Manchester City's, according to reports.
There were scenes of celebration outside St James' Park, but it also raised ethical questions about Saudi Arabia's record on human rights, with the new owners facing accusations of sportswashing.
The 19 other clubs in the league came together in opposition to the takeover, but the main concern for them is whether they can hold onto their top-flight status.
Eddie Howe replaced Steve Bruce at the club in November and they won their first game of the season against Burnley, but have since lost three in a row and are three points adrift of safety.
January is a good time to strengthen their financial muscles. Is throwing money at the problem going to make it go away? The broader questions will linger.
The influence of full-backs is rising.
Trent Alexander-Arnold has been outstanding for the team.
The individual star of the year is Mohamed Salah. Some would argue that this was the year the Egyptian went from being the best player in the league to being the best player in the world, with 37 goals in 52 appearances.
There is a growing crop of full-backs capable of making match-winning contributions of their own.
The poster boy is Trent Alexander-Arnold. The right-back is an outstanding creator. He is the best creator in the league. He is the top player for assists, expected assists, chances created, and big chances created over the course of the year.
Andrew Robertson has a significant threat on the left side of the Reds' line, while Joao Cancelo has a strong claim to being the second-best player in the league.
The most dangerous offensive weapons for Thomas Tuchel have been the two players from Chelsea. Shaw has lost his place but he still shows the offensive power of the full-back, with his total of 79 chances created in 2021, putting him third in the league behind Alexander-Arnold and Bruno Fernandes.
Full-backs have become more influential at other clubs. Matt Targett and Matt Cash are at Villa, as are Vladimir Coufal and Aaron Cresswell at West Ham. There are more examples to be found elsewhere.
"No one wants to grow up and be a Gary Neville," as Jamie Carragher once said, has become quite the opposite.
Strikes had a lean year.
Harry Kane has only scored two times in the league.
As the once-humble full-back enjoys more and more "protagonism" - to use a term which has entered the footballing lexicon in 2021 - is the traditional strikers becoming marginalized?
That seems to be the case at both Manchester City andLiverpool. Instead of replacing Sergio Aguero, the Manchester City manager has decided to change his team and win a third title in the process. Diogo Jota is usually used in the same role as the other two players, with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah starting on the flanks.
This season's scoring chart suggests a broader trend rather than just isolated examples, as it shows that defenders have contributed to the most goals in the league.
Only five of the 15 players who have scored six or more goals in the current campaign play as out-and-out strikers and two of them are re-purposed wide players.
Harry Kane was a transfer target for Manchester City in the summer of 2016 as they sought to add a goal scorer. Will he still be there in the year of 2022? He has only scored once in 13 games this season. Daniel Levy's refusal to sell Kane as a lucky escape may have influenced the decision of Guardiola.
Fans come back but the threat of Covid remains.
Fans have returned this season... but how long?
After a year and a half of games played behind closed doors, the return of capacity crowds at football grounds up and down the country was a highlight of the year.
The power of a vociferous home crowd was evident in the very first game of the season, when newly-promoted Brentford stunned the holders of the title with a 2-0 win at the Community Stadium.
As the home fans roared their team on, savouring the occasion of the club's first top-flight game since 1947, the players seemed to have lost their minds. The fans were great, said Thomas Frank. "What an atmosphere."
Even the fans who traveled back from west London knew that the sport's soul had returned but recent events remind them of how delicate the situation remains.
In Germany, the spread of the Omicron variant has prompted the authorities to reduce crowd sizes. There are no plans to follow suit yet, but it must be considered a distinct possibility.
It would feel like a backward step to have empty stands, but they would also serve as a reminder that some things are bigger than football.
Covid's shadow is large over all else.
