Final deciders upcoming

🏆 R1 awards revealed | MD38 stat zone | Leverkusen impossible season

May 20, 2024

GM football fans. Route One here, the only football newsletter that has an announcement that you’ll want to read… scroll below. First time reading? Sign up here.

All feedback read at [email protected].

Head Start

City break another record

After all of that… Manchester City win their fourth consecutive Premier League title. An achievement that no other English club has reached.

Here’s a quick timeline of how the final day unfolded…

(One minute before kick-off): Wow. What an exciting title race, anything can happen.

(One minute after kick-off): Oh.

(Just before halftime): Kudus scores an unbelievable goal against City and Arsenal equalises against Everton. The title race is still on!

(Rodri scores in the 59th): Oh.

It’s safe to say… it wasn’t exactly the Agueroooooo moment we were all hoping for.

What’s next for Pep? It’s hard to tell but he admitted that he’s “closer to leaving than staying”. With one year left on his contract, it might be his final year next season… giving everyone else a chance to win something, ey.

But, anyway, here’s the final outcome of this year’s season:

Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa join City in the Champions League next season.
Luton Town, Burnley and Sheffield United are relegated to the Championship…

… which makes it just the second season where every newly-promoted team has been relegated.

And while the season has ended, the spots for the Europa League and Europa Conference League are still yet to be finalised.

Why? Because if Manchester United beat City in the FA Cup final next weekend then…

United will join Spurs in the Europa League.
Chelsea will go into the Conference League.
Newcastle will get nothing.

So that’s still up to play for.

Waaadaa season it has been. Thanks for joining us for the ride.

Plus…

Bayer Leverkusen became the first Bundesliga side to go a whole season unbeaten after they beat Augsburg in their final game 2-1. Leverkusen have two cup finals to play and could complete an invincible treble season (More)

Chelsea Women hammered Manchester United 6-0 to cruise to a fifth successive Women’s Super League title (More)

Manchester United midfielder Casemiro responds to Jamie Carragher’s “disrespectful” criticism (More)

Note To Readers

Hey, Router. As you know, athletes need a break during the off-season.

That’s why our team will take a few weeks off before the Euros and Copa América.

(Ok. Ok. Maybe we’re not athletes. But we secretly like to think we are.)

And, don't worry, this time will be used well…

… as we will be thinking about making the newsletter even better, planning even more content, and creating community channels for you.

That means… if you have any feedback on Route One, now’s the best time to let us know.

Just hit reply to this email and send us your thoughts. Every email will be replied to.

Hang in there. We won’t be gone for long!

Matchday 38 Stat Zone

Manchester City 3 - 1 West Ham

→ Manchester City have now gone 35 matches unbeaten in all competitions (W29 D6), the longest run ever by a Premier League team.

→ City are the first team in English top-flight history to win the title in four consecutive seasons, having won the league in 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24.

→ Erling Haaland is the first player in the competition’s history to win the Golden Boot and the Premier League title in back-to-back campaigns.

Arsenal 2 - 1 Everton

→ Arsenal finished with 89 points in the Premier League this season, the second-highest they have managed in a single Premier League campaign (behind 03/04 season).

→ Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have now won more points this season than 10 of Sir Alex Ferguson’s 13 Premier League-winning Manchester United teams.

→ Arsenal kept 11 clean sheets in 18 league games this year, and conceded 0.65 expected goals per game.

Liverpool 2 - 0 Wolves

→ Jürgen Klopp leaves Liverpool with a win rate of 60.9% in all competitions, the highest of any manager to take charge of 50+ games with the Reds.

→ The German manager led Liverpool to the club's highest-ever league points tally (99 in 2019-20), best-ever league-winning run (18 from Oct 2019 - Feb 2020), and most wins and goals in a single season in all competitions (46 wins, 147 goals in 2021-22).

Full Matchday 38 results…

Route One Awards

Presenting… The Route One End-of-Season Winners!

Ladies and gentlemen, the results are in.

We asked. You Voted.

*lights dim… camera awkwardly pans to Premier League legends… dramatic music plays… you can hear a dime drop*

Here are your Route One End-of-Season winners…

🏆 Router’s Player of the Season:

🥇 Declan Rice (30.4%).
🥈 Phil Foden (21%).
🥉 Cole Palmer (21%).

🗣️ T Jones voted Rice: “Rice has been the difference maker for Arsenal this season. His price tag looks a bargain in retrospect.”

🏆 Transfer-mational Signing of the Season:

🥇 Cole Palmer (53%).
🥈 Declan Rice (29%).
🥉 Micky van de Ven (6%).

🗣️ Himmat voted Palmer: “Cole Palmer has been all worldly for the blues this season.”

🏆 VAR-y Bad Decision: Luis Diaz called ‘offside’ against Spurs - 46.7% of the vote (Watch)

🗣️ Matthew J W: “Decision was bad enough but to not stop play and do something about it when it was clear a mistake had been made was worse.”

🏆 Moan-ager of the Season:

🥇 Erik ten Hag (37%).
🥈 Jurgen Klopp (35%).
🥉 Mikel Arteta (14%).

🗣️ Ricky J voted Klopp: “Does he want some cheese to go with all that whine?!!!”

🏆 Goal of the Season: Alejandro Garnacho overhead kick vs Everton (Watch)

🗣️ Rob K voted Garnacho: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better goal live. The technique was out of this world!”

Off The Pitch

☄️ Blue fireball flashes in the night sky as comet soars over Spain and Portugal (More)

🇮🇷 Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi ‘missing’ after helicopter crash in fog (More)

😳 World Number one Scottie Scheffler has been charged with assaulting a police officer before his US PGA round (More)

🥊 Oleksandr Usyk defeats Tyson Fury to become undisputed heavyweight champion of the world (More)

💰 The UK government is preparing a compensation package worth at least £10 billion for those affected by the contaminated blood scandal (More)

Around The Football World

🇳🇱 Former Arsenal and Manchester United striker Robin van Persie has been appointed head coach of Dutch top-flight side Heerenveen.

🇹🇷 Fenerbahçe beat bitter rivals Galatasaray 1-0 to close the gap to just three points before the final game of the Süper Lig season.

🇮🇳 Indian footballer Sunil Chhetri has announced his retirement from international football. He has scored the fourth all-time most goals in international football behind Cristiano, Ali Daei and Messi.

🇫🇷 Kylian Mbappé was left out of Paris Saint-Germain’s squad that faced Metz in the club’s final league game of the season as the Parisians had already been crowned champions for a record-extending 12th time.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Oxford beat Bolton in the League One Play-Off final thanks to Josh Murphy’s brace in a 2-0 (More)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Crawley Town won the League Two Play-Off final beating Crewe Alexandra 2-0 to be promoted to League One (More)

Extra Time

Jurgen Klopp delivers his final dressing room speech…

… and he announced that Arne Slot will be Liverpool’s next manager.

What the stats say about whether Manchester City are the greatest English side ever.

Moises Caicedo’s halfway-line goal just shook up the goal of the season debate.

Cristiano Ronaldo speaking about his wife to Antony Joshua at ringside.

Note to self… don’t walk with a Fenerbahçe jersey in front of thousands of Galatasaray fans.

The best possible start to a match.

Game Face On

Question: Can you name 3 teams (other than Bayer Leverkusen) to go unbeaten for a whole season in the big five leagues?

Hint: Only 7 other teams have achieved this.

Scroll below for the answer.

Key Dates

Wednesday 22nd May

Europa League final: Atalanta vs Leverkusen (20:00 BST)

Saturday 25 May

FA Cup final: Manchester City vs Manchester United (15:00 BST)

Sunday 26 May

Championship Play-Off Final: Leeds United vs Southampton (15:00 BST)

Saturday 1 June

UEFA Champions League final: Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid (20:00 BST)

*EST -5. PST -8. CET +1. CST +8. JST +9.

Answer:

Preston North End - 22 games (1888/89).
Athletic Bilbao - 18 games (1929-30)
Real Madrid - 18 games (1931-32).
Perugia - 30 games (1978-79).
AC Milan - 34 games (1991-92).
Arsenal - 38 games (2003-4).
Juventus - 38 games (2011-12).

“Arne Slot… Na… Na… Na… Na… Na.”

-Jurgen Klopp