Premier League 2021/22 season review: Salah win best goal, team of the season, and more

The Premier League season culminated with a gripping “Showdown Sunday”, and at the end of it, the same side who had started out as champions 10 months earlier were crowned the same again.

Manchester City might have made a habit of claiming English football’s major title in recent times, but they have not monopolised all the glory in the Premier League this season.

Manchester City's midfielder Ilkay Gundogan scores his team third goal against Aston Villa. AFP

When Ilkay Gundogan completed a heart-stopping five-minute turnaround against Aston Villa to seal the title for Manchester City, it was like life imitating art, imitating life.

Nine days earlier, City had unveiled a statue honouring perhaps the Premier League’s most famous goal, on the 10-year anniversary of Sergio Aguero’s stoppage time winner against Queens Park Rangers.

Sculptor Andy Scott may now have to be recommissioned to create another galvanised steel monument to City’s latest last-day epic.

Back then, there had been 93 minutes 20 seconds on the clock when Aguero clinched it. This time, Gundogan turned in Kevin de Bruyne’s cross with 12 minutes to spare. Never in doubt.

Arguing against Manchester City or Liverpool in this category is a fool’s errand. City lost just three times, and have taken the game to new levels of excellence in winning four titles in five years.

They have had to, just to keep their noses ahead of Liverpool, who have been a match or two away from the perfect campaign.

The Reds have won the two cups available to them so far, and they are favourites to pick up a third when they face Real Madrid in the Champions League final on Saturday, too. Plus, finishing within a point of this remarkable City side is an achievement in itself.

It feels