Five things we learned from the Premier League weekend as Wenger waves goodbye and Man City lift the title

1. Wenger finally gets a fitting goodbye.

So much of Arsene Wenger’s long goodbye has been cruel that there was a temptation to assume his farewell to the Emirates Stadium would fall flat as well. After all, his final European campaign had ended with a defeat sealed by an old nemesis, in Diego Costa, while his last visit to Old Trafford concluded with a late loss to Marouane Fellaini, precisely the sort of ungainly player who represents the antithesis of Wengerball.

Yet if this seemed an example of how unfair football can feel, it was fitting that Wenger left the stadium he financed with his annual Champions League qualifications and low net spends with an emphatic win and an exhibition of the kind of attacking, entertaining play that he brought to a club previously associated with functional football.

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Burnley had not conceded more than three goals in a league game all season. They were beaten 5-0 and even the Clarets fans joined in the tributes to the departing Frenchman. If, in terms of the table, it was meaningless, it hopefully gives Wenger memories to cherish when his 22-year reign finally ends.

2. Huddersfield are the big winners in the relegation battle.

The bare facts are that no one had stopped Manchester City from scoring at home in the Premier League since April 2017. The champions had plundered 102 league goals. They only needed one more to equal the division’s record, two more to surpass it. They drew a surprise blank against Huddersfield as, without being victorious, David Wagner’s side were the big winners in the battle at the bottom.

Defeats for Stoke and Swansea were the first two results to go their way. Then Southampton were pegged back by Everton’s 96th-minute equaliser. If the theory was that Huddersfield, with City, Chelsea and Arsenal in their final three games, would not pick up another point, the club with the lowest wage bill in the division immediately confounded that with a display of remarkable organisation and determination to secure a stalemate at the Etihad Stadium. They may yet require one more point to stay up but a side who have produced the unexpected several times already this season did so again. As for City, Brighton’s visit on Wednesday offers another opportunity to set many a record. Their title-winning party was not ruined. But these two clubs could both be celebrating at the end of the season.

3. United’s inconsistency suggests change is coming.

Rewind to last season and one of the reasons to criticise Manchester United was their poor record against the best. They won only two of 10 league games against the rest of the top six. As only United and Manchester City have beaten all of their peers, Jose Mourinho is entitled to argue improvement has been made. Yet Friday’s 2-0 defeat at Brighton gave them some unwanted distinctions: United are the only team to lose to each of the promoted teams in the Premier League this season, while it is the first season since 1989-90 when they have been beaten by all three.

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It feels very unlike a Mourinho team, with his best champions proving relentless winners, and that inconsistency has obviously annoyed the Portuguese. Mourinho seemed to be targeting Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford in his post-match comments pointing out why he would normally always select Romelu Lukaku, who was injured on Friday. He questioned his players’ attitude as well, and fringe figures like Marcos Rojo and Matteo Darmian failed to take their chances on rare starts. It all suggested Mourinho is planning change in the summer to ensure his squad has more players with Lukaku’s quality and mentality. Others could be discarded.

4. Spurs’ end-of-season struggles are sadly familiar.

Go back 12 months and Tottenham finished their season in spectacular style. They beat Manchester United in the last game at the old White Hart Lane before ending with 6-1 and 7-1 away victories. It was remarkable in many ways; one was the contrast with the 2015-16 season, when they failed to win any of their last four matches. There is a theory that Mauricio Pochettino’s teams require so much energy for their high-pressing game that they are likely to tire by May.

If last season was a rebuttal of that, this year may support that line of argument. Spurs were mediocre in losing 1-0 to West Bromwich Albion. They have a solitary victory in five games, an unconvincing affair against an out-of-form Watford. It hardly helps that Harry Kane has looked way below par since coming back from injury, seemingly too soon in a bid to win the Golden Boot, but he was far from the only culprit at the Hawthorns, where neither Erik Lamela nor Dele Alli exactly excelled. But while there are various reasons, it is not the first time Pochettino’s team have looked a shadow of their former selves in the season’s final stages and, with Chelsea resurgent in the battle for top-four places, it could cost them dearly.

5. Hughes has to share blame for Stoke’s slide.

Even as Mark Hughes was confronting the prospect of relegation with his current club, Southampton, he was asked about the reality of demotion for his former side. “I think I did a good job there,” said Hughes and, for about 70 percent of his time at Stoke, he did. Yet it felt the wrong moment to point out that he broke many of the Potters’ Premier League records.

Because while his successor certainly is not blameless for demotion – Paul Lambert has a 7 percent win rate from his time at the Britannia and a habit of losing leads continued with the decisive defeat to Crystal Palace – the rot set in under Hughes. Wasting £50 million on Saido Berahino, Giannelli Imbula and Kevin Wimmer did not help. Nor did failing to properly replace Marko Arnautovic or compiling a squad where no forward has more than five league goals. That Stoke have the joint worst defensive record shows that the problems have been at both ends of the pitch. Their former player, and a Tony Pulis disciple, Danny Higginbotham, spoke of a loss of identity. Stoke became a soft touch this season. It is a reason they went down.