Gameweek 38 as it happened in the Premier League

Written by: FPLHINTS | www.fplhints.com

The final game of the season saw all 20 teams kick-off at 15:00 on Sunday afternoon simultaneously. Unfortunately, everything was pretty much decided before a ball was kicked.

Swansea needed results to go their way in addition to a huge 10-goal swing if they were to play Cardiff in the Premier League next season. Meanwhile, Champions League finalists Liverpool had to match Chelsea’s result to guarantee playing with Europe’s best next season.

Even the race for the Golden Boot was pretty much tied up, with Harry Kane three goals behind Mohamed Salah. Although last season, Harry Kane finished off the season with four goals against Leicester.

Jose Mourinho has played with his starting eleven as often as Pep Guardiola in recent weeks, with the aim to give all of his players an audition for the FA Cup Final. In his Friday press conference, the Portuguese revealed that David de Gea would adorn the bench for the final Gameweek, alongside Jesse Lingard and Chris Smalling.

Unbeknownst to fantasy football managers, there would be many more missing players when the lineups came out at 14:00.

Jan Vertonghen owners breathed a sigh of relief initially and were busy counting the number of players they could field, only to shortly discover that the Belgian injured himself in the warm-up and they were down another player.

Managers were lucky if they could field a full starting-eleven.

Gabriel Jesus, Vincent Kompany and Ederson were among those that Pep benched on the final day for champions City.

Burnley sold out their tickets for the finale at home in record time and the atmosphere inside Turf Moor kicked up a notch after the Woods combined for Bunrley’s opener.

Ashley Westwood cannoned the ball against top-goalscorer Chris Wood for his 10th goal of the season.

Down on the south-coast, Manchester City were struggling to break down a resilient Southampton who had conceded just two in their previous four games.

Marko Arnautovic secured the faintest of touches to assist Manuel Lanzini’s opener at the London Stadium, and he added to his total with a thumping 25-yarder just after the hour mark for West Ham’s second.

Andy Robertson was the top scoring fantasy asset of the week with a goal, assist and a clean sheet. The perfect Anfield Afternoon for Andy and his owners.

Back to London and Patrick van Aanholt scored his third goal in as many games from only three shots on target.

And for the last time this season, the community was able to cheer or cry courtesy of a goal from the the Golden Boot winner, Mohamed Salah.

Chelsea needed a win to put the pressure on Liverpool and keep up some momentum going into the FA Cup final. But the Blues crumbled to Newcastle and the deadly pairing of Dwight Gayle and Ayoze Perez, who were seen as only Championship quality at the start of the season.

Gabriel Jesus was Manchester City’s saviour with his 94th minute winner.

Jesus originally lost his bonus point for taking his shirt off but it was subsequently restored. Every point counts on the final day!

Goalkeeper Ederson was also booked but Claudio Bravo was City’s starting keeper on Sunday. Has there ever been a player not play a minute of football and end the day on -1 points?

Harry Kane did his best but could not secure the Golden Boot for a third year in-a-row, despite scoring 30 goals in the league for the first time in his career.

And that was because Mohamed Salah only went a broke the record for goals in a Premier League season (38 games) with 32, one more than Alan Shearer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez’s joint-record.

Now we have to wait another two months before we can start to tinker with our teams at the start of July in anticipation for the start of the Premier League in August.