Graphic showing 2025 calendar year table top six: Pos Team P GD PTS 1 Man City 19 22 40 2 Liverpool 20 17 39 3 Arsenal 20 16 38 4 Aston Villa 19 10 37 5 Newcastle 19 10 34 6 Brighton 19 6 34

As the dust settles on the 2024-25 Premier League season, we have been taking a look at some of the alternative ways the the table could have finished...

A Premier League season can sometimes be a tale of two halves.

Some come flying out of the blocks, while others are more sluggish starters.

The busy Christmas period can be a turning point with the arrival of the January transfer window feeling like a fresh start.

So what might have happened if the league season only start on 1 January?

Well, Pep Guardiola's title-winning machines would have picked up their fifth Premier League trophy in a row.

Playing one game fewer than actual champions Liverpool - who secured the title with four games remaining - they would have finished one point clear of the Reds, not withstanding Arne Slot's side slowdown in form after sealing the title.

City always seem to come good after January, but this time it was not enough to outweigh the torrid time they had from late autumn.

The rest of the top six is not too dissimilar to the final placings, although in this case, Aston Villa would have secured Champions League football and Brighton a Europa League spot in the absence of Chelsea - whose form nose-dived at the very beginning of the year.

And while the new year is a new start for some, it is less so for others.

That was the case for many of those down the bottom of the league.

The relegated trio would still have been relegated and Manchester United and Tottenham would still have ended up in the bottom six. West Ham find themselves one place lower after Wolves picked up form under Vitor Pereira.

So what does this tell us? If you wan to achieve your Premier League ambitions, it is about making sure you are there for nine months and not just from January.

*Table data from Football365

2025 calendar year table bottom six graphic showing: Pos Team P GD PTS 15 West Ham 19 -4 20 16 Man Utd 19 -5 20 17 Tottenham 19 -14 14 18 Leicester 19 -27 11 19 Ipswich 19 -31 7 20 S'oton 19 -33 6

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  • 'If everyone was fit, there is no telling where we would be'

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    We asked for your views on our fan contributor Scott McCarthy's end of season scorecard (27 May, 12:42 BST).

    Here are some of your comments:

    Olly: With a young squad and manager in his first season in the Premier League, along with the injury list, it has been a successful season, although frustrating dropping points from winning positions and not doing well against sides that were relegated. The experience of this season bodes well for next.

    Noddy: Albion's biggest obstacle was the many injuries we suffered all season. If everyone was fit there is no telling where they would be now. Most probably in the Champions League.

    Adam: Many Brighton fans will be used to drama. There are not many seasons when we can say Brighton were average. However, there were times when we dropped crucial points in the latter stages of games when we were in complete control. So it's definitely a case of what could have been, rather than what it has been - and don't get me wrong, we are very grateful for our second-best finish. It just didn't quite hit the European bullseye we were all hoping for. Instead, we hit the middle of the board and bounced out again. Roll on next season!

    Brian: Overall a good season - we failed to reach the European places due to inconsistency and in particular losing points at the Amex to relegation candidates. A good experience, though, for a young squad for whom I'm sure greater things await. However, time to say goodbye to a great servant of the club, Lewis Dunk.

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  • Hurzeler 'has been a revelation'

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    Former Brighton player Warren Aspinall believes head coach Fabian Hurzeler has ed his first Premier League season 'with flying colours'.

    The 32-year-old is the league's youngest permanent manager and behind Chelsea, named on average the second youngest squad in the division.

    "I think he's been a revelation, at the age he is to come to a different country and a different league," Aspinall told BBC Radio Sussex's 'Albion Unlimited' podcast.

    "First time in the Premier League - he doesn't know the pace of the league but he soon found out. He's come to a different country with a different culture. Lots of things going on and he didn't have many background staff with him to start off with.

    "We've had little dips and things and I think the big dip for me was losing in the FA Cup when we lost 4-3 on penalties [to Nottingham Forest in the quarter-final] and that deflated us quite a lot.

    "So it was a tough season for him but he's come out with flying colours."

    Listen to the full chat here

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  • When will the 2025-26 Premier League fixtures be released?

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    The BBC's Ask Me Anything team have done all of the research ahead of the announcement detailing next season's Premier League matches.

    The fixtures for the 2025-26 season will be released at 09:00 BST on Wednesday, 18 June 2025 and the release will include the weekly schedule of all 380 matches.

    The season will begin with a single fixture played on Friday, 15 August 2025 and conclude on Sunday, 24 May 2026, when all matches will be played at 16:00 BST. There will be 33 weekend rounds of fixtures, plus five midweek rounds.

    The exact date and time at which individual matches are played during each weekend will be determined at regular intervals throughout the season, based on TV selections made by broadcasters.

    Read the full article here

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