English Premier League 2018/19 season review

With the Premier League winding down and the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) and Footballer Writers' (FWA) awards being handed out, it's time to sit back and review the season that's unfolded.

We look at this season's over-achievers, under-performers and the transfer signing that has shone the brightest.

Heading into the new season back in August, the England national team had embarked on a successful World Cup campaign, having been knocked out of the semi-final by a Luka Modric-inspired Croatia.

The previous season had seen Manchester City accumulate the highest points tally (100 points) in Premier League history and Liverpool had reached the final of the Champions League (narrowly losing out to Real Madrid).

There was optimism heading into the 27th English Premier League season, with Manchester United and Leicester kicking things off on a Friday night at Old Trafford.

As of writing, there are two games left for each team to play and the title race looks to be going down to the final day. That being said, teams and players alike have stood out as we begin the review process, starting with the team that has under-performed the most this season.

Biggest under-achievers: Fulham

Having come up through a 1-0 win over Aston Villa in the playoff final, momentum was with Fulham for the season ahead. They had achieved the biggest home win of the season (5-0 against Burton Albion, 20/01/2018) as well as maintaining the longest unbeaten run in the division at 23 matches.

Everything was set up for a successful Premier League campaign. The club had secured the signing of on-loan forward Aleksandar Mitrovic (£18.18 million) as well as big name players such as Jean Michael Seri (£27 million), Andre Anguissa (£22.37 million) and Alfie Mawson (£15.17 million).

The loan signings also made sense and included Andre Schurrle, Calum Chambers and Luciano Vietto.

The season didn't start well though, with back-to-back defeats against Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur, but a 4-2 win against Burnley in their third game restored some hope.

However, this new-found optimism did not last long with their next Premier League win not arriving for another 10 games. It was beginning to show that the extravagant spending was not working out for the Cottagers.

In total, the club has spent £100.8 million and gone through three managers this season. Since relegation was confirmed, Fulham have managed three wins in a row but it is too little too late. This was the type of form that the club needed earlier on in the season and was expected due to the huge transfer fees and wages being spent by the owners.

Biggest over-achievers: Tottenham Hotspur

Son has had a great year for club and country

This season was meant to be the start of a new era at Tottenham as they were moving into their new 62,000 capacity stadium and had secured several long-term contracts for key players like Harry Kane and Dele Alli.

However, all did not go to plan as severe construction delays meant that they had to wait until April for their first Premier League game at the new stadium.

Despite the off-field distractions, Spurs have been playing exceptionally well and find themselves in the third position with two games remaining. Additionally, the club knocked out Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-finals and are currently embroiled in a battle with Ajax for a place in the final.

Not only have Tottenham managed to deal with complications off the field, they have also competed without spending a penny in the transfer market. To put this into context, the rest of the "big six" have spent a total of £599.56 million this season, averaging around £120 million per team.

To find themselves in this position with two games remaining, Tottenham are the biggest over-achievers this season. An honourable mention must go to Rafa Benitez and Newcastle who have once again avoided relegation despite having had their own problems off the field. They did, however, break their record transfer fee this season, securing Almiron from Atlanta United.

Signing of the season: Joao Moutinho (Wolves)

Moutinho has provided some valuable experience in his debut season

This was by far the hardest decision out of the three categories and the award could have gone to several players. This season has seen many high-profile transfers and a lot of money was spent to acquire the likes of Mahrez (£61 million), Fred (£53.1 million), Alisson (£56.25 million) and Kepa (£72 million).

Alisson has had a great debut season for Liverpool, with 18 clean sheets to his name. However, it does help having Virgil Van Dijk in front of you.

Joao Moutinho, meanwhile, joined Wolves from Monaco for a modest fee of £5.04 million and has played 36 times this season, scoring once and providing 8 assists. It was a busy summer for the newly promoted club as they made a host of new signings, including Patricio, Traore and Jonny for a considerable amount of money.

Fulham had the same mentality as Wolves and spent big; however the difference is that the players acquired by Wolves had something to prove and were up for the challenge of the Premier League.

Moutinho was one of those new recruits and he slotted into the team like he had been playing there for several seasons. He offers a calm head and the team have looked to him for guidance when coming up against teams of a higher calibre.

Wolves have managed to score several key goals in the last few minutes of games this season and have turned to Moutinho to offer a cool head and support his teammates. He was even quoted as saying: "Until the referee whistles to the final of the match we never give up".

Moutinho offers so much to the team both defensively and going forward and records an average of 45 passes per match, as well as 36 interceptions and 221 recoveries. At 32 years old, Moutinho will hopefully have a couple more seasons with Wolves, but his debut campaign has been a masterclass and at £5 million he has been the transfer of the season.

There have been some great transfer deals this season in the Premier League and special mentions must go to: Guendouzi (Arsenal), Digne (Everton), Maddison and Pereira (both Leicester), Schar and Dubravka (both Newcastle), Brooks (Bournemouth) and Fabianski (West Ham).