"It is a game of two halves" or so says the cliche used by managers to rally their players into a second half recovery after a poor showing in the first period of any given game. The nature of football means that any given match might well have two schizophrenically contrasting halves for those competing, and the same applies over whole seasons, too.
Just ask Arsenal. Or Liverpool. Or Sunderland.
The Gunners were top of the league at the turn of the year. They finished fourth but not without a scare from Everton who nearly pushed them into fifth. Liverpool were fifth on January 1st and took the title race down to the wire. Sunderland were bottom and had only won 4 times halfway through the season but escaped and eventually finished 14th in the table. In fact, Chelsea, in third, were the only team in the Premier League this season to reach the 19-game mark and then the end of the season in exactly the same position.
It was an unbelievably exciting campaign that we enjoyed over the past 10 months, with twists and turns at every corner and managerial changes at almost metronomic consistency throughout. It was consistency across the season that eventually saw Manchester City win their second Premier League trophy, with Manuel Pellegrini using fewer players (23) than any other team. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Fulham's inconsistency on and off the field saw them relegated, as they used a colossal 39 different players - that's 8 more than any other team - under 3 managerial regimes as they succumbed to relegation.
For the Cottagers, the only real constant for them was a place in the relegation zone. They were the only team in there at the turn of the year who then went on to go down, having failed to go more than 2 games without a defeat all season and not once managing to keep back-to-back clean sheets.
The team that enjoyed possibly the biggest difference between the first and second half of the season was Newcastle, who were eighth and only 4 points off the top 4 at the season's midway stage. Their failings in the transfer market came back to haunt them, though, when talisman Loïc Rémy picked up an injury and midfield maestro Yohan Cabaye moved to Paris Saint Germain.
The Magpies dropped off the pace and added only 15 points in their final 19 games as they lacked penetration in midfield or a goalscorer when chances did eventually come around. Luuk de Jong - the only player to come in to the club in January (albeit on loan) - boasts the record as the striker with the most minutes played (671) without a goal this season. When the summer's transfer window starts it will be 18 months since Newcastle last signed a player on a permanent deal, and after the second half of their campaign, it is certainly time for signings to be made.
Tony Pulis' appointment at Crystal Palace saw the Eagles shoot up the league into mid-table safety by the end of the campaign and their increased average rating - from 6.74 before January 1 and 6.93 after - was the biggest amongst the 20 Premier League teams.
On an individual level, Wilfried Bony saw the greatest hike in his WhoScored rating between 2013 and 2014 this season, as his performances caused a rise from 6.68 to 7.43. The Ivorian netted only 4 goals in the first half of the season but led the goalscoring charts this calendar year, with 12 at an impressive conversion rate of 17.7%. After an initial settling-in period following a record-breaking transfer last summer, Bony has found his feet in the Premier League.
Bony's performances aren't enough to get him into the WhoScored team of the second half of the season, though, with Luis Suarez, the standout performer across the whole campaign, partnered in attack by Christian Benteke, who was really starting to find form before injury curtailed his season.
A solid second half of the season for Chelsea, in which they went 9 home games in all competitions without conceding a single goal, sees 4 Blues make it into WhoScored's best XI. Nemanja Matic was arguably the best January signing the Premier League saw, and his rating of 7.62 was amongst the best in the league's latter half.
Aaron Ramsey was one of the league's best players in the first few months, but Arsenal fans were again left wondering what could have been. However, while there were more individuals that improved in the second half of the season as they looked to impress ahead of this summer's World Cup, City improved as collective and fought their way to the title as a functional unit that was simply the best team over the 38 games.
While it was indeed a season of two halves, it is arguably Phillip C. McGraw's adage of 'Life's a marathon, not a sprint' that fits City's ultimately successful season most accurately.
What do you make of City's season? Were they the best side over the 38 games? Let us know in the comments below
