That Was The Season That Was

1. Most Dignified Managers

The most dignified in the face of defeat was Avram Grant, both because he was so close to victory, against all expectations, and because he was constantly underrated and sneered at.

The most dignified in the face of victory (just as hard) was Roy Hodgson at Fulham, who spoke generously of Reading and Birmingham, knowing full well how close he'd come.

2. Least Dignified Manager

Wenger was justified in feeling his team had deserved better—they had played wso well, scored so many goals and accumulated so many points and still ended up 3rd. And yet they had fallen short in too many crucial games against the other big teams (losing to Liverpool in the Champions League, only 1 point against United and thrashed in the FA Cup and overtaken by Chelsea thanks to a defeat at Stamford Bridge).

3. Most Silly Remark

It had to be Keegan: the Premiership has become too boring. Really? The closest race for the title of the top division in 40 years with two teams separated by goal difference until injury time in the last match and three teams fighting to stay up until Danny Murphy's goal decided it in the last minutes at Portsmouth.

4. Most Welcome Return

It has to be Keegan. Not that he's done anything yet, but fond memories of the beautiful game his Newcastle team played in the 1990s are not confined to Tyneside.

5. Best buy

Several categories here. a) Torres stands out among the big money buys. Runner-up: Tevez. who got better and better as the season drew on, scoring numerous crucial goals (most obviously at Blackburn and Tottenham). b) Santa Cruz at Blackburn as best buy among the smaller clubs.

6. Worst buy

Anelka started 23 matches for Chelsea and came on a sub nine times and scored—two goals. Even by the standards of Malouda (3 goals in 44 games) and Pizarro (2 in 52) that's pretty poor. By comparison, Shevchenko (21 goals in 98 games, more than 1:5) was a great buy.

7. Worst moment for a player

Eduardo's injury was the most shocking but will Riise ever forget that own-goal against Chelsea?

8. Best Achievement by a Manager

All the managers of the top clubs could lay claim to this. Ferguson because he rebuilt a Premiership winning team yet again, playing exciting attacking football but also conceding fewer goals than anyone else. Grant for defying all expectations and making Chelsea virtually unbeatable in the run-in. Wenger for all the beauty and entertainment with such small resources by comparison with the teams above him. Benitez for almost getting Liverpool to yet another Champions League final with all the chaos going on in the background at Liverpool.

And then there are the next level of clubs: David Moyes, getting Everton to 5th place without a single star player, Mark Hughes getting Blackburn to 7th and Harry Redknapp getting Portsmouth to the top ten and to Wembley on a shoestring.

And then there are the miracle workers down at the bottom: Roy Hodgson, of course; Gary Megson for rescuing Bolton; Roy Keane (the only manager of a club promoted last season to keep them in the Premiership); and Steve Bruce to have kept Wigan safe. The last three were out of the relegation dog-fight with a week to spare.

Tottenham fans will add that they won silverware, scored more goals than Chelsea and got to mid-table while conceding more than 60 goals. And Newcastle fans will say that Keegan brought them hope of exciting football again.

9. The George Graham prize for 1-0 wins

Ten of Chelsea's 25 Premiership wins were 1-0. They scored fewer goals than Arsenal, Liverpool and 15 fewer than United. They even scored fewer than Villa and Tottenham. They were effective and sometimes exciting -- but only rarely.

10. Best newspaper coverage

It has to be The Times, though strangely they faltered at the very end and both the Telegraph and, in particular, The Guardian provided much better coverage of the last round of matches. Brian Glanville award for best football writer: Martin Samuel of The Times.