The 2019-20 Premier League campaign finally reached its long-awaited conclusion on Sunday.
Manchester United and Chelsea sealed their places in the top four at Leicester City’s expense, Tottenham clinched sixth spot while Aston Villa saved themselves from relegation.
Bournemouth and Watford were the two clubs who will compete in the Championship next season alongside the already-relegated Norwich City.
Liverpool registered a 3-1 win away win over Newcastle United to finish the campaign on a remarkable 99 points.
Only Manchester City’s Centurions of 2017-18 have ever sealed more points in a single Premier League campaign.
However, Liverpool could - and perhaps should - have smashed the record for most points in a season.
Their form since the restart hasn’t been particularly impressive.
From their nine fixtures, they won five games, drawing two and losing the other two - a points-per-game return of 1.89.
This is entirely hypothetical, of course, but if only post-lockdown fixtures counted, Liverpool would have ended up in sixth place.
Is that a concern ahead of next season, or simply a case of Liverpool’s players taking their eye off the ball slightly after wrapping up the title?
Manchester City finished top of the post-lockdown table with 24 points, closely followed by Manchester United, who played one game less than their rivals.
Southampton ended third in the table, which is a little surprising, and Spurs were fourth.
Both Jose Mourinho and Daniel Levy will take plenty of encouragement from that.
At the opposite end of the table, though, Norwich City lost all nine of their matches, scoring just one goal and conceding 23.
You can check out the Premier League post-lockdown table here, per Nick Harris on Twitter…
GIVEMESPORT’s Rob Swan says…
I wouldn’t pay too much attention to Liverpool’s position in the table.
Performances like the 4-0 defeat to City or the 2-1 loss away at Arsenal almost certainly wouldn’t have happened if Jurgen Klopp’s side were still fighting for the title.
But for every other team, this table provides plenty of food for thought ahead of next season.
Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson and Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers will be acutely aware that performances simply haven’t been good enough lately.
Man Utd, on the other hand, will feel they’re on the right tracks and could close the gap on City and Liverpool even further by adding one or two quality players to their ranks this summer.