Manchester United may have won the title, without ever seemingly getting in full flow, but this season will be remembered for the amazing battle to stay in the league.
It could also prove to be a pivotal season in the history of English football as Manchester City, and all their oil money, finally got themselves into the Champions League with a 3rd placed finish.
Whilst they are full of money and soon to splash even more, the Hammers are at the other end of the scale as, following relegation, they are now in the second tier and stuck with approximately £100m worth of debt.
The season started with two stand out results on the opening day as Chelsea put 6 past West Brom and, against the expectation of everyone outside Bloomfield Road, Blackpool hammered Wigan 4-0 at the DW Stadium.
August continued to produce some eyebrow raising games as Wigan lost their second game 6-0 at Chelsea, whilst Blackpool lost 6-0 at the Emirates Stadium and newly promoted Newcastle battered Aston Villa 6-0. Stoke were able to stop Chelsea registering a hat trick of 6-0 wins, but were still defeated 2-0 as Chelsea kept up their 100% record and the Potters ended August in the bottom three with 0 points.
The Potters soon got their season going but it was soon Everton at the bottom of the table, the Toffees were the only side not to have won by the end of September, whilst Fulham and Manchester United were the only unbeaten sides left, although Chelsea still led the way.
An unbeaten October saw Everton fly into the top half whilst draws left, right and centre meant the signs were there for a tight league from the top to the bottom.
Chelsea were finally ousted from top spot in November when, following the sacking of Ray Wilkins, the club went on a bizarre run of results and as the New Year was welcomed in there was just five points seperating the top 5 in the league, with Chelsea now sitting fourth in the standings. Blackpool, who would eventually get relegated, sat in the lofty position of 8th, with three games in hand on most sides, whilst Everton and Liverpool were 11th and 12th, yet just three points off the drop zone. For the Reds Hodgson had gone and King Kenny had returned, the American owners had gone to be replaced by...errr...some more Americans, but at least they gave the manager some funds as Dalglish went out and brought Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll whilst the former Kop idol Fernando Torres left for Chelsea for £50m. The Spaniard would score just once before the end of the season.
As the middle of February approached Arsenal were still on for a quadruple but defeat in the Carling Cup final at Birmingham, a game that started the decline for both sides, was followed by a Champions League exit a week later and then defeat in the FA Cup before that defeat had had time to settle.
All the talk was of Manchester United's incredible unbeaten run and whether they could match the Arsenal side of 2003 and go the season unbeaten but, on 5th February they went to then bottom Wolves and were beaten by two goals to one in the shock of the season.
Blackpool had won many admirers for their all action, all out attack style and, although it started well with many wins, they were slowly but surely getting sucked into the relegation mire, with the defence getting more and more attention by the pundits, they scored three at Goodison Park but conceded five to highlight the dangers of their gung ho mentality.
Blackburn had looked safe before Christmas and were looking at a top half finish but, after a change of ownership, Sam Allardyce was shockingly dismissed and his assistant Steve Kean placed in charge. Rovers dropped slowly and surely towards the drop zone and by the end of March they were 13th, but just 3 points off bottom of the league Wigan.
At the top end it seemed nobody wanted to win the league as Man Utd started added two more defeats to their season whilst Arsenal's campaign continued to fall apart and Chelsea struggled in trying to change their formation to accomodate Torres up front.
Manchester United secured a record breaking 19th league title with two games left after beating Chelsea 2-0 at Old Trafford, the opening goal coming from the find of the season in Javier Hernandez after just 37 seconds.
The season then trundled along towards the final week of the season and, after Charles N'Zogbia scored a 94th minute winner for Wigan the week before to relegate West Ham and keep Wigan in with a chance, two sides would go down with five teams battling to keep themselves out of the relegation zone.
It would be as good as narrowed down to four sides by half time as Blackburn took a 3-0 lead at Wolves, a scoreline that had Wanderers down on goal difference at half time along with Wigan. The start of the second half saw Wolves pull a goal back to pull themselves out of the drop zone, only for Blackpool to take the lead at Old Trafford, therefore dropping Birmingham into the drop zone. A Birmingham equaliser at Spurs again dropped Blackpool into the relegation zone but a major spanner into the works from Hugo Rodallega pulled Wigan out of the drop zone with little over ten minutes left, dropping Wolves into the bottom three on GOALS SCORED! Stephen Hunt then rescued his side with less than three minutes left with a fantastic goal, and Birmingham threw everybody, including Ben Foster, forward to try and get the goal to keep them up but were undone by a Spurs breakaway to confirm their relegation along with Blackpool, who eventually lost 4-2 at the home of the champions.
That winner for Spurs confirmed 5th place for them, and Europa league football for next season, whilst Manchester City tied on points with Chelsea for 2nd placed, guaranteeing both group stage Champions League football with Arsenal's amazing fall from grace seeing them finish fourth and have to qualify for next seasons Champions League
The summer is going to be a full of trasnfer gossip with Manchester City now able to offer Champions League football, their neighbours promising Wayne Rooney £100m investment when he signed his new contract, Chelsea now searching for another new manager, Spurs looking to plug the gap between themselves and the top four and Arsene Wenger having finally admitted he needs to spend to win at the Emirates, Everton again started slowly but themselves and Liverpool were the form sides of 2011 and both will be looking to continue that form into next season and chase the Champions League dream. Blackburn, having stayed up, and talking big whilst Aston Villa recovered from a bad start and will be hoping to push on with Darren Bent up front. Coming up, we know QPR and Norwich are taking the places of two of the relegated sides and it will be interesting how these two approach the top flight whilst Swansea and Reading will be joining them after next weeks play off final.
Looking at Stoke we look a better side and although we finished a point and two places worse off than last season the league was that tight that that doesn't tell the whole story. I feel we moved on as a side during this campaign and played some great football without forgetting the team spirit and hard work that lays the groundwork for success. We have quality on both wings, aswell as up front and, of course reached our first ever FA Cup final, a run that sees us return to european football for the first time since 1972/3. The three year plan is over and this summer we have the opportunity to really push on and try and compete with the likes of Aston Villa and Everton in the 'second tier' of Premier league clubs.