Impact of COVID-19 pandemic At the start of this season, as was the case at the end of the previous season, there was
limited or no attendance at matches besides each team's staff and personnel. On 23 November 2020, it was announced that some fans would be allowed to return to stadiums in
low-risk areas at the end of the second national lockdown on 2 December 2020. The announcement of a third national lockdown on 4 January 2021, though, signalled a return to matches being played behind closed doors. As fans initially were not allowed to attend matches, an agreement was made for all matches to be televised up until at least the October international break. The league's major broadcast partners
Sky Sports and
BT Sport broadcast the vast majority of the matches between them, whilst
Amazon Prime Video and the
BBC were also allotted additional live matches during the season. Following the October international break, Sky and BT trialled a revised format with the launch of a
pay-per-view service for matches not selected for live broadcast on their main channels. Following strong opposition from fans, the format was discontinued after the November round of international matches and all matches were again shown across the league's four broadcast partners. This continued for the remainder of the season, making this the first Premier League season in which all matches across the entire campaign were televised. On 22 February 2021, Prime Minister
Boris Johnson announced as the third step of recovery from the lockdown imposed on 4 January, that subject to certain criteria being met on vaccines, infection rates and new coronavirus variants, large football stadiums would be allowed to reopen on 17 May with a maximum of 10,000 spectators or 25% capacity, whichever was higher. This meant that the final round of fixtures scheduled for 23 May would see spectators return to the stadium. To ensure all clubs played their final home game in front of fans, the penultimate round of fixtures were rearranged to take place on 18–19 May. No away fans were permitted for these matches.
Season summary The 2020–21 season began on Saturday 12 September, just seven weeks after the conclusion of the
2019–20 season.
Liverpool were the defending champions, having won their nineteenth league title the previous season and their first in the Premier League era. However, due to the late start of the league and fixture congestion, the winter break was scrapped and instead the 18th round of matches in mid-January was split across two midweeks. It was also the second Premier League season to use
VAR (Video Assistant Referee).
The race for first place The top of the table was tight for the first months of the season, with
Arsenal,
Leicester City,
Everton, Liverpool,
Southampton and
Tottenham Hotspur all having occupied first position by late November.
Liverpool's title defence collapses and Manchester City become Champions Liverpool, despite having suffered a 7-2 loss against
Aston Villa in October, overtook Tottenham again in mid-December, following a meeting between the two clubs at
Anfield which resulted in a win to Liverpool and by Christmas, had opened up a five-point gap following a away win against
Crystal Palace. However, in the new year, they suffered from a significant slump in form. They suffered their first home defeat in 69 games with a defeat to
Burnley, which began a run of six consecutive losses at Anfield, following losses to
Brighton & Hove Albion,
Manchester City, Everton,
Chelsea and
Fulham, dropping to eighth place by early March.
Manchester United, who were 15th at the beginning of November but sat behind them on goal difference at the start of January, overtook them at the top of the table later that month with a away win against Burnley, but they were in turn replaced by Manchester City at the end of the month as a Manchester City win over
West Bromwich Albion was followed by a home defeat for Manchester United against
Sheffield United. This was to prove the final change of team at the top, as Manchester City, who were 13th in November, went on a 15-match winning streak which saw them 15 points clear of second-place Manchester United after a win against
Wolverhampton Wanderers on 2 March. They went on to secure the title on 12 May 2021 with three matches to spare, following a home defeat for Manchester United against Leicester. It was the club's fifth Premier League title and seventh English league title overall, as well as their third title in the past four seasons.
UEFA Champions League qualification and Chelsea win Champions League Despite missing out on the title, Manchester United finished 2nd whilst managing to go the season unbeaten away from home as they qualified for a second successive season, becoming only the second team in the Premier League era to do so after Arsenal in both
2001-02 and their invincible season of
2003-04. The remaining two slots for Champions League qualification were taken by Liverpool and Chelsea. Although Liverpool were 8th with ten games remaining, a run of eight wins from their final ten games, including a 95th-minute winner scored by goalkeeper
Alisson against
West Bromwich Albion, saw them recover their position to finish 3rd and qualify for a fifth straight season. Chelsea endured a difficult start to the season under
Frank Lampard, who was sacked in January with the club in 9th position and replaced by
Thomas Tuchel. The club's form improved under Tuchel to secure a second consecutive finish in 4th place, despite a final day defeat to Aston Villa. They won in that season's Champions League final the next week, in the competition's third all-English final against champions Manchester City.
UEFA Europa League qualification Leicester enjoyed a successful season, spending more time in the top four places than any other club as well as winning that season's FA Cup against Chelsea; however, three defeats in their final four games, including a home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on the final day, saw them narrowly finish in 5th for a second consecutive season. Having narrowly avoiding relegation the previous season,
West Ham United surprised many by finishing 6th, their highest finish since
1998–99. Both these clubs earned qualification to the Europa League for the following season.
UEFA Europa Conference League qualification Despite leading the table in November, Tottenham suffered a string of poor results from that point onwards. Manager
Jose Mourinho was sacked in April with the club in 7th place, with
Ryan Mason taking over as interim manager for the rest of the season. Mason was unable to improve the club's position and they finished 7th, their lowest finish since the
2008–09 season, but still good enough to qualify for the brand new third tier Europa Conference League competition. Meanwhile, their traditional North London rivals Arsenal endured an even worse campaign; despite leading the table in September, eight defeats in their first 14 games left them in 15th just before Christmas and seemingly in danger of being sucked into a relegation battle. Whilst they would pick up enough points thereafter to pull away from the bottom half of the table, the Gunners could only finish 8th for a second successive season as they failed to qualify for European competition for the first time since the
1994–95 season.
Relegation and Leeds United success On 17 April 2021,
Sheffield United were confirmed to be the first team to be relegated to the
Championship following a defeat away to
Wolverhampton Wanderers with six games remaining, ending their two-year top flight tenure. On 9 May 2021,
West Bromwich Albion became the second team to be relegated following a defeat away to
Arsenal, with three games remaining, immediately returning to the Championship after a season's presence in the top flight. On 10 May 2021,
Fulham were the third and final team to be relegated following a 2–0 defeat at home against
Burnley with three games remaining, also immediately returning to the Championship after a season's presence in the top flight. This also marked the first time in the Premier League era that all three teams have been relegated with more than two games to spare and that all three teams didn't reach the 30 point mark in the season. In contrast, the final promoted team,
Leeds United, finished in 9th with 59 points, the highest points tally for a newly promoted side since
Ipswich Town (66 points) in
2000–01. == Teams ==