Premier League 2023 in review: all games live on Showmax Pro Mobile

Stream every Premier League game live on Showmax Pro Mobile, courtesy of SuperSport.

Team of the Year – Manchester City

Not only did they achieve their “holy grail” mission of lifting the UEFA Champions League, they added the Premier League and the FA Cup to their haul to become only the second club ever to achieve that treble.

This is Pep Guardiola’s eighth season at the club and his teams have evolved with tactical tweaks throughout his tenure. The 2023 vintage of Manchester City was undoubtedly the best of his reign.

Their achievements in 2023 will go down in history and repeating them in 2024 isn’t far-fetched either.

Player of the Year – Erling Haaland

Sometimes the obvious choice in the only choice.

The fact is that the Premier League has never seen a scoring phenomenon quite like Erling Haaland.

He broke the record for most goals in a season at his first attempt. He set a new record for quickest to 50 Premier League goals, which was 20 games fewer than Andy Cole in second place.

At the age of 23, no scoring record seems insurmountable.

Manager of the Year – Unai Emery

On Unai Emery’s first day at his new job, Aston Villa were 16^th on the table and just a point above the relegation zone. In the space of 12 months, he’s turned them into a team that look like Premier League title contenders.

After his failed stint at Arsenal, Emery came back to the Premier League with a point to prove. He’s proved it emphatically.

There are a few notable mentions that should feel aggrieved to miss out. Guardiola created a masterpiece of a blueprint at Manchester City. Eddie Howe has overseen Newcastle’s unbelievable rise up the table.

However, in terms of impact over a 12-month period, you just can’t look beyond Emery.

African player of the year – Mohamed Salah

He may not have any silverware to show for his efforts in 2023, but the Egyptian King has grown as the year has gone on and is looking like his lethal best.

Haaland’s scoring has skewed everyone else’s achievements, so while he’s been getting less fanfare than in the past, Mohamed Salah’s rate of goal contributions cannot be underestimated.

While he’s always scored plenty of goals for Liverpool, it’s the increase in his assists that has caught the eye in the last year. This has been crucial in an environment where he’s now an experienced player within new combinations in the side.

Salah is due to leave for AFCON duty soon and how Liverpool replace him in that period could define their season.

Contoversy of the season – Tottenham vs Liverpool VAR decision

It wasn’t just the clearly incorrect nature of the decision that sparked controversy when Luis Diaz had a goal disallowed for offside in their game against Tottenham. It was the aftermath when the audio in the VAR room of the officials discussing the decision was released.

For the public, it was a worrying sneak peek at the process. A sense of way too many cooks in the kitchen, a distinct lack of authority, no apparent procedural steps, inevitable misunderstanding and to top it all off, some swearing.

Ironically, the system that was brought in to lessen mistakes has seemingly created more. Cleaning up the process has to come to the fore in 2024 as the Premier League product simply can’t accept covering up amateurish decision-making on a weekly basis.

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Great news! Showmax Premier League launches in February 2024. Powered by SuperSport and made for mobile users, Showmax Premier League Mobile is the first standalone Premier League mobile streaming service ever to launch in Africa and will take every single match of the world’s most popular football league to every corner of sub-Saharan Africa. Find out more »