It's been another season of twists and turns in England's top flight. Nick Miller takes a month-by-month look back at the key moments and matches from the 2016-17 campaign.
July: Chelsea sign Kante
Transfers can be a complicated business, but occasionally some arrive that are devastatingly simple. In this case, a Chelsea side that had struggled last season, in part thanks to a lack of dynamism and bite in midfield, bought the best player in the Premier League at doing just that. A season later, they are champions and N'Golo Kante is scampering away with every award going. Simple.
August: Dramatic opening days
In many ways, the first weekend of the season showed us what was to come: After Philippe Coutinho scored a brilliant free-kick from way out, Liverpool nearly threw away a two-goal lead as they beat Arsenal 4-3; while defending champions Leicester inexplicably lost to a Hull side that had spent the summer in a state of absolute shambles and barely had enough players to field a team.
September: Man City start fast, beat United
This was a season billed as a battle of managers, the most celebrated of whom was Pep Guardiola. And the opening weeks could not have gone better for him, as Man City won their first six league games and 10 in all competitions. The high point was the derby, when City outclassed United at Old Trafford and, almost more importantly, Guardiola got the better of Jose Mourinho.
October: Conte switches to 3-4-3
After chastening defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal, Chelsea manager Antonio Conte decided something had to change. He did just that in what could otherwise have been a fairly drab trip to Hull, switching to a 3-4-3 formation, with Victor Moses as right wing-back and Cesar Azpilicueta in central defence. The line-up remained more or less the same for the next eight months.
November: Swansea 5-4 Crystal Palace
There were few highlights during Bob Bradley's short time in charge at the Liberty Stadium, but this game was one of them. At half-time the score was a relatively uneventful 1-1, but then Swansea went 3-1 up, only for Palace to net three times and seemingly have the game in the bag. Then, though, Fernando Llorente netted twice in stoppage time to win an astounding game.
December: Managerial merry-go-round gathers pace
After nearly half a season of disappointing results and ahead of the transfer window, Palace and Swansea blinked first, respectively replacing Alan Pardew with Sam Allardyce and Bradley with Paul Clement. Three days into the New Year, Hull followed suit when Marco Silva came in for Mike Phelan. To varying degrees, the moves worked for all three clubs.
January: Goals, goals, goals
People can often feel sluggish in January, so the players of the Premier League decided to pep everyone up with some dashes of the spectacular. You can debate which is the best if you like, but surely it's much better just to appreciate the variations on the scorpion kick by Henrikh Mkhitaryan (yes, we know his was officially on Dec. 31!) and Olivier Giroud, and the perfectly executed violence of Andy Carroll's scissor kick.
February: Ranieri is sacked
"Today, my dream died." Lips across the country wobbled as Leicester ignored sentiment and, seven months after he led them to the most implausible league title in English football history, sacked Claudio Ranieri. But there's no denying it worked: At the time they were a point off the relegation zone; after a few months of Craig Shakespeare, they sit comfortably in mid-table.
March: The high / low of #WengerOut
After a terrible run in March, in which Arsenal lost four out of five league games and exited the Champions League, "Wenger Out" banners started to appear... everywhere. While the fans' frustration was understandable to a point, it became embarrassing that a dignified man, who has given them the greatest football years of their lives, was being hounded out.
April: Spurs finish above Arsenal
It was going to happen at some point but if the confirmation, after 22 years, that Tottenham would finish above Arsenal had come with a result elsewhere, it would have been something of an anticlimax. As it was, Spurs secured an unassailable lead over their rivals by not just beating them, but absolutely outclassing them in White Hart Lane's last derby.
May: Chelsea are champions
For a few weeks, as Spurs cut Chelsea's lead to four points, there was a hint of a title race. But in the end it was obvious that Conte's side would win the league, so clearly were they the best team. Glory was sealed in slightly unlikely fashion, as forgotten man Michy Batshuayi scored to snatch a 1-0 win at West Brom and confirm their second championship in three seasons.
Nick Miller is a writer for ESPN FC, covering Premier League and European football. Follow him on Twitter @NickMiller79.
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