As the dust settles on the 2024-25 Premier League season, we have been taking a look at some of the alternative ways the the table could have finished...
Football games are 90 minutes long. They have been for more than 150 years.
So, what if they weren't? What if only the first 45 minutes mattered?
Some teams like to lead from the front, come out the blocks flying and try and get the job done before half-time.
If that had been the case this season and it all came down to that first half showing, then it would not have been Liverpool lifting the trophy, but in fact Arsenal winning their first league title in over 20 years.
With 20 wins, 13 draws and five defeats, the Gunners were the kings of the first half.
Four points behind them were Manchester City - a team that has for so long been able to control games from start to finish, but during their difficult spell with injuries and results, this was something they seemed to lack.
If the league really came down to this metric, Brentford fans would be planning for a Champions League adventure. While the Bees were fast starters this campaign, being able to back that up across the 90 minutes was their Achilles heel (ranking 14th in the second half).
And what about this year's Premier League champions? Arsenal may have had the number when it came to first halves, but Liverpool well and truly led the way in the second...
While some prefer to get their nose in front, others prefer a half-time reset or back themselves to get the job done later in the game.
One of those teams was Arne Slot's Reds.
They won 24 of their 38 second-halves, drew nine and lost just five. If it was this 45 minutes alone that counted, they would have had 81 points and - just like in the actual season - been runaway winners.
Another club that enjoyed success after half time was Chelsea.
Ranking seventh in the first-half table, the Blues were often in a position where they needed to turn things around or dig out a result in the second 45 and, despite the young age of the team, managed 17 wins in second halves.
A side deserving an honourable mention here is Crystal Palace.
They may have finished 12th in the 2024-25 league table after a underwhelming start, but when it came to getting a result in the second half, with 16 wins,12 draws and 10 defeats, they were up there alongside some of the best in the league.
*Table data from Football365
Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo wants to Manchester United, who are now set to open talks to sign the 25-year-old Cameroon international. (Athletic - subscription required), external
Want more transfer stories? Read Tuesday's full gossip column
BBC Sport pundit Nedum Onuoha has given us his insight and opinion every fortnight on your Premier League club throughout this season.
But this week, he's in the hotseat for your questions.
Maybe ask him who should be on your club's radar this summer, or where a rumoured target or new g might fit into the team.
Perhaps see what he thinks about how successful a new recruit might be, who it is vital to keep, or what is needed to make next season a success.
Send in your questions here and we'll put a selection to him
Image source, Getty ImagesWith Caoimhin Kelleher set to move to Brentford from Liverpool and the Bees' number-one goalkeeper Mark Flekken heading to Bayer Leverkusen, we asked for your views on the deals.
Here are some of your comments:
Lance: We have a decent track record of getting the best out of our goalkeepers, and Kelleher already has an impressive foundation to start with. He deserves a chance at being number one, especially after some impressive performances for Liverpool. To lose Flekken for less than most fans would like, but replace him with someone like Kelleher, is a great move by the club.
Jonathan: Good business for all parties. Kelleher deservedly gets a team that wants him as first choice, Brentford get an excellent keeper for only £4m up front when Flekken's fee is offset on the balance sheet - and I assume he's happy going to Leverkusen - and Liverpool will still have two top goalkeepers.
George: What a signature for us to secure. We need a shotstopper to replace Flekken's big gloves, as our end-to-end style relies on tolerating a lot of shots from outside the box. He is young, eager and Premier League proven. Best of luck to both keepers this season!
Matt: I've long ired Kelleher and getting a relatively young yet experienced goalkeeper for the price rumoured is great business. Flekken has been fantastic this season and last so it is not surprising a 'bigger' club has come looking.
Adam: Kelleher is a great replacement. Granted Flekken has been amazing for us this season, but Kelleher is younger and has experience in finals and big matches. Hopefully he can help us push towards another top-half finish.
Brian: Great news. Kelleher is a much better goalkeeper - and younger - and he will really enjoy our defence.
Image source, Getty ImagesBrentford have signed Romelle Donovan from Birmingham City on a five-year-deal.
The 18-year-old attacking midfielder ed Brentford B on loan in February, scoring 11 goals and providing 10 assists in 15 games.
Donovan will now Thomas Frank's first-team squad after impressing.
Bees director of football Phil Giles said: "When Romelle arrived on loan in January, we knew he was a talented player with potential, but it's fair to say that in his time with us he's exceeded our expectations.
"His performances for the B team have been outstanding and he has shown himself to have a desire to work hard in training. He has earned his place in our first-team squad for next season.
"He will need to continue to work hard, on and off the pitch, to continue his progression with us towards first-team matches."
Sami Mokbel
Senior football correspondent
Image source, Getty ImagesBBC Sport senior football correspondent Sami Mokbel has been answering your questions on the summer transfer window.
Rob asked: How on earth are Brentford getting Kelleher from Liverpool for only £18m? That might be the bargain of the whole transfer window already.
Sami answered: It may well be the bargain of the summer, Rob. He is clearly a talented goalkeeper. But consider this: Kelleher is 26 and has only made 25 Premier League starts. That isn't a vast body of work to consider. Liverpool know that. Brentford will have used that to drive the price down. There is also no telling how Kelleher will adapt to becoming a Premier League club's first choice keeper because he has never been in the position before. Add to that that Kelleher's contract at Anfield expires next summer when he can leave for nothing and the anticipated arrival of Giorgi Mamardashvili, who will compete with Allison Becker to be first-choice, Kelleher's days at Liverpool were numbered. In many ways, Liverpool have done well to get £18m!
Steve Sutcliffe
BBC Sport journalist
Image source, Getty ImagesBournemouth have the lowest matchday revenue in the Premier League, with a 11,379 capacity at the Vitality Stadium.
Yet they have recruited shrewdly and the big-money sales of Dominic Solanke and Dean Huijsen during 2024-25 means they could easily part with £100m to bring in new gs.
Brentford are among the best run businesses in the league and their approach of "spotting players that other clubs have not considered, such as Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, is likely to pay further dividends as they are attracting attention from clubs with big budgets", said football finance expert Kieran Maguire.
"The Bees have no PSR concerns and could spend up to £200m, but are unlikely to break the bank for the sake of it as this is not the way that owner Matthew Benham conducts affairs at the club."
Meanwhile, another club on the south coast, Brighton, are also in rude health heading into the next transfer window.
The Seagulls have earned £200m in profit over the previous two seasons and could repeat last summer's heavy spend of more than £200m if necessary.
However, chief executive Paul Barber has already indicated they will more likely return to their tried and tested model of bringing in relatively unheard of players from unfamiliar markets.
Brighton's biggest challenge is more likely to be keeping hold of the likes of Joao Pedro, Carlos Baleba and Kaoru Mitoma, who are all attracting iring glances from clubs with bigger budgets.
Read more about the early transfer window and what each Premier League club can spend this summer
As the dust settles on the 2024-25 Premier League season, we have been taking a look at some of the alternative ways the the table could have finished...
Many of us will have been there in school.
It was not always about being the best, but about being better. Not trying to beat the others' scores or times, but about beating your own.
In sport too, it is why personal bests exist. It is a way of measuring your own improvement against what has gone before - we can't all be Usain Bolt and Florence Griffith-Joyner.
So if the Premier League season was all about how you compared to the campaign before, who would have come out on top?
Well, there is one clear winner.
With 29 points more than they had in 2023-24, Nottingham Forest would have been lifting that trophy.
They may not have finished the season quite as they hoped having spent so much time in the Champions League spots, but having narrowly avoided relegation a year ago, this shows the sheer scale of the improvement this term.
Their nearest challenger on this basis would have been Brentford.
With 56 points, they were three points short of their best ever Premier League tally, but having flirted with relegation last time out, it made for a more enjoyable season this time around.
Brighton, Bournemouth and Fulham may have just missed out on European adventures in the real league, but they are also teams who can be happy with the improvements they are showing as now well-established top-flight sides.
And despite the chaotic nature of Chelsea since the new ownership came in, they too can look to steady progress.
At the other end of the scale (or table), it is a very different picture.
Many question whether the traditional 'big six' teams is still relevant, given how others have broken that mould in recent years.
But if the season was based on improvement, four of those six would have been at the bottom.
Tottenham dropped-off in the league nearly as much as Forest improved. Manchester City had a high bar to reach, but a torrid spell proved costly. Manchester United have set multiple unwanted club records, while Arsenal struggled to maintain a real challenge for the title.
They say beware the wounded tiger, and it is hard to see all these sides having the same difficulties next season, but they will not have it all their own way with those teams that are on the up.
*All data from Opta and only teams who were in the league in 2023-24
Image source, Getty ImagesAs the early summer transfer window opens, there looks to be movement in the goalkeeping department for Brentford.
With Bayer Leverkusen understood to have agreed a fee of around £8m for 31-year-old Mark Flekken, the Bees are set to sign Liverpool's number two goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.
The clubs have agreed a £12.5m fee for the 26-year-old Republic of Ireland international, rising to £18m in add-ons.
So, what do you make of the deal? Would Kelleher be a good replacement for Flekken? What can he bring to the side?
Bayer Leverkusen have agreed a fee worth 10m euros (£8.43m) to sign 31-year-old Netherlands goalkeeper Mark Flekken from Brentford. (Sky ), external
Want more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip column
Image source, Getty ImagesWe asked for you to tell us what you want Brentford need to do in the summer transfer window.
Here are some of your comments:
Jake: The ideal window will be to try to keep Mbeumo and Wissa at all costs, but we've got the depth for squad players to step up and seek a replacement. A couple of full-backs and a centre-back are a must. Lewis-Potter has done a job this season, but his future will surely lie as a forward.
Roger: If we lose Mbeumo, Sunderland have an amazing player called Mayenda.
Vin: If we lose Mbeumo but hold on to Wissa and our other attackers we'll be fine up front. With Henry and Hickey returning, our defence looks good. More creativity in midfield is where I see us needing to strengthen.
Kev: Don't sell Flekken, Mbeumo, Wissa or Schade. Buy an extra decent midfielder and some more centre-back cover.
Richard: Get a new goalkeeper and a midfielder that make the team better when there are inuries and players out. Then next season we could potentially get Europe, which would be amazing for this club.
Thank you for the you submitted on the Premier League club pages.
Our aim is to contain all of the BBC's in-depth coverage of that team in one place, so it is helpful to hear from you - you are who the pages are for after all.
We are going through all your responses and will take suggestions on board for next season.
As the dust settles on this Premier League campaign, we asked former England international Fara Williams for her underrated XI for the season.
She selected Byran Mbeumo and Yoanne Wissa from Brentford in her team.
I can't have one of these without the other really. For a club who finished 10th to have one player score 19 league goals and another score 20 is incredible.
When Ivan Toney departed last summer everyone wondered how Brentford would make up for his goals and I worried they may struggle to stay in the league without their main man.
However, Thomas Frank has adjusted his system to maximise the effectiveness of Mbeumo and Wissa whose quality and pace has caused so many Premier League teams' defences problems this season.
For context, Toney managed 20 league goals in his best season - and these two got 39 between them! It is an unbelievable goal return.
For Brentford to be fighting for and talking about Europe deep into the season shows how established they have become as a Premier League club and Bees fans must be raving about this duo every week.
There will be the inevitable conversations over whether the club can keep hold of them over the transfer window but regardless of what happens it has been a very special season.
Brentford finished the season as the league's sixth-highest scorers. Including the 11 scored by Kevin Schade, their front three scored 50 combined.
Fara Williams was speaking to BBC Sport's Nat Hayward
The transfer window opens on Sunday - albeit for 10 days initially, mainly so sides competing in the Club World Cup can get early business done - before reopening for the rest of the summer on 16 June.
Are there certain players you are desperate for Brentford to sign, or an area of the squad that needs improving? Or maybe holding on to a key player is your biggest priority.
And what about sales - who needs to go?
So over to you... what names need bringing in and shipping out?
Image source, Getty ImagesBrentford midfielder Yehor Yarmoliuk has signed a new long-term contract, keeping him at the club until 2031 with an option for an extra year.
The Ukraine international signed for the Bees in the summer of 2022 from SC Dnipro-1 and, after initially impressing for the B team and making his first team debut, signed a five-year deal in 2023.
Yarmoliuk made 35 appearances in all competitions in the 2024-25 campaign, with 31 coming in the Premier League.
The 21-year-old started nine of the final ten games of the season and made his senior Ukraine debut against Belgium in March.
"I am very happy to sign a new contract with the first team," he said on the deal. "It just gives me more energy to work even harder.
"I've really enjoyed the season, starting in the Premier League and making my senior Ukraine debut. I'm so proud of myself and just want to keep going.
"You always need to have something to improve. I want to improve everything in my game to take myself and the team to the next level.
"I am so grateful to the club for this, and it gives me more confidence and enjoyment in playing football."
"I'm so pleased," added Bees Thomas Frank.
"It's another big success story for the B team. Neil MacFarlane and his team did a great job to get him ready for the first team.
"He's started the last six games, which is his next step. He's a fantastic pressing player, he's dynamic, and he covers so much of the pitch.
"He's strong in duels and he has a drive to run forward. I like the way he distributes over the pitch.
"Yehor has a few development areas as he's still a young player, but he is another good example of a Brentford player who will make us better in the future and who will also get better himself."
Image source, Getty ImagesAndrew: Where do you see Bryan Mbeumo being at the start of next season? Do Brentford need to sell?
Brentford manager Thomas Frank certainly suggested there is the possibility of a deal to be done when he said: "I would like to keep him but we are a selling club so if someone comes in with the right price…".
The right price would be very expensive give his outstanding form for the Bees, scoring 20 league goals. Surely you are talking around £50m. I can certainly see why Manchester United would be interested if they can afford it, and while Brentford will quite rightly drive a hard bargain I can see a player of such quality moving on in the summer.
Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician
Crystal Palace wing-back Daniel Munoz ranked second in distance covered (242 miles) last season and he also made the most sprints in the Premier League with 907.
Bryan Mbeumo and Milos Kerkez also rank highly, just behind Fulham's American speedster Antonee Robinson.
Newcastle's Anthony Gordon completes the top five.
While Gordon ranked fifth for sprints overall across the season, he sprinted more often than any other player, averaging 29 sprints per 90 minutes.
What's in a name? Well if the name's Anthony (or Antonee) then it is sprinting, with Gordon, Elanga and Robinson all in the top five.
Munoz is here again, coming in at fourth, behind Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson.
