Five things players will want to forget from the 2018/19 Premier League season

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  • De Gea's stock has fallen slightly after a difficult 12 months on and off the field.

    A relentless title race between Manchester City and Liverpool went right to the wire and will live long in the memory for fans of both clubs and neutrals alike.

    But this season has also seen plenty of moments some players would rather forget.

    Penalty points for Mahrez

    Perhaps we should be grateful to Riyad Mahrez because without his horrible penalty miss in October, the title race might have been very different.

    Manchester City went to Anfield looking for their first league win away to Liverpool in 15 years, and were handed a glorious chance to take it when Virgil Van Dijk fouled Leroy Sane in the 85th minute. But Mahrez, having waved Gabriel Jesus away, hit a wild penalty kick way over the bar.

    De Gea’s debacles

    Having been Manchester United’s rock for so long, a string of mistakes from David De Gea contributed to the collapse of their top-four hopes in the final weeks of the season.

    Although it was a draw at Huddersfield which finally ruled them out of contention, the key result was a 1-1 draw with rivals Chelsea at Old Trafford, when Marcos Alonso capitalised on a mistake from De Gea to cancel out Juan Mata’s opener.

    De Gea failed to hold what should have been a routine save from Antonio Rudiger, allowing Alonso to fire in the rebound.

    Pickford’s troubles

    Jordan-Pickford

    Several England players seemed to carry a World Cup hangover into the Premier League season, but Jordan Pickford’s lasted the longest. There was his meltdown against Newcastle, rivals of his boyhood club Sunderland, and unsavoury scenes on a night out back home, but the biggest howler came in the Merseyside derby.

    Everton were on course for a valuable point at Anfield until his inexplicable mis-handling of Virgil Van Dijk’s soft, looping header in stoppage time gifted Divock Origi a stunning winner.

    AK47’s mis-fire

    There is not much Fulham will want to remember about a wretched season which saw them get through three managers on their way straight back to the Championship despite huge investment last summer.

    But the worst moment of all came in December when they were awarded a late penalty against Huddersfield. Aboubakar Kamara wrestled with team-mate Aleksandar Mitrovic – the team’s designated penalty taker – for the ball but, having won the right to take it, saw a tame effort saved by Jonas Lossl.

    Kamara earned the scorn of manager Claudio Ranieri and, following a training ground incident a few weeks later which led to his arrest, was farmed out on loan to Yeni Malatyaspor for the rest of the campaign.

    Miss of the season?

    There are a few candidates for this crown. Southampton’s Shane Long hitting the post of an open goal against rivals Bournemouth; City’s Sergio Aguero firing wide from point-blank range against Chelsea (mitigated by the fact he went on to score a hat-trick).

    But the winner is surely Matt Ritchie, who missed the target from less than a yard against Burnley in November. His only saving grace is that Newcastle won 2-1 despite it.

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