Premier League clockwatch: Aston Villa survive at expense of Bournemouth!

So there we go: it took a while, but the 2019-20 Premier League is in the books.We’ll see you for more, er, tonight, when Juventus play Sampdoria, again for the Championship play-offs, and again for the start of next season. It’s been (extremely, unprecedentedly) emotional. Ta-ra, mates.

James Redknapp has just called Ziyech “Zye-etch”. Of course he has.

“Even if Mourinho was joking (and I can’t be the only person who suspects an undercurrent of ‘hahaha but seriously guys’),” says James Humphries, “then in all fairness he is still tedious in the extreme, so, y’know, riff away.”

I actually think Mourinho really needed this. For a bit it looked like we were seeing his cycle on warp, and as a consequence, Daniel Levy would have a decision to make. My guess now is that he’ll think he doesn’t, which might not be a great long-term situation, but if he can find his old genius and enthusiasm, you never know.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is happy. He says to get to third from where they were is a “wonderful achievement” from his players. They didn’t play well today, he says, but learning to win games like this is an important staging post. He had to stick with his team because he had to for it, and his team looks more like “a Man United team”, who he says “just go for it”.

“We need to step it up,” he says of being the Champions League, and notes that he can’t rotate in that competition as he did in the Europa, and his players need to “get fitter, stronger and more robust”.

The club – they know what I feel we need,” he says, noting in unspoken parentheses that it’s not what the Glazers feel they need.

“As an Atlanta United supporter,” tweets @MiddleAgedSpidey, “I’m going to claim ‘the Skip’ for King Josef.”

Harry Maguire tells Sky United dipped so much from good to bad performances in the first half of the season, noting how bad his team were at defending set-plays. He says they’ve improved a lot at that, though still messed it up against Southampton, and also notes the arrival of Fernandes. He doesn’t note Pogba and Martial’s injuries, but those made a hige difference too.

Let’s have some reports…

“Southgate must be dropping Pickford now,” tweets Bobby Moore, “especially with both Pope and Henderson consistently doing well. He might be good enough for mid-table Everton, but surely not for an England side aiming for the business end of tournaments?”

Yup, agree. If his best was better, maybe, but it isn’t, which makes him a liability.

“What a joyful league…