At least one Premiership reality is changed - for the first time ever, the team bottom at Christmas got to survive. In fact, the team bottom on the final day survived.
For a few years, I have to admit having no more than a passing interest in the Premiership. Most weekends, I don't even get around to seeing the goal highlights. I've got Sky Sports at home but, honestly, the only live games I watch are those screened in pubs before City matches and they're watched while talking away to mates.
Champions League is no different. It goes on forever in a league format designed to give the biggest clubs as long as possible in the tournament, ensure they make multi-millions and give them opportunity to overcome bad nights and results. I lose all interest becuase of that. I'll probably watch the final but only watched the odd half hour of televised games during the season - not one full match and no highlights programmes.
It's good that Liverpool bucked the trend this season and Porto last season but, other than that, it's the same sides competing year in, year out when it gets down to the real action.
I admit I only support Cardiff City (and Wales) and don't have a second team - unless you count a passing interest for Hamilton in Scotland. I thought it must be peculiar to me and then I read some info that made me realise why it is such a yawn and I'm not alone in my disinterest. Some of the following detail is culled from a WSC article.
The top three this year were the same as the top three last year and unless Glazer effs up United immediately, it will be the same top three next year too. Only the finishing order of those three may change. In most seasons, you can rely on Liverpool being 4th. As average and bland as they were this season, they still missed out on achieveing it once more by just one place.
The team that finished 4th - Everton - are only the fourth side in a decade outside of the Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United and Liverpool quarterr to finish in the top 4.
It's not the first time we've had dominant forces in football. When I grew up, Liverpool were the team domestically and internationally. They won the First Division (as it was) 9 times between 1973 to 1986 but, a big difference was that a different side finished second to them on every occasion. 15 different clubs made up the top four in that time.
Also, Liverpool's dominance never extended to FA Cups. Sure, they won a couple but so did Sunderland, West Ham, Southampton, Man United, Ipswich, Arsenal, Spurs and Everton over that period.
Of course, the myth says, the big teams are so focussed on Premiership and Champions League glory and its millions that they don't take the FA Cup seriously any more. It's a dsitraction, the magic's gone, they put out weakened teams, Manchester United didn't even bother competing. Yet next weekend will be the 14th time in the last 15 years that the Big Four will have won the trophy. That's why the magic has gone.
Back to the Premiership and well done to Everton and David Moyes for finishing fourth and making Champions League. Yet they were closer to Southampton who finished bottom than Chelsea who won it. They had a goal difference of -1 (a minus difference for 4th place FFS). The team who finished 2nd, Arsenal, were so superior that they shafted The Toffeemen 7-0 just a week ago. In fact, Everton were asclose in points to Portsmouth in 16th were as they were to Arsenal just 2 places ahead of them. Never can "Champions League, you're 'aving a laugh" be sung with more truth than to Everton fans today. Champions, I ask you.
Back to the bottom - and as we all know from Newton's Law of Gravity - what goes up must come down. He probably had Championship sides in mind when he discovered this. Its Champions have come straight back as were its play-off winners, the runners-up just scraped in for another year.
We're now shocked if less than two of the promoted sides survive their debut Premiership season. For a long while, it looked like this would be the second time in 7 years that all three promoted sides were immediately relegated. Yet in 20 years pre-Premiership, of 60 clubs who got promoted, just 9 failed to survive their debut season. Promoted teams now set their sights on finishing last but one, consolidation isn't a word in Premiership newcomer dictionaries.
Their target used to be 40 points to stay up but not any more. For the second season in succession, all three relegated sides went down with 33 points or less.
Let's congratulate West Brom for staying up with 34 points from 38 games - the lowest average points total for survival ever. Only two years ago, West Ham went down with 42 points - that was still two short of safety. 42 points this season would have seen them finish 4 places higher and in cruise control for the final three weeks of the season.
It's amazing to think we all have a "dream" to join this "elite". Of course I'd love to be there watching Cardiff City too. I'd take an interest in the Premiership. I suppose I’d even savour annual easy beatings against Chelsea, United and Arsenal and, if it ever happens, I’d regard last day survival as one of our greatest achievements ever.
But is that what football dreams are now about? These days, I can dream about better things than that.