The 2018–19 season was the 139th season of competitive association football in England.
National teams
England national football team
Kits
Results and fixtures
Friendlies
2018–19 UEFA Nations League A
Group 4
2019 UEFA Nations League Finals
UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying
Group A
England U-21 national football team
2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification
Group 4
2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
The final draw was held on 23 November 2018, 18:00 CET (UTC+1), in Bologna. The 12 teams are drawn into three groups of four teams. Hosts Italy are assigned to position A1 in the draw, while the other teams are seeded according to their coefficient ranking following the end of the qualifying stage, calculated based on the following:
England U-19 national football team
2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship
Group B
Knockout stage
England U-17 national football team
2019 UEFA European Under-17 Championship
Group B
England women's national football team
Results and fixtures
Friendlies
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification (UEFA)
UEFA Group 1
2019 SheBelieves Cup
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup
Group D
Knockout stage
England women's national under-20 football team
2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup
Group B
The official draw was held on 8 March 2018 at the Rennes Opera House in Rennes.
Knockout stage
England women's national under-17 football team
2019 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification
Group 5
UEFA competitions
UEFA Champions League
Group stage
Group B
Group C
Group F
Group H
Knockout phase
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Notes
Semi-finals
Final
The final was played on 1 June 2019 at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the quarter-final and semi-final draws. It was the second all-English final in the competition's history and the first since 2008.
UEFA Europa League
Qualifying phase and play-off round
Second qualifying round
Third qualifying round
Play-off round
Group stage
Group E
Group L
Knockout phase
Round of 32
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Notes
Semi-finals
Final
The final was played on 29 May 2019 at the Olympic Stadium in Baku. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the quarter-final and semi-final draws. It was the second all-English final in the competition's history and the first since 1972, when it was first known as the UEFA Cup.
UEFA Youth League
Group stage
Group B
Group C
Group F
Group H
Domestic Champions Path
First round
Second round
Play-offs
Knockout phase
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
The final was played on 29 April 2019 at Colovray Stadium, Nyon.
UEFA Women's Champions League
Knockout phase
Round of 32
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Men's football League DivisionPromoted to league Relegated from league Premier League Wolverhampton Wanderers Cardiff City Fulham West Bromwich Albion Stoke City Swansea City Championship Wigan Athletic Blackburn Rovers Rotherham United Barnsley Burton Albion Sunderland League One Accrington Stanley Luton Town Wycombe Wanderers Coventry City Bury MK Dons Northampton Town Oldham Athletic League Two Macclesfield Town Tranmere Rovers Barnet Chesterfield National League Havant & Waterlooville Salford City Harrogate Town Braintree Town Chester Guiseley Torquay United Woking
Premier League
In one of the closest title races since the formation of the Premier League, with a new points total set for finishing second, Manchester City became the first top-flight team in a decade to retain their title in part thanks to a late run that saw them win their last 14 games – despite falling short in the Champions League, the Sky Blues became the first team in English football to complete a domestic treble, by once again retaining the League Cup and securing their first FA Cup since 2011. Liverpool finished second, missing out on ending their wait for a league title once again, despite pushing City all the way to the final day and once again finishing their league campaign unbeaten at Anfield as well as having been top at Christmas; however, it was in Europe that the Reds enjoyed more success as they made it to a second successive Champions League final against the odds, including a stunning 4–0 victory at home to Barcelona - and ultimately made amends for the previous season's loss, winning their sixth European title and their first under manager Jurgen Klopp.
The battle for the top four also proved to be a close-run battle, with each of Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United fighting for the last two Champions League spots – in the end, securing the spots for Europe's elite competition were Chelsea, who also reached the final of the League Cup and won the Europa League to at least ensure a trophy but endured another disappointing league campaign that saw talk of a potential third title in five seasons rapidly fade away in the New Year, and Tottenham Hotspur, who also saw talk of a potential title win diminish owing in part to a poor run of league form from March onwards; however, the North London side more than made up for this by also reaching their first ever Champions League final in a European run that saw them narrowly edge past both Manchester City and Dutch front-runners Ajax, ultimately falling to fellow English side Liverpool in a tight final. Arsenal and Manchester United were forced to settle for fifth and sixth respectively, the Gunners missing out on Champions League qualification once again on two different fronts, falling to Chelsea in the Europa League final to mark a disappointing end to Unai Emery's first season in charge, whilst the Red Devils endured a problematic season across all tournaments with even the sacking of manager José Mourinho and then the temporary appointment of United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjær (an act later made permanent) failing to provide much spark to the Manchester side.
Wolverhampton Wanderers enjoyed the best top-flight season for a newly promoted side since Ipswich Town in 2001, finishing 7th; this represented their best finish in the English pyramid since finishing 6th in 1980. 7th was also enough for the Europa League qualifying rounds, and this, added to a run to the semi-finals of the FA Cup - their longest such run in 21 years - earned Portuguese manager Nuno Espírito Santo and his team plenty of praise. Leicester City endured a troubling season both on and off the pitch, first suffering tragedy with the death of club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in a helicopter crash shortly after a 1–1 home draw with West Ham United – with the Foxes then enduring a run of poor results against lesser sides in 2019, including a third-round FA Cup exit at the hands of League Two side Newport County, resulting in the dismissal of manager Claude Puel; however, the appointment of former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers helped push the club back up the table and to a top-ten finish.
Watford finished not far behind the Foxes, also enjoying their greatest top-flight season since finishing 2nd in 1984, the Hornets breaking the 50 point barrier and narrowly missing out on the top ten on top of reaching the final of the FA Cup for the first time in over 30 years, ultimately failing at the hands of Manchester City. Having successfully qualified for the qualifying rounds of the Europa League the previous season, Burnley endured a troublesome first half of the campaign that saw them first narrowly miss out on a Europa League group stage spot and then find themselves firmly in the relegation zone at Christmas; however, the return of influential goalkeeper Tom Heaton after Boxing Day saw the Clarets fight their way out of the bottom three with games to spare. A very poor start to the season saw Southampton stuck in a relegation battle for the second season running, resulting in the dismissal of Mark Hughes in early December – despite the threat of the drop hanging over them until the closing months, a resurgence under former RB Leipzig manager and Austrian Ralph Hasenhüttl saw the Saints climb away from the bottom three and towards safety with games to spare.
At the bottom of the table, both Huddersfield Town and Fulham endured early relegations – the two clubs never really looking like escaping the drop; whilst the Terriers (who arguably found themselves suffering from second season syndrome) saved some face by narrowly avoiding breaking the records for the most defeats and most goals conceded in a 38-game season, the London side fell back into the Championship at the first time of asking in almost similar fashion to their previous top-flight season by having three different managers throughout the campaign and conceding more goals than anyone else. The fight to avoid the final spot proved to be much closer, with Cardiff City once again falling back into the second tier after just one season – a consequence of a poor start to the season and several defeats from winnable games, though the Bluebirds at least went down fighting in a season also marked with off-field tragedy, with the death of club record signing Emiliano Sala on his way to joining the team for the first time; in addition, as a result of Cardiff's relegation and Swansea's failure to mount a real promotion charge, it meant that the Premier League would not have a Welsh presence for the first time in nine seasons.
Championship
Despite making a slow start to the season on top of losing star player James Maddison to Leicester City in the summer, Norwich City secured their third promotion to the Premier League in eight seasons – whilst a late run of draws in April threatened to derail the Canaries' hopes, the Norfolk side never looked like falling out of the top two and secured promotion in German head coach Daniel Farke's second season in charge. The battle for second place went down to the wire between Yorkshire sides Leeds United and Sheffield United – but it was ultimately the Blades who won the fight, securing their second promotion in three seasons and returning to the top-flight for the first time since 2007, earning manager Chris Wilder his first taste of the top-flight; as with the previous few seasons, a horrendous late-season run ultimately proved costly to Leeds, to the point where they only even managed to finish as high as third due to West Bromwich Albion failing to win their own final game of the season; both teams were subsequently knocked out in the play-off semi-finals. Instead taking the final promotion spot were Aston Villa in what proved to be a roller coaster campaign, the Villans making amends for their play-off final loss the previous season and ending a three-year absence from the top-flight in Dean Smith's first season as manager - at the expense of Derby County, who none-the-less enjoyed a fantastic season under new manager Frank Lampard.
Swansea City's first season in the Championship since 2011 saw them stuck mostly in mid-table – with growing fan protests off-field towards the running of the club that had seen them relegated resulting in the resignation of the Swans' long-time chairman Huw Jenkins in early 2019. Likewise, having been widely tipped to win promotion back to the top-flight at the first attempt, Stoke City endured a largely mediocre league season that saw them fight more to avoid relegation rather than win promotion, draw a staggering 22 times and change managers twice. Having made a strong start to their league season, a collapse in form nearly saw Wigan Athletic relegated from the second tier for the third time in five seasons; however, the Manchester-based club recovered enough in the second half of the season to escape the drop and ensure a second successive season on the second level of league football.