Premier Cup

The Premier Cup was a one-off football tournament held to mark the coronation of Queen Alexandra on 1 August 2019. Contested between eight English football clubs, the tournament lasted for over five weeks, beginning from 18 May 2019 to 10 June 2019.

Initially envisioned to include Scottish clubs of the Scottish Premiership as well, the tournament ultimately came to include eight Premier League clubs, namely:

• Manchester City: 2017-18 Premier League champions
• Manchester United: 2017-18 Premier League runner-up
• Chelsea: 2017-18 FA Cup champions
• Arsenal: 2018-19 UEFA Europa League runner-up
• Liverpool: 2018-19 UEFA Champions League champions
• Tottenham Hotspur: 2018-19 UEFA Champions League runner-up
• Burnley: 2018-19 UEFA Europa League qualifiers
• Wolverhampton Wanderers: 2019-20 UEFA Europa League qualifiers

In total, the tournament consisted of three stages, namely the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the finals along with the third-place playoffs, all of which, barring the finals and the third-place playoffs, are two-legged occasions played at both home and away. Meanwhile, the clubs that compete in the tournament are drawn against one another at random via a lucky draw, and their fixtures in the quarter-finals and semi-finals are played simultaneously. Meanwhile, the finals was held at Wembley Stadium, London while the third-place playoffs was held at Old Trafford, Manchester.

Similar to most football tournaments, penalty shootouts were used to break any potential deadlocks while a player who has accumulated two cumulative yellow cards or simply a red card is declared ineligible for the next match and must therefore wait out the suspension period before being allowed to return.

Draw

For the quarter-finals, the eight clubs competing in the tournament are randomly grouped into four groups of two via a lucky draw held on 14 May 2019. The results of the draw, which was televised live on BBC Sport and Sky Sport, are as follows:

• Arsenal V Liverpool
• Manchester United V Tottenham Hotspur
• Manchester City V Wolverhampton Wanderers
• Burnley V Chelsea

Quarter-finals

On 18 May 2019, the first leg of the quarter-finals of the tournament took place with Manchester City starting the tournament off with a dominant 4-0 win over minnows Burnley. Similarly, Tottenham Hotspur also made a strong start to the tournament, defeating Manchester United 3-0 via a brace from Dele Alli. In the meantime, Chelsea were held to a 0-0 draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers while Liverpool emerged narrowly triumphant, defeating Arsenal 2-1. In the meantime, Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba was sent off, rendering him ineligible for the second leg.

Then, on 22 May 2019, the second leg of the quarter-finals took place. In this, Manchester City mostly met expectations in a 2-1 win over Burnley to defeat the latter 6-1 on aggregate. Meanwhile, after being initially held to a draw, Chelsea subsequently destroyed Wolverhampton Wanderers 5-0 in the second leg to advance to the next round. On the other hand, in spite of a previously dominant performance in the first leg, a 2-3 defeat in the second leg saw Tottenham Hotspur almost eliminated from the tournament if not for a final 5-3 win on aggregate, thereby eliminating Manchester United. Lastly, despite a 1-1 draw in the second leg, Liverpool successfully defeated Arsenal 3-2 on aggregate courtesy of their previous 2-1 lead.

Draw

For the semi-finals, the four remaining clubs are drawn against each other via a lucky draw held on 25 May 2019. The results of the draw, which was televised live on BBC Sport and Sky Sport, are as follows:

• Tottenham Hotspur V Chelsea
• Manchester City V Liverpool

Semi-Finals

On 1 June 2019, the first leg of the semi-finals took place. Consisting of two matches in total, the first saw Liverpool marking a dominant 3-0 win over Manchester City while the second saw Tottenham Hotspur mark a similarly dominant 3-1 win over Chelsea. In the meantime, Manchester City midfielder David Silva was sent off, rendering him ineligible for the second leg.

On 5 June 2019, the second leg of the semi-finals took place. In the end, despite an otherwise strong performance that saw them drew 4-4 with their opponents, Manchester City were ultimately defeated by Liverpool 4-7 on aggregate. Otherwise, despite losing 1-2 in the second leg, Tottenham Hotspur profited well from their initial 3-1 lead to ultimately defeat Chelsea 4-3 on aggregate, thereby advancing to the finals to face Liverpool while Chelsea was left to face Manchester City in the third-place playoffs. In the midst of this, Liverpool's Naby Keïta was semt off, thereby leaving him ineligible for the finals, a fate also suffered by Chelsea's Cesc Fàbregas.

Finals & Third-Place Playoffs

On 10 June 2019, the final match of the tournament was held at Wembley Stadium, London, pitting Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool. In the end, Liverpool emerged victorious over Tottenham Hotspur, defeating them 2-0.

On that same day, the third-place playoffs was held at Old Trafford, Manchester, contested between the semi-finals losers Manchester City and Chelsea. In the end, Chelsea successfully secured a third-place finish via a 3-0 win over their opponents, with Willian, Eden Hazard, and N'Golo Kanté scoring a goal each.

Aftermath

By the end of the tournament, the designation of top goalscorer and top assister respectively were awarded to Liverpool's Roberto Firmino (who shares the award with Manchester City's Sergio Agüero) and Chelsea's Cesc Fàbregas with 3 goals and 4 assists respectively.

In the meantime, given their victory in the tournament, calls for Premier Cup champions Liverpool to face Coronation Cup champions Celtic gradually grew in popularity with the main intention being to decide the "official champions of Britain" given that the Scottish side had previously been declared "unofficial champions" as victors of the Coronation Cup. Eventually, it was agreed upon by both clubs that a two-legged match will take place to decide the final outcome with the first leg being held at Anfield and the second leg at Celtic Park on 16 and 20 June 2019 respectively. To that end, in the first leg at home, despite a dominant performance, goals from Leigh Griffiths and Scott Sinclair saw Liverpool unexpectedly find themselves down by 2-0 at match's end. However, in the second leg at Celtic Park, goals from Sadio Mané and James Milner, with the latter scoring a 88th-minute penalty, effectively denied the Scottish club a quick victory and which subsequently led to a penalty shootout where an error by Celtic's James Forrest in the fourth attempt was capitalised upon by Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk to ultimately make it 5-4 for the English side who were subsequently crowned "official champions of Britain".