Premier Cup

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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 15 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:

In total, the tournament consists of four stages, namely the quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals, and the third-place playoffs, all of which, barring the latter two, 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. Similarly, both the finals and the third-place playoffs also take place at simultaneous times with the finals being held at Wembley Stadium in London and the third-place playoffs at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester.

Similar to most football tournaments, penalty shootouts are 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 15 May 2019. The results of the draw, which was televised live on BBC Sport and Sky Sport, are as follows:

Quarter-finals

On 18 May 2019, the first leg of the quarter-finals of the tournament took place. In this, Tottenham Hotspur started off strong with a 2-0 win over Arsenal while both Manchester City and Burnley each recorded a dominant victory over their opponents, namely Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers, defeating them 4-0 and 5-1 respectively. In contrast, both Manchester United and Chelsea drew 1-1 in the first leg, leaving the true winner uncertain for the second leg. Among some notable moments include a Sergio Agüero hat-trick against Liverpool as well as Virgil van Dijk's sending-off, leaving him unable to participate in the second leg for which he was suspended.

Then, on 25 May 2019, the second leg of the quarter-finals took place with Tottenham Hotspur reinforcing their early lead with two further goals in the second leg against Arsenal, which was similarly done by Manchester City, whom reinforced their early lead via a 2-1 win over Liverpool to win 6-1 on aggregate. In the meantime, Manchester United scored thrice in the second leg to mark a final 4-2 win on aggregate against Chelsea while Burnley's 5-1 lead over Wolverhampton Wanderers remained mostly unchanged, with neither side able to score any additional goals in the second leg. Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur winger, Son Heung-min, despite his club's victory, was otherwise suspended for the first leg of the semi-finals after having picked up his second cumulative yellow card.

Draw

For the semi-finals, the four remaining clubs are drawn against each other via a lucky draw held on 28 May 2019. The results of the draw, which was televised live on BBC Sport and Sky Sport, are as follows:

Semi-Finals

On 1 June 2019, the first leg of the semi-finals took place. Against initial expectations, Manchester United were held to a 1-1 draw against Burnley while Tottenham Hotspur, via two penalty goals from Erik Lamela and an additional goal from Mousa Dembélé, marked a surprise 3-1 win over Manchester City, whose lone goal came via Fernandinho at the 92nd minute in extra time. Meanwhile, in a second red card instance of the tournament, Manchester United defender, Ashley Young was sent off, leaving him ineligible to participate in the second half while Tottenham Hotspur winger, Son Heung-min, having served his initial suspension, is otherwise eligible to return for the second leg.

On 8 June 2019, the second leg of the semi-finals took place. In this, despite overwhelming dominance, Manchester United failed to break the deadlock against Burnley, resulting in a penalty shootout which they eventually won 5-3 to progress to the finals. Meanwhile, in a close match between the other two semi-finalists, Tottenham Hotspur, despite a narrow 1-2 loss in the second leg, successfully held on to their initial 3-1 lead and eventually concluded the match with a final 4-3 win on aggregate, with Dele Alli scoring once to ensure his club's progress to the finals after Manchester City briefly tied their opponents on aggregate via goals from David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne. Despite this, Tottenham Hotspur defender, Ben Davies, having picked up a red card, is rendered ineligible for the finals. At the same time, Manchester United defender, Ashley Young, is otherwise eligible for the finals, having served his initial suspension for the second leg.

Finals & Third-place Playoffs

On 15 June 2019, the final match of the tournament was held at Wembley Stadium, London, pitting Manchester United against Tottenham Hotspur. In front of a sold-out crowd at Wembley Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur ultimately emerged victorious via a 5-0 win over Manchester United, with star forward, Harry Kane scoring twice to add onto goals by teammates, Danny Rose, Son Heung-min, and Mousa Dembélé.

In the meantime, for the third-place playoff match at Old Trafford, Manchester, Manchester City emerged victorious over Burnley via a 3-1 win during which, despite a dominant performance and goals from David Silva and Vincent Kompany, Manchester City was almost held to a draw after a late Matěj Vydra goal saw Burnley came close to equalising with their opponents before a Leroy Sané goal in extra time confirmed Manchester City's final 3-1 victory.

Aftermath

By the end of the tournament, the distinctions of top goalscorer and top assister both went to Manchester City players, namely Sergio Agüero and Bernardo Silva with four goals and four assists in total respectively. In the meantime, Tottenham Hotspur's star forward, Harry Kane was named the best player of the tournament while teammate and club captain, Hugo Lloris was named the best goalkeeper of the tournament, having kept the most number of clean sheets with three in total, followed closely behind by Burnley's Nick Pope with two clean sheets.

In the ensuing aftermath of the tournament, Queen Alexandra personally presented the winners' trophy to Tottenham Hotspur captain, Hugo Lloris and the silver medals to Manchester United players while former English footballer, William Smith personally handed out the bronze medals to players of third-placed Manchester City.

Meanwhile, following Tottenham Hotspur's victory in the tournament, calls for them to contest a two-legged final against Scottish club, Celtic soon picked up pace with advocates of it generally clamoring for a "rematch" of the Coronation Cup, which was won by Celtic, thereby making them the unofficial champions of Britain. Eventually, such a suggestion was mutually agreed upon by both clubs with the first leg taking place at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the second leg afterward at Celtic Park. In the end, Tottenham Hotspur won the match 2-1 on aggregate via goals from Son Heung-min and Jan Vertonghen while Celtic replied once via Tom Rogic. Consequently, Tottenham Hotspur are considered by some to be the new unofficial champions of Britain after having successfully dethroned the previous titleholder, Celtic.

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