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 four weeks, beginning on 18 May 2019 and ending on 5 June 2019.

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

In total, the tournament consisted of three stages, namely the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and 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 televised lucky draw and their fixtures in the quarter-finals and semi-finals are played simultaneously. Meanwhile, the finals were held at Wembley Stadium, London while the third-place playoffs were 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.

Having been planned for at least several months in advance, the tournament resulted in the delays of both the 2019 FA Cup Final and the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final which were otherwise rescheduled to take place after the tournament had ended so as to ensure that the competing clubs could focus solely on the tournament.

Venue

For the purpose of the tournament, it was officially agreed that the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, both of which are two-legged occasions, would take place at the grounds of both clubs so as to establish a sense of parity. In the meantime, it was decided that the finals, as the tournament's main highlight, would be held at Wembley Stadium in London as England's largest football stadium while the third-place playoffs, considered secondary in importance to the finals, would be played at the country's second-largest stadium which is Old Trafford in Manchester.

Initially, it was suggested that the recently-opened Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the country's third-largest stadium in terms of capacity, should host the third-place playoffs given its proximity to Wembley Stadium before it was decided that two major events expected to draw in enormous crowds should be held at a considerable distance from each other so as to prevent potential overcrowding and congestion in the capital city of London. In addition, by hosting the third-place playoffs somewhere further north of London, a sense of parity in the tournament could be theoretically established, with Manchester United, the biggest English club in the northern region of England, particularly lobbying for Old Trafford to be used as the venue for the third-place playoffs over other likely competitors such as rivals Manchester City's Etihad Stadium and Liverpool's Anfield. Eventually, on 10 May 2019, the organising committee announced Wembley Stadium and Old Trafford as the venues for the finals and the third-place playoffs respectively.

Draw

For the quarter-finals, the eight clubs competing in the tournament were 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 Sports, are as follows:

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 this, 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. In the meantime, Arsenal midfielder Mesut Özil was sent off although this ultimately proved negligible as they were effectively eliminated by their defeat to Liverpool.

Semi-Finals

On 26 May 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 30 May 2019, the second leg of the semi-finals took place. In the end, despite an otherwise strong performance that saw them draw 4-4 with their opponents, Manchester City were ultimately defeated by Liverpool 4-7 on aggregate courtesy of the latter's previous 3-0 advantage from the first leg. Otherwise, despite losing 1-2 in the second leg, Tottenham Hotspur profited well from their initial 3-1 lead in the first leg to ultimately defeat Chelsea 4-3 on aggregate, thereby advancing to the finals to face Liverpool while Chelsea were left to face Manchester City in the third-place playoffs. In the midst of this, Liverpool midfielder Naby Keïta was sent off, thereby leaving him ineligible for the finals, a fate also suffered by Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fàbregas who was consequently unable to participate in the third-place playoffs.

Finals & Third-Place Playoffs

On 5 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 were 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, Liverpool's Alisson Becker was named the tournament's best goalkeeper.

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 would 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 an 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".

Reception

Despite the fact that the event resulted in the postponement of the finals of two major tournaments, it was otherwise received warmly by most of the public who praised the competitive and gripping nature of some of the matches including the quarter-finals fixture between Arsenal and Liverpool, the semi-finals fixtures between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea and Manchester City and Liverpool, particularly the second legs in which the respective victors emerged as winners by considerably tight margins. The final fixture between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool was also widely received. Similarly, the ensuing match between Liverpool and Celtic was also met with positive praise that mostly centered around the gripping penalty shootout. In addition, Celtic were also praised for their performance against the more superior Liverpool who were initially tipped by many to easily dominate their Scottish opponents.

Coincidentally, Liverpool's 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the tournament's finals was later emulated when the two clubs faced each other again in the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final where Liverpool once again defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2-0. As a result, Liverpool head coach Jürgen Klopp later jokingly described his club's win in the Premier Cup over Tottenham Hotspur as "part one of us defeating Spurs in a major final" with the UEFA Champions League final fixture being referred to as "part two".

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