Wednesday 20 December 2017 08:13, UK
From cup embarrassments to shock departures, we look at your club's worst day of 2017.
Chelsea claimed the title, Man City broke winning records, Claudio Ranieri was sacked just nine months after winning the title and the FA Cup provided several infamous shocks - 2017 has seen football fans treated to plenty of ups and downs.
Here, Gerard Brand, Ben Reynolds and Josue Ngandu take a look at each Premier League club's worst football-related days of the year...
August 27 - Humbled at Anfield
A topsy-turvy summer culminated in a turbulent week for Arsene Wenger and Arsenal as the futures of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez momentarily took a back seat at Anfield.
Liverpool ran riot over a poor Arsenal side, who were humiliated and picked apart by wave after wave of attack.
The post-mortem lasted a few days, before a dramatic Deadline Day saw Sanchez stay, but targets Thomas Lemar and Raheem Sterling stay put too. A week to forget for the club.
February 25 - Another defeat
Bournemouth were slipping fast in late February, when West Brom came from behind to win 2-1 and inflict a fourth straight defeat on Eddie Howe's men, leaving them with just 12 games to earn 14 points and reach that all-important 40-point mark.
Artur Boruc's poor mistake allowed Gareth McAuley to score the winner, and Howe was in a defiant mood after the game: "Destiny is in our own hands and we've got to force it our way."
Then came an action-packed draw at Old Trafford, before the dramatic 3-2 win over West Ham.
May 7 - Losing title by a nose
It seems strange to mark the final day of Brighton's best season in recent memory as one of their worst, but that says more about the Seagulls' progress in 2017.
Leading 1-0 at Aston Villa going into the final moments, Jack Grealish's messy equaliser handed Newcastle the Championship title by a single point.
"Today is a negative day, it's difficult, but there are far more pluses," Chris Hughton reflected.
February 18 - FA Cup embarrassment
Not many spared Burnley a thought after non-league Lincoln earned one of the most famous FA Cup results in history thanks to Sean Raggett's late winner at Turf Moor in the fifth round.
Lincoln became the first non-league side to reach the last eight in 103 years, while Burnley again failed to make the quarter-final for a 14th straight season.
Joey Barton's on-field antics with Matt Rhead did nothing to reduce the embarrassment.
July 31 - Matic leaves for a rival
It has stumped many since. Just why did Chelsea allow Nemanja Matic to leave for a Premier League title rival?
So often Jose Mourinho's star man at Chelsea during his second stint, the 29-year-old Serb was sold to United, prompting many to question Conte's transfer policy.
It even shocked Mourinho himself: "I was surprised when his agent called me to say 'do you want him?' When he told me 'you can have him if you want', of course I want."
The Blues signed Tiemoue Bakayoko from Monaco in his position to compete with N'Golo Kante, and though time will tell whether he succeeds, just a handful of performances in a United shirt by Matic proved that Chelsea had strengthened a rival.
May 23 - Big Sam decides to leave
Following a jump up the table, winning 24 points from 17 games in 2016/17, Crystal Palace were desperate to keep Sam Allardyce for the next campaign.
Palace fans started believing they could push on and finish in the top half of the Premier League for the first time, but Allardyce announced a shock departure from the club only five months into his two-and-a-half-year contract.
Allardyce said he would be open to an international manager position, but not another club job, which would leave a bitter taste in Palace fans' mouths after he signed an 18-month contract for Everton in late November.
November 26 - Leaking goals
Managerless Everton conceded four or more for the third time this season and nine goals in four days as Southampton capitalised on a side severely lacking in belief.
Southampton hadn't scored four or more goals in a Premier League game since May 2016, but Everton's shambolic defending allowed the hosts, not beaming with confidence themselves, to run riot.
Caretaker manager David Unsworth said after the game: ''I can't stand here and defend the players today. It was a totally unacceptable performance, especially in the second half, and the Everton fans are quite rightly going to be furious with that but so am I. It's not good enough or our football club.''
April 1 - Automatic hopes fading
Two months before promotion, Huddersfield still had dreams of reaching the automatic spots, sitting six points behind second-place Brighton with a game in hand.
But they ended the evening nine behind as Burton stole a last-minute 1-0 victory at the John Smith's Stadium, their fourth defeat in six games.
In a year full of highs, this was most certainly a low. They continued their indifferent form for the next six weeks, but made the play-offs, and the rest was history…
February 23 - Addio, Claudio
The harshest sacking in Premier League history? Claudio Ranieri was dismissed as Leicester City just nine months after winning the Premier League title.
Despite their poor league form, some Leicester fans were outraged, as were the neutrals. Niall Quinn said ''Leicester lost their soul'', while Alan Smith labelled it ''the worst football decision in 10 years".
Jamie Redknapp slammed Leicester players, specifically singling out Riyad Mahrez, PFA player of the year in 2016, calling him ''gutless''.
Ranieri defended his players after his dismissal saying ''I refused to believe my players killed me, no, no, no," but Leicester were suddenly the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons.
January 28 - Out of the Cup
Liverpool were knocked out of their second cup competition in four days, beaten 2-1 by Championship side Wolves at Anfield.
Having just been beaten by Southampton in the EFL Cup semi-finals, Liverpool suffered a third consecutive home loss in all competitions for the first time since October 2012.
The result confirmed Liverpool would not go on to win any silverware in Jurgen Klopp's second season in charge, having lost in two cup finals in the 2015/16 campaign.
Klopp went on to say: ''I could look for excuses but I don't want to, maybe we should use this time to be disappointed, to be frustrated, to be angry at ourselves. All I can say is sorry.''
January 15 - Humbled at Everton
For City, 2017 will end far brighter than it started.
Everton produced a brilliant performance to stun City, whose Premier League title hopes were at that point over, according to manager Pep Guardiola.
Goals from Romelu Lukaku, Kevin Mirallas, Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman gave Everton a 4-0 victory, having happily soaked up 71 per cent of City's possession.
It left City 10 points off leaders Chelsea, and asked after the game if the gap was too great, Guardiola replied: "Yes. Ten is a lot of points."
December 10 - Slipping further behind City
United haven't endured too many nightmare days in 2017, having won two cup competitions, but December 10 marked a chance to reduce Man City's lead at the top of the Premier League to five points.
In a title-chase six-pointer, United posted a 35 per cent possession figure, their lowest at Old Trafford in the Premier League since 2003/04 (when Opta started collecting this data), losing 2-1 to their bitter rivals.
It ended with drama off the pitch, but on it, United simply failed to stop the City juggernaut and fell 11 points behind.
August 31 - Firing blanks in the market
Before we had even reached September, there were major signs of discontent at Newcastle.
Rafa Benitez had spoken several times in the media about a lack of funding in the summer, with his desire to push Newcastle into a top-half side after bouncing straight back to the Premier League.
Deadline Day saw Newcastle linked with Matt Targett, Lucas Perez and Kenedy, but they ended up with nothing.
Benitez had given an exclusive interview to Sky Sports' Patrick Davison just weeks before, not hiding his dissatisfaction at the lack of transfer activity, and Toon fans were feeling concerned come the evening of August 31 that the Spaniard would abandon the club.
February 27 - Bitter final defeat
After reaching their first final in 41 years, Southampton suffered defeat in harsh fashion after a battling performance against Manchester United at Wembley.
Manolo Gabbiadini's goal was wrongly disallowed for offside while the game was poised at 0-0, and goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Jesse Lingard soon had United 2-0 up.
After miraculously forcing their way back into the game with a Gabbiadini double, Southampton's hard work was undone by Ibrahimovic's 87th-minute winner. A bitter pill to swallow for the Saints.
July 22 - Arnautovic leaves
Stoke fought and fought to keep their man, rejecting two bids before a transfer request was handed in, and manager Mark Hughes admitted the situation had become "irredeemable" as Marko Arnautovic moved on to West Ham.
Despite the potential £25m transfer fee, Stoke have missed Arnautovic's influence, and their summer transfer activity mainly centred around improving their defence.
Stoke were eyeing up Schalke's Yevhen Konoplyanka and Salzburg's Valon Berisha, but neither deal came off.
It didn't exactly end amicably, either, with Arnautovic's brother Daniel saying: "Why Marko left Stoke I won't tell you. I can only say that Mr Coates [Peter Coates, Stoke chairman] should clean up his own garbage within the club walls before pointing finger at anyone outside of it."
August 16 - Sigurdsson leaves
It was on the cards for a while, but Gylfi Sigurdsson's departure from Swansea in mid-August marked the end of a superbly fruitful stint in south Wales.
His move to Everton brought a cool £45m, but Swansea will struggle to reinvest that cash to replace someone of Sigurdsson's quality.
The Icelandic midfielder routinely saved the Swans with his goals and creativity, something so obviously lacking this season, as Paul Clement's side look to battle against the drop.
May 5 - Title slips away again
Spurs were always outsiders to catch Chelsea, who had opened up a sizeable lead at the top of the Premier League on the back of 13 straight wins in November and December.
But Mauricio Pochettino's team arrived at the London Stadium having themselves won nine in a row and knew that only a 10th would be enough to continue applying the pressure on Antonio Conte's side.
But it was not to be, with Harry Kane twice denied in the first half before Manuel Lanzini lashed home from five yards out on 65 minutes to score the only goal of a frantic game in east London.
Having conceded the title to Leicester the season before at Chelsea, to do so again at another London rival was tough to take and not only did defeat end Spurs' title hopes, the win meant West Ham were mathematically safe from relegation, giving cause for double celebration for delirious Hammers fans.
May 17 - The merry-go-round continues
In bizarre circumstances, Walter Mazzarri was sacked by Watford before the final game of the season against Man City, but still took charge of the clash.
Mazzarri was humiliated at his 'passing-out parade', with Watford fans singing: "Walter Mazzarri, get out of our club," and chairman Scott Duxbury not even acknowledging his sacking in the matchday programme.
"This club doesn't have the same ambitions, the same mentality as the previous clubs I've been at."
In hindsight, his sacking was the correct decision, but at the time, the managerial merry-go-round and less-than-amicable departure marked another chapter in Watford's chequered recent history behind the scenes.
November 4 - Fans turn on Pulis
Having scored just nine goals in their opening 11 Premier League matches, the trip to Huddersfield threatened to be make-or-break for Tony Pulis' West Brom.
His tactics under severe scrutiny, Pulis persevered with a 5-3-2, including three holding midfielders. A 1-0 defeat, playing over half an hour against 10 men, was the final straw for most Albion fans, who vented their anger at the Welshman throughout.
It was a dark day for West Brom, who seemed to be sleep-walking towards the relegation zone, and the owners gave Pulis just one more game before answering fans' calls to sack him.
November 29 - In the mire
The thought that David Moyes' arrival could spark a West Ham revival had all but disappeared.
After defeat at Watford and a draw at home to Leicester, the trip to Everton had the makings of an early six-pointer, and it all went wrong for Moyes at his former club Everton.
The Toffees raced into a 2-0 lead through Wayne Rooney, before Lanzini missed a chance to halve the deficit from a penalty, and Rooney went on to complete his hat-trick in a thumping 4-0 victory.
"West Ham, wow," said Sky Sports' Paul Merson after the game. That just about summed up the task Moyes had on his hands.
