Arsenal took the final Champions League spot, having led the league for a large part of the season before injuries to key players and a terrible run of form in the spring starting with a 5–1 loss at Liverpool, as well as heavy away losses at Chelsea (6–0) and Everton (3–0), ultimately consigned them to their sixth fourth-place finish in eight years, though they at least ended their nine-year trophy drought by winning the FA Cup.

Roberto Martínez's first season in charge of Everton saw the blue half of Merseyside take fifth place, making a serious challenge for the final Champions League spot, but ultimately falling short.

Their season had begun reasonably well, but quickly imploded after promotion-winning manager Malky Mackay was controversially sacked after a fall-out with club owner Vincent Tan in regards to tactics.

Norwich City occupied the third relegation spot, as an inability to score (they were outscored by Suárez), atrocious away form (winning just twice) and a disastrous end to the season that saw them pick up just 1 point from a possible 21, as well as the sacking of Chris Hughton and appointment of youth team coach Neil Adams all cost them dearly, and resulted in them returning to the Championship after three years.

After last season's play-off heartbreak, Leicester City ended their decade-long exile from the Premier League by gaining promotion as champions, topping the division on Boxing Day and never surrendering their lead.

Joining them were Burnley, who many had tipped for relegation, but ultimately achieved automatic promotion in Sean Dyche's first full season in charge of the Lancashire club.

Queens Park Rangers had to settle for the play-offs after topping the table for much of the first half of the season, scraping past Derby County in the final at Wembley to make an instant return to the Premier League.

The Latics overcame the sacking of Owen Coyle, with his replacement Uwe Rosler guiding them to the play-off places, going unbeaten in 16 of his first 18 league matches along the way, but they couldn't finish higher than 5th and they lost to QPR in the playoff semifinals in extra time.

Reading missed the playoffs by a single point after Brighton grabbed a late winner against Nottingham Forest, but the Royals were in contention for promotion for virtually the whole season, with inconsistent form preventing them from finishing higher.

As it transpired, they lost to Leicester, whilst Birmingham staged a miraculous comeback to draw at Bolton (having been two goals down with 14 minutes remaining), equalizing in the final few seconds of the game to send Doncaster back to League One after just a year.

After two successive relegations, Wolverhampton Wanderers turned their fortunes around under Kenny Jackett and made an immediate return to the Championship, while also setting a new record of 103 points for the third tier.

Brentford shrugged off the loss of Wigan-bound Uwe Rosler and took the runners-up spot as replacement boss Mark Warburton enjoyed a highly successful first season as manager, taking the Bees to the second tier for the first time in 21 years.

But arguably, perhaps the biggest surprise of the whole English season was Sheffield United; in the relegation zone by September, they sacked manager David Weir and replaced him with Nigel Clough.

Cambridge United fell short after battling with Luton for the title during the majority of the season, but ultimately won promotion through the play-offs, returning to the League after nine years in the Conference.