EPL: 10 Biggest Disappointments This Season in the Premier League

As the season draws to a close, we inevitably start to cast our minds back to the season we have witnessed.

While some fans may be looking back at the bright side of the season, others will be looking back with a dark cloud hanging over their heads.

So for those of us who are looking at the glass as half empty rather than half full, here are the ten most disappointing things that we have endured in the 2011/12 Premier League season so far.

What have you found to be the most disappointing aspects of the season? Comment below.

Andre Villas-Boas

The season started with so much promise at Stamford Bridge.

After getting rid of Carlo Ancelotti, Roman Abramovich had managed to secure possibly the best young coach in the game with the most expensive fee paid for a manager. One who some thought could be the next José Mourinho.

However after just nine months in charge, with the club under-performing in the league, the 34-year-old was shown the door.

Villas-Boas' biggest problem was that he clearly never gained the respect of the Chelsea dressing room, especially the club's senior players.

After his departure, John Terry claimed that "This can be a learning experience for him."

This is a little condescending, to say the least, and possibly shows that the balance of power at Chelsea should be addressed.

That is not to say that Villas-Boas was not also the architect of his demise. Some of his tactical decisions had to be questioned.

He too often looked to shut up shop rather than look to kill teams off, and this didn't endear him to the club's fans.

It's a shame that his time in the Premier League was so disappointing, but he will surely restore his reputation at his next club.

Arsenal's Start to the Season

While they have since rocketed up the table, no team's form was as disappointing as Arsenal's early season.

With seven games gone, Arsenal had just lost to rivals Spurs and were 15th in the league. They had also endured painful losses to Blackburn and, of course, Manchester United.

Doomsayers were predicting the relegation of the club, and a surprising amount of fans were calling for Arsene Wenger's dismissal.

Where are they now?

Tottenham's End to the Season

While Arsenal started poorly and finished the season strong, North London rivals Tottenham have done the reverse.

After an amazing start to the season, many thought that their form would start to drop off.

However, by January the team were still within striking distance of the top of the table. Even Sir Alex Ferguson was singing their praises: “Tottenham at the moment are the best team in the country."

It wasn't to last though, as Tottenham have won only two of their last 10 Premier League games, falling out of the top four.

Whether it was the speculation linking Harry Redknapp to the England job or something else was to blame, their form has dropped dramatically and they may not qualify for Europe at all this season.

Race Rows in Football

It is always disappointing when issues other than football are what people are talking about, but it always seems to happen.

This season one of the biggest talking points has been racism.

The incident between Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez got uglier and uglier and dragged on for months.

Meanwhile, John Terry lost the captaincy and Fabio Capello left his job after the incident with Anton Ferdinand.

Racism should have absolutely no place in the game, and it is unfortunate that we have spent so much of this season discussing it.

Diving

Diving is a part of the game that most of us would like to see disappear, but week after week it remains one of the biggest talking points.

While he is by no means the only culprit, much of the Premier League coverage recently has revolved around the antics of Manchester United's Ashley Young.

First we had the unfortunate incident when Young cost QPR not only a penalty but also the services of captain Shaun Derry at a crucial stage of the season.

Then after Young again went down theatrically, this time against former club Aston Villa, even his own manager had to concede that he did "overdo the attempt to get a penalty."

Young is a fine player and it is disappointing that he is tarnishing his reputation like this.

Mario Balotelli

When Roberto Mancini shelled out £24 million for former player Mario Balotelli, he knew it was a risk but was sure that the pros outweighed the cons.

However after two seasons, even Mancini has grown tired of the baggage that comes with the Italian.

With Manchester City on the verge of winning their first Premier League title, Balotelli's antics both on and off the pitch have helped derail their title bid.

Rumours of training pitch bust-ups with both Mancini and Yaya Toure and petulant displays on the pitch have caused his manager to admit to having had enough of him.

It has been a disappointing season for a player who has the skills to amaze fans when he wants to.

The Carlos Tevez Saga

Another Manchester City player who has made headlines for all the wrong reasons this season is Carlos Tevez.

After a summer in which Tevez complained on Argentinian television that he would never go back to Manchester, he dutifully turned up for the new seaosn.

That was until he exploded onto the front and back pages after he refused to come on as a substitute in City's Champions League loss to Bayern Munich.

What followed was an unpleasant back-and-forth between player and club.

Tevez was fined £1.2 million and responded by saying that Roberto Mancini had treated him "like a dog."

When a dog is paid an estimated £200,000 a week, it's not surprising that people have little patience for his whining.

Fortunately, Tevez has since returned to the fold, helping City to wins over West Brom and Norwich.

Liverpool's Summer Signings

This season started with a lot of hope at Anfield.

Kenny Dalglish was back at the helm for his first full season back in charge of the club, and the team had spent big money in the transfer market.

Liverpool had prioritised homegrown talent, bringing in the British trio of Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing for a combined fee of almost £50 million.

Unfortunately for Dalglish and the Reds, that now looks like a colossal waste of money.

Downing was signed for £20 million from Aston Villa and has had a troubled start to his Liverpool career.

To date, he has played 32 league games for the club and not contributed a single goal or assist.

Henderson, who also cost the club around £20 million, this time from Sunderland, has been equally as disappointing.

However, Henderson is still young and has far more upside than Downing.

Charlie Adam came into the club as the cheapest of the three, but at £7 million, the club would have been hoping for more of an impact from the former Blackpool captain.

He has had a passable first season with Liverpool but has looked a little off the pace at times.

Wolves' Handing of Their Managerial Position

In February it was clear that Wolverhampton Wanderers were in some trouble. They had just lost 5-1 to fierce rivals West Brom and were in the bottom three on goal difference.

To remedy this, the Wolves board did what many may have done and sacked their manager, Mick McCarthy.

However the board went about the change in such a naive fashion that they are directly responsible for the club's relegation.

As soon as the club decided that McCarthy was on thin ice, they should have been in contact with the man they wanted to replace him with.

Instead what followed was a public rejection from Alan Curbishley and the appointment of assistant Terry Connor.

Wolves have been abysmal since McCarthy was sacked and the board should take the majority of the blame for this.

Manchester United in Europe

While Chelsea's victory against Barcelona has glossed over the failures of other English clubs in Europe, the English sides did not have a great time in Europe this year.

None was as disappointing as Manchester United.

United were arguably the side best placed to do well in Europe this year, but a loss against Swiss side Basle dumped them out of Europe's premier competition.

They then had a great opportunity to rebound and win the Europa league, but a 5-3 aggregate loss to an Athletic Bilbao side struggling in the league put them out of Europe altogether.