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With the Premier League season done and dusted, a few teams will be happy with how they performed, and an equal number will be disappointed with the way their fortune unfolded.
Either way, it is time to focus on the next season at hand, and the preceding summer transfer window to strengthen their squads.
Across the competition, there were a few players who turned out to be disappointments for their fans and managers, whether it was a question of age catching up to them, or injuries hampering their form, or simply them being not good enough to cut it.
The term 'underwhelming' is highly subjective and depends a lot on the manager as well as the players in the system. Only players who have started a minimum of 10 games have been picked in the squad, as it is a good enough number to showcase their potential.
That being said, here's a look at the Premier League Underwhelming XI for the season 2017/18:
Goalkeeper:
Petr Cech (Arsenal)
While it cannot be denied that Petr Cech is one of the finest goalkeepers to play in the PL, but time has finally caught up with him.
Gone are the days when he was a rock in front of goal that few strikers dared to pass, and instead he is a mere shadow of his incredible years at Chelsea.
The veteran keeper kept only 11 clean sheets in his 34 games for the Gunners, conceding 45 goals in the process.
A lot of it can be attributed to a below-par season for the club as a whole, especially in defense. But voices are being raised to replace Cech in goal next season, and understandably so.
Compare this stat to last year, when he kept 12 clean sheets in 35 games while conceding only 35 goals, or to the 2015/16 season when he had 16 clean sheets in 34 games while conceding only 28 goals, and his fall from grace is evident.
At 35 years of age, he is on the verge of being sidelined for a younger keeper and with the change in regime at Arsenal, it could happen sooner than expected.
Whether he will serve his time out from the sidelines as a morale booster, or move on to lesser leagues remains to be seen.
Defense:
John Stones (Manchester City)
If there is one player from the Manchester city squad this season who can be accommodated into this XI, it has to be John Stones.
The 23 year old moved from Everton to City two seasons before, for a whopping €55 million, and was expected to be the backbone of the defense for years to come.
Things could not have gone worse for him. After a few shocking errors last season that got him a lot of slack, and an unnecessarily large price tag hanging over him, Stones failed to reciprocate his form at Everton.
This season has been better, but still nowhere near the quality he seems to contain.
The unexpected rise of Nicolas Otamendi and Vincent Kompany's not-so-injury-ridden season, meant that Stones had to share his duties with the more experienced centre-backs in the team.
The arrival of Laporte in the winter meant that his time was further cut shot, and the Englishman had to spend most of his time watching from the bench.
Wes Morgan (Leicester City)
Few can forget Wes Morgan's heroic defending during Leicester City's remarkable title-winning campaign two years back.
As both captain and defender, he was one of the most important reasons for the foxes to bolt into the limelight with their antics.
Yet another case of age catching up with the player, the 34-year-old has seen a considerable dip in form.
Claude Puel's Leicester were supposed to be more defensively organized than they were under Ranieri, but their captain's woeful season meant that they finished only a disappointing 9th in the table.
Morgan has never been the fastest defender on the pitch, and he relied a lot on his physicality and positioning to bully strikers off the ball. This season, however, has seen him on the receiving end of the same.
With younger players like Maguire and Dragovic stepping up, Morgan could be slowly eased out of the side in the coming years.
His legacy will always remain as Leicester's PL winning captain, but as time goes by, he will have to move on.
Shkodran Mustafi (Arsenal)
It sums up Arsenal's season when two of their players in charge of defensive duties make it on to this list.
Mustafi was on the verge of leaving Arsenal at the start of this season, but ultimately stayed. As far as Arsenal fans are concerned, they got the short end of that stick.
The German centre-back has endured an awful season at the back for Arsenal, often being responsible for errors leading to goal (Aguero's goal in the Carabao Cup final comes to mind), or a general lack of positional awareness.
The consequence of this is him being left out of Germany's provisional squad for the 2018 World Cup, and there is no reason to contradict the decision.
His future at the club seems full of doubts as well, and with Koscielny injured for a long-time, Arsenal need a stronger CB pairing to mount a proper defense next season.
Surprisingly, Mustafi has the odd goal on him (3 goals and one assist in the league) and it has resulted in him being part of WhoScored's team of the season.
Central Midfield:
Moussa Sissoko (Tottenham Hotspur)
Ever since his transfer from Newcastle United to Spurs, Sissoko has failed to live up to the enormous potential he was rumored to have, and this season has been no different.
With Dier and Dembele having excellent seasons around him, he has been relegated to a mostly sporadic role in the starting XI.
Son Heung-Min's exceptional season and the late signing of Lucas Moura, meant that he got no chance up front either.
Despite this, he has started in over 15 matches and much more as a substitute, with nothing to show for it.
The arrival of newer signings into Tottenham this transfer window will spell further trouble for the Frenchman, and he might have to be contending with the bench, or consider playing at a mid-table club next season.
Tiemoue Bakayoko (Chelsea)
Well, you knew this was coming.
Roped in to be the replacement for the outgoing Nemanja Matic in the long run, Bakayoko has become one of the worst transfers of the season, and the move has without a doubt failed in the short run.
After a decent start to the season, his form took a hit around the Christmas period and reached its nadir during early February, when he was sent off during Chelsea's 1-4 loss against Watford.
What little confidence the Chelsea fans had in him was vanquished, and they have been calling for his head ever since.
All hope is not lost for Bakayoko though, as this is his first season and it can only get better for him at Chelsea. He recently impressed during their game against Liverpool, and more of the same will cement his position at the club.
It's not like Chelsea has a habit of selling players who don't perform during brief stints anyway, right?
Renato Sanches (Swansea City)
The only exception to the "should have started 10 PL games" rule, but it would not be an underwhelming XI without the inclusion of Renato Sanches. Having started 9 games for the now relegated side, Sanches was the epitome of underwhelming this season.
His loan move to the club when it was under the management of Paul Clement, who had worked with the youngster during his stint at Bayern Munich, was talked about with much fanfare and, was expected to be a revelation for Swansea City in their quest to get a reputation as a solid mid-tier club.
It is safe to say that the move didn't work out. Clement got fired, Sanches was forgotten and Swansea is relegated.
It took a mere 704 minutes for the Portuguese to show just how bad the move was for him and the club, and fans who were fuming with the news that the loan didn't have a buy clause, collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
With neither a goal nor an assist to his name, chances are that we won't be seeing Sanches back in the PL for a long time.
Wingers:
Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton)
The moment Everton announced the signing of Gylfi Sigurdsson for a €45 million, a lot of fans were understandably over the moon. If the Icelander can deliver for a mediocre Swansea City, how could he not deliver at a new look Everton side that was going to finish in the Top-4 over their local rivals Liverpool?
Things could not have gone worse for the Merseyside blues, as their star performer failed to deliver.
He bagged a mere 4 goals and 2 assists, as opposed to a spectacular 9 goals and 13 assists last year. The club stumbled on to an eighth-place finish, after tottering dangerously close to the relegation zone for far too long than they would have liked.
It is not entirely Sigurdsson's fault per se, as the club's transfer policy is also largely to be blamed.
Who knew buying too many No.10's without a big striker up front would be catastrophic? But they redeemed themselves by buying Cenk Tosun in the winter, and with enough time to gel together, Sigurdsson might just start delivering the goods again.
Alexis Sanchez (Manchester United)
After a dream move to Manchester City in the summer failed to materialize, Alexis Sanchez was understandably a shell of his former self at Arsenal during the start of the season.
When the winter window arrived, rumors surfaced again of him moving, only this time, to City's noisy neighbors.
The move did materialize in the form of a swap deal - Mkhitaryan for Sanchez - and a lot of people were of the opinion that Arsenal got the worse deal of the two.
While Mkhitaryan has had his share of injuries and not entirely stellar, Sanchez has been far worse from the force he was last season.
In the 2016/17 season, the Chilean had an incredible 24 goals and 10 assists to his name. Compare that to this season, where he has had a mere 8 goals and 6 assists. It gets worse when you split them up - 7 goals and 3 assists for Arsenal (17 starts) as against 2 goals and 3 assists for United (12 starts).
What is worse is that his big move to United has also forced Rashford and Martial out of position, and they have been forced to sit it out on the bench, robbing two youngsters of valuable starting time.
At 29, Sanchez will serve longer in the PL, which means that United have to let go of at least one of their younger members to accommodate him and from the looks of it, it will be Martial. One can only hope that Sanchez delivers next season, if City are to be even mildly threatened.
Forwards:
Alvaro Morata (Chelsea)
Again, you knew this was coming.
It is not really fair to call a striker who has scored 11 goals and 6 assists in 24 starts in the PL underwhelming, but one has to consider the circumstances into which he arrived:
A €65 million price tag, to the defending Champions who had just told their lead striker (Diego Costa), that they won't be needing him that season anymore.
And Morata started off really well too. Some were even developing opinions that Chelsea made the right decision, or rather got the right decision made for them, by opting for him over Romelu Lukaku. How the tides have turned.
After a hamstring injury early on in the season, he has never been the same. With the arrival of Olivier Giroud in the winter, Morata has also been forced to share duties with him and hasn't been a mainstay in the Blues' squad.
However, it is not the end of the world for the Spaniard. He will play many more games for Chelsea, and that head of his will score many more goals. Until then, Chelsea just have to stick with him and put their trust in him.
Javier Hernandez (West Ham United)
If you had entirely forgotten that Chicharito is still playing in the Premier League, that is not your fault.
Just as Everton excited their fans with a great transfer window, West Ham too had a very busy summer with several exciting names coming into the squad.
Chicharito was to West Ham, what Sigurdsson was to Everton. It is ironic that both those transfers turned out in the same way.
In 18 starts for the London club, the forward has scored 8 goals, out of which 4 goals came in losses, 3 goals came in draws, and only one came in a win.
His contribution to the team has mostly been forgettable, as he has been in and out of the team.
Considering that he had scored 17 goals and 11 goals in the two seasons prior to this at Bayer Leverkusen, Hernandez's career has been a slow decline.
The chances of the Mexican remaining at the club for the next season are uncertain, as West Ham's board will look for a major overhaul in the summer.
With their manager gone too, his future remains as bleak as his form this season.
