The Premier League is 20 years old and has enjoyed plenty of highlights. Here, Total Football starts a new series looking back at some of the highs and lows. We kick-off with Manchester United's 1992/1993 title triumph - capping a season that saw Aston Villa and Norwich finish in the top three and Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest relegated.
CHAMPIONS: Manchester United
RUNNERS-UP: Aston Villa
THIRD PLACE: Norwich City
RELEGATED: Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest
TOP SCORERS: Teddy Sheringham (Tottenham) 22, Les Ferdinand (QPR) 20, Dean Holdsworth (Wimbledon) 19, Mick Quinn (Coventry) 17, Alan Shearer (Blackburn) 16, David White (Manchester City) 16, Eric Cantona (Manchester United) 15, Ian Wright (Arsenal) 15, Mark Robins (Norwich City) 15, Matt Le Tissier (Southampton) 15, Brian Deane (Sheffield United) 15, Chris Armstrong (Crystal Palace) 15
BIGGEST WIN: Blackburn Rovers 7-1 Norwich City (3 October 1992)
HIGHEST SCORING GAMES: Oldham Athletic 5-3 Nottingham Forest (22 August 1992), Oldham Athletic 6-2 Wimbledon (3 April 1993), Liverpool 6-2 Tottenham Hotspur (8 May 1993)
PFA PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Paul McGrath (Aston Villa)
PFA YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Ryan Giggs (Manchester United)
A new revolution in English football began in August 1992, when the 22 leading clubs in England broke away from the Football League to create the FA Premier League.
In the process, a massive £305 million live television deal was signed with Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB, bigger and more recognised sponsors came onboard and transfer fees began to rise significantly. The English game had changed forever.
Pre-season saw newly promoted Blackburn Rovers, backed by Jack Walker’s millions; break the British transfer record to bring Alan Shearer to Ewood Park from Southampton for £3.6 million.
Graeme Souness continued his overhaul of the squad at Anfield, bringing in youngster David James from Watford and American Paul Stewart moved away from Tottenham in a deal worth £2.3 million.
Defending champions Leeds paid Arsenal £2 million to take David Rocastle to Yorkshire and Chris Waddle returned to English football, swapping Marseille for Sheffield Wednesday.
The opening weekend
The honour of scoring the first ever Premier League goal fell to Sheffield United’s Brian Deane. Deane headed in the Blades opener after five minutes in his side’s 2-1 victory over Manchester United.
The pre-season title favourites were Arsenal, who also unveiled a mural of fans in the North Bank stand at Highbury which was under construction to fit in with the Taylor Report’s requirements of all-seater stadia. The Gunners threw away a 2-0 lead at home to Norwich City on the opening weekend, losing 4-2.
The last Football League champions were Leeds United and they started off with a Lee Chapman brace to see off Wimbledon 2-1. Meanwhile Shearer made an immediate impact for his new side, scoring two stunning second half goals in Blackburn’s entertaining 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace.
The next day, Sky Sports showed its first of 60 live games under the new televised deal. Alongside ‘A Whole New Ball Game’ and the attractive Sky Striker dancers, Nottingham Forest beat Liverpool on the first Super Sunday, courtesy of a Teddy Sheringham goal.
The first weekend was wrapped up with another new concept, Monday Night Football. Under the floodlights at Maine Road, Manchester City and QPR shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw.
Disappointment for star clubs
Despite Ian Wright scoring 15 times this season, Arsenal never strung together any solid consistency. Although they had a brief stint at the top of the league in November, George Graham’s side slipped away to tenth in the final standings, although a domestic cup double helped soothe the pain.
The first ever managerial sacking in Premier League history came at Stamford Bridge. Having reached the dizzy heights of fourth in December, Chelsea went on a dismal run of no wins in 12 and their slide down the table culminated in Ian Porterfield’s dismissal in February 1993. Former Blues legend David Webb was appointed until the end of the season and he steered the West London side to survival.
It was a nightmare season for Leeds, as Howard Wilkinson’s side ended up at the wrong end of the table for much of the campaign. Incredibly, the Elland Road club didn’t win an away match in the entire season and finished 17th, just two points clear of the drop.
Liverpool continued to underachieve under Souness, who bizarrely missed their final game of the season as he was on a ‘scouting mission.’ There was talk in February 1993 of the unthinkable when defeat at Southampton left the Anfield side perilously close to the drop zone. Only a strong ending salvaged sixth place but that was behind London’s top club, QPR.
The impact of Eric
In November 1992, Leeds sold influential Frenchman Eric Cantona to Manchester United for £1.2 million. It was a brilliant piece of business by Alex Ferguson, as his team began to revive their fortunes after a stuttering start.
By the turn of the year, a three way battle developed for the championship between Manchester United, Aston Villa and surprise leaders on Christmas Day, Norwich City.
Cantona inspired the side to an incredible run of seven successive victories at the most pivotal time of the championship race. This included a 3-1 win at Norwich in April which ended the Canaries brave challenge.
In the next match at home to Sheffield Wednesday, Ferguson’s side were struggling and went 1-0 down to a John Sheridan penalty midway through the second half.
Then centre back Steve Bruce came up trumps with two dramatic late headers, the second coming seven minutes into time added on thanks to a referee injury. The celebrations from Ferguson and assistant manager Brian Kidd on the touchline spoke volumes. The momentum was now with the Red Devils.
Clough’s sorry goodbye
Having sold Des Walker in the summer of 1992 and Teddy Sheringham to Tottenham a week into the new season, Nottingham Forest had a forgettable campaign.
Despite the best efforts of Nigel Clough and Roy Keane, the club remained in trouble all season. At the beginning of May, Brian Clough announced his retirement from management after 18 years at the helm at the City Ground. Relegation followed in his farewell match at home, 2-0 to Sheffield United. Afterwards, Clough admitted his side hadn’t been good enough to stay up.
Having conceded 75 goals, the most in this campaign, Middlesbrough slipped from midtable security at Christmas into the drop zone and were condemned despite a 3-2 win at Sheffield Wednesday.
Oldham Athletic looked set to join them but Joe Royle’s unfancied side produced three successive wins at the end of the season. They beat Southampton 4-3 on a dramatic final day to stay in the league.
Crystal Palace went down instead, as old boy Ian Wright scored a final day hat-trick at Highbury in a 3-0 success for Arsenal. Manager Steve Coppell resigned at the end of the season.
Success at last for Manchester
On Sunday 2 May 1993, a goal from Nick Henry was enough for Oldham Athletic to begin their fightback towards beating the drop. More crucially, the shock 1-0 away victory at Aston Villa ended the title dream for Ron Atkinson.
Manchester United were crowned champions of England for the first time in 26 years and Old Trafford partied in style the following evening, with a 3-1 triumph over Blackburn Rovers the crowning glory. A stoppage time free-kick from Gary Pallister meant every first-team player featured for United scored in the campaign.
Alex Ferguson’s side ended ten points clear of Aston Villa, with the final table not quite telling how close it was for the men from Manchester. Despite finishing with a negative goal difference, Norwich claimed third and Blackburn were an excellent fourth in their first season at this level. Shearer scored 16 goals before a serious knee injury on Boxing Day ended his season prematurely.
So it was left to chief executive of the FA Premier League Rick Parry to hand over the prestigious trophy to joint captains at Old Trafford, Steve Bruce and Bryan Robson, watched on by former managerial legend Sir Matt Busby. Alex Ferguson had created a team of champions and little was known of it at the time but Manchester’s monopoly of Premier League titles had only just begun.
By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
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