The Premier League is 20 years old and has enjoyed plenty of highlights.
Here, Total Football continues its new series looking back at some of the highs and lows.
In 1996-97, Manchester United showed new signs of vulnerability. However, they held off Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle’s challenges to remain the premier club in the Premier League era.
It was a miserable season in the North East, as Kevin Keegan walked out on Newcastle and Sunderland and Middlesbrough were relegated, along with Nottingham Forest.
CHAMPIONS: Manchester United
RUNNERS-UP: Newcastle United
THIRD PLACE: Arsenal
RELEGATED: Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest
TOP SCORERS: Alan Shearer (Newcastle United) 25, Ian Wright (Arsenal) 23, Robbie Fowler (Liverpool)18, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Manchester United) 18, Dwight Yorke (Aston Villa) 17, Fabrizio Ravanelli (Middlesbrough) 16, Les Ferdinand (Newcastle United) 16, Dion Dublin (Coventry City) 14, Matt Le Tissier (Southampton) 13, Juninho (Middlesbrough) 12, Dennis Bergkamp (Arsenal) 12, Stan Collymore (Liverpool) 12
BIGGEST WIN: Everton 7-1 Southampton (16 November 1996), Newcastle United 7-1 Tottenham Hotspur (28 December 1996)
HIGHEST SCORING GAMES: Southampton 6-3 Manchester United (26 October 1996), Everton 7-1 Southampton (16 November 1996), Chelsea 6-2 Sunderland (16 March 1997)
PFA PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Alan Shearer (Newcastle United)
PFA YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: David Beckham (Manchester United)
English football was feeling good again after the euphoria of Euro 96. Pre-season saw plenty more movement between clubs, especially with the amount of foreigners who arrived on British shores.
Champions League winner Fabrizio Ravanelli was added to Middlesbrough’s squad. Bryan Robson splashing out £7m on the Italian and Brazilian star Emerson came in too.
In West London, Ruud Gullit had succeeded Glenn Hoddle and used his foreign connections, to bring Franck Leboeuf, Roberto di Matteo and Gianluca Vialli to Chelsea for around £8m.
Arsenal signed Patrick Vieira from AC Milan for £3.5m and Euro 96 star for the Czech Republic, Patrik Berger arrived at Liverpool for £3.25m. His fellow countryman, Karel Poborsky moved to champions Manchester United, along with Barcelona’s Jordi Cruyff.
The biggest transfer was still done domestically and it broke the world record. £15m was enough for Newcastle United to bring local Geordie Alan Shearer back to St. James’s Park from Blackburn Rovers.
Other domestic moves saw Gary McAllister leave Leeds for Coventry and Nigel Martyn, Ian Rush and Lee Sharpe all move to Elland Road from Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Manchester United respectively.
Only a week before the season started, Bruce Rioch was sacked by Arsenal after just over a year in charge. Stewart Houston took caretaker charge whilst the Gunners hunted for a permanent successor.
Ex-Liverpool and Galatasaray boss Graeme Souness succeeded Dave Merrington at Southampton.
Brilliance from Beckham
The fifth season of the Premier League began with a moment of brilliance from David Beckham.
Comfortably winning 2-0 at Wimbledon, Beckham saw Neil Sullivan off his line and lobbed the Scottish international from inside his own half. It was a phenomenal piece of vision and skill that would have made United’s star, Eric Cantona (pictured) proud.
Weeks later, Beckham became an England international, won the goal of the decade in the 10 Seasons awards and the strike made him a global brand for life. It was a goal that is replayed over and over again, even today.
As Beckham rose to stardom, others had their moments in the opening weeks of the 1996-97 campaign.
Ravanelli became an instant hero with the Middlesbrough fans, after scoring a superb hat-trick on his Riverside debut, during an entertaining 3-3 draw with Liverpool.
Traditional slow starters Sheffield Wednesday made a red hot start, winning their first four games, including a shock away win at Newcastle.
New world record signing and England captain Shearer quickly settled in on Tyneside, scoring in five of his first seven matches for the club.
Howard Wilkinson became the first managerial casualty of the season, sacked in September by Leeds United after a hefty 4-0 home defeat to Manchester United. George Graham succeeded him.
Tragedy at Chelsea
Under new management, Chelsea showed some good form early season, despite a hefty 5-1 drubbing at Anfield in September. Then, the club was engulfed by an overwhelming sense of tragedy.
In October, vice chairman of the club and British businessman, Matthew Harding was killed in a helicopter crash on his way back from watching the side’s League Cup exit at first division Bolton Wanderers.
In his honour, Chairman Ken Bates named a stand in Matthew’s honour and his dreams of making one of the sleeping giants of the game a success again, did come true.
Ruud Gullit purchased Italian star Gianfranco Zola from Parma, who made an immediate impact on the Premier League. Zola won the Football Writers Award and the West Londoners triumphed in the FA Cup final.
Another club living on former glories now were Blackburn Rovers. Champions just two seasons earlier, the team were rooted to the bottom of the table without a win at the end of October and Ray Harford resigned, following Coca Cola Cup defeat at the hands of Stockport County.
Long time coach Tony Parkes guided the club to safety, finishing 13th. However, worrying time were around the corner for all Blackburn supporters.
Another manger who called time on his position was Ron Atkinson at Coventry City. A 1-1 draw with Everton in November was his final game in charge and ‘Big Ron’ moved upstairs to a director of football position. His assistant, Gordon Strachan took charge.
Saying hello to English football was Arsene Wenger, as the Frenchman made his move from Japanese football to replace Bruce Rioch at Arsenal.
Manchester vulnerability
On 20 October, the last unbeaten record in the Premier League ended and in spectacular fashion.
Newcastle United had a day of days, beating Manchester United 5-0, with goals from Darren Peacock, David Ginola, Les Ferdinand, Shearer and a delicious lob from Philippe Albert.
It was the Red Devils worst defeat for 12 years and just six days later, they shipped six at Southampton, losing 6-3 at the Dell.
A home defeat to Chelsea the following week and throwing away a two goal lead at West Ham in December showed signs of serious vulnerability, that hadn’t been seen before by the champions.
If Ferguson had problems, they weren’t any of the kind that his former captain, Bryan Robson had at Middlesbrough.
In December, 21 senior players allegedly went down with illness and injury, which left Boro with no option but to postpone a match at Ewood Park against Blackburn.
Rovers were furious at the postponement at less than 24 hours notice and the FA agreed. In January 1997, Middlesbrough got deducted three points, which turned out to be costly decision come the end of the season.
Before Christmas, Frank Clark quit as Nottingham Forest manager and was replaced on an interim basis by Stuart Pearce. In his first match, Pearce guided the team to a shock 2-1 win over Arsenal but relegation fears confronted the City Ground all season.
Keegan sensationally quits
On 8 January 1997, Kevin Keegan sensationally quit as Newcastle United manager.
He felt that he had taken the club as far as he could and it was a shame that the calibre of football his teams had provided the Magpies fans, produced nothing in terms of silverware.
The fans and the football world were stunned by his decision but the show had to go on and former Liverpool and Blackburn manager Kenny Dalglish was appointed as King Kev’s successor.
Keegan left some wonderful memories at Tyneside and despite Dalglish’s more cautious approach, Newcastle still got involved in some classic matches during the season.
Trailing 3-1 to Leicester City in February, Alan Shearer hit a dramatic 13 minute hat-trick to turn the match around in typical Newcastle fashion.
In March, they were involved in another classic at Anfield with Liverpool. Outplayed for the majority of the match, the Tyneside fans saw their team trail 3-0 at half-time to strikes from Steve McManaman, Patrik Berger and Robbie Fowler.
Incredibly, Liverpool threw the position away with some errant goalkeeping and careless defending and when Warren Barton stole in for an unlikely equaliser with two minutes to go either side could have won the encounter.
Then in the last minute, Fowler powered in a stunning header to break the hearts of Newcastle. Their gallant fightback was for nothing and Liverpool scraped home in another 4-3 epic.
Calamity James
When John Barnes scored the only goal at Southampton in late December, Liverpool had built a handy five point lead over the chasing pack.
Some of their younger players didn’t handle the pressure very well and Roy Evans struggled to keep their feet firmly on the ground.
Defeat at Aston Villa, a 0-0 home draw with Blackburn and the near collapse against Newcastle were signs that this Liverpool crop of players, looked about to throw away their biggest chance of winning the Premier League.
This wasn’t helped by David James’s dreadful goalkeeping blunders, which were becoming worryingly frequent. Two more gaffes allowed bottom side Coventry City to leave Anfield with all three points at the beginning of April.
Then in the title decider with Manchester United on 19 April, more defensive blunders cost the Merseysiders dearly.
Gary Pallister headed in unmarked from two set pieces, before another catastrophe from James gave Andy Cole a late Easter gift.
United won 3-1, effectively winning the title on Merseyside. It finished Liverpool’s collective spirit off and Evans as a manager was now damaged goods.
James blamed his constant errors on the amount of computer games he played, earning him the unfortunate nickname of ‘Calamity James.’
No escape for Boro
The first team relegated was Nottingham Forest. A 1-1 draw at home to Wimbledon was not enough to keep Stuart Pearce’s side afloat and they went down on the penultimate weekend.
On the last day, an exhausted Middlesbrough needed to win to have any chance of staying up.
Having reached two cup finals (losing both ultimately), the players looked jaded at Elland Road and a Brian Deane goal put them behind in the last 20 minutes. Juninho levelled proceedings but there was to be no escape.
The Teesiders went down to the Nationwide League, despite the best efforts of Juninho and Ravanelli. Chairman Steve Gibson claimed the team’s relegation was decided by ‘three men in grey suits,’ in relation to the earlier point’s deduction.
Sunderland said farewell to their Roker Park ground and beat Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United at home during the season.
However, despite earning 40 points, defeat at Wimbledon on the final day meant Peter Reid’s side made an instant return to the first division.
Staying up at their expense was Coventry, whose 2-1 win at Tottenham meant they survived again on the last day, as did Southampton, despite their 1-0 loss at Aston Villa.
Other newcomers, Derby County and Leicester City accredited themselves brilliantly, finishing in midtable. The latter came 9th and won the Coca Cola Cup to ensure European football at the Foxes for the following season.
Four out of five for Manchester United
Despite the win at Anfield, United didn’t make life easy for themselves and lost at home to Derby before having to comeback from two goals down to draw with Leicester at Filbert Street.
A nervy 3-3 home result against Middlesbrough highlighted their poor defensive qualities during the season but no-one could muster a severe title tilt.
On 6 May, Alex Ferguson watched on as Newcastle’s challenge ended with a frustrating 0-0 draw at West Ham, which guaranteed safety for the Hammers.
On the same night, Liverpool lost 2-1 at Wimbledon, although 17-year-old Michael Owen came off the subs bench to score his first senior goal and show a glimpse of the future.
However, it was Manchester United’s championship title again, their 11th in total and the fourth in five Premier League seasons, this time at a more comfortable gap of seven points.
A 5-0 drubbing of already relegated Nottingham Forest on the final day, which included a Les Ferdinand hat-trick, ensured Newcastle grabbed second place on goal difference and with it, Champions League football.
Liverpool, who looked title favourites at the halfway point, ended a disappointing fourth below Arsenal and Aston Villa wound up a solid fifth to back up their fourth place finish in 1995-96.
A week after the Premier League ended, Manchester United’s iconic no.7 retired. Eric Cantona decided to call time on his glittering and controversial career in football, retiring at the top, as skipper of another title triumph for the premier club in the Premier League.
By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
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