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.
Season 1998/1999 belonged to one club only and that was mighty Manchester United. Alex Ferguson’s side won a historic treble, holding off hard-fought challenges from the defending champions Arsenal and a new threat in the form of Chelsea.
Just four years after being crowned Premier League champions, it was relegation for Blackburn Rovers, who went down with Charlton Athletic and Nottingham Forest.
CHAMPIONS: Manchester United
RUNNERS-UP: Arsenal
THIRD PLACE: Chelsea
RELEGATED: Charlton Athletic, Blackburn Rovers, Nottingham Forest
TOP SCORERS: Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Leeds United) 18, Dwight Yorke (Manchester United) 18, Michael Owen (Liverpool) 18, Andy Cole (Manchester United) 17, Nicolas Anelka (Arsenal) 17, Hamilton Ricard (Middlesbrough) 15, Dion Dublin (Coventry & Aston Villa) 14, Robbie Fowler (Liverpool) 14, Alan Shearer (Newcastle United) 14, Julian Joachim (Aston Villa) 14, Gianfranco Zola (Chelsea) 13, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Manchester United) 12
BIGGEST WIN: Nottingham Forest 1-8 Manchester United (6 February 1999)
HIGHEST SCORING GAMES: Nottingham Forest 1-8 Manchester United (6 February 1999), Liverpool 7-1 Southampton (16 January 1999), Leicester City 2-6 Manchester United (16 January 1999)
PFA PLAYER OF THE YEAR: David Ginola (Tottenham Hotspur)
PFA YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Nicolas Anelka (Arsenal)
The final full season of the 20th century will be remembered for Manchester United’s historic treble. Alex Ferguson’s side managed to win the FA Cup, the Champions League and in a genuine three-way title battle, regained their Premier League crown.
Despite achieving the same points tally as the previous season to win the title (78), Arsenal missed out on silverware, whilst cup kings of recent times, Chelsea put in their most competitive campaign in the seven years since England’s football game had been rebranded.
To make up for the previous season’s failure to win anything, Alex Ferguson spent £28m in pre-season to sign Dutch defender Jaap Stam, Jesper Blomqvist and four days into the new campaign, paid £12.6m to Aston Villa for Dwight Yorke.
Yorke’s former manager, John Gregory wasn’t happy though, saying in a press conference soon after the transfer had gone through; “Dwight openly stated to me a couple of weeks ago that he wanted to play for Manchester United and that he didn’t want to play for Aston Villa. If I’d had a gun at the time, I think I would have shot him!”
Other summer movers saw John Collins return from a spell playing for AS Monaco in France to sign for Everton and Steve Staunton left Villa for his former club Liverpool.
Gregory didn’t have much luck in the summer, when defender David Unsworth, who had signed from West Ham, walked out just a month later, as he couldn’t settle in the Midlands and went back to his former club, Everton.
Chelsea paid AC Milan £4.6m to bring Marcel Desailly to Stamford Bridge, along with Pierluigi Casiraghi.
Ian Wright ended his loyal service with Arsenal, moving to West Ham on a free transfer, with the Hammers also signing Neil Ruddock and Middlesbrough added experience to their ranks in the shape of Gary Pallister, Colin Cooper and Andy Townsend.
Liverpool made the biggest change in the managerial positions, by going down the joint-manager route. Former French national coach Gerard Houllier joined Roy Evans in a partnership that looked doomed from the start.
Walter Smith moved from Rangers to take the vacant post left by Howard Kendall at Everton and Danny Wilson jumped ship from relegated Barnsley to his former club, Sheffield Wednesday, replacing Ron Atkinson.
Back in the big time with a bang
After 42 years, top flight football returned to the Valley and following a creditable 0-0 draw on the opening weekend at Newcastle, Charlton Athletic thumped Southampton 5-0 to go top of the table. Clive Mendonca scored a hat-trick as the Addicks returned to the big time with a bang.
Chelsea made an unimpressive start to their season, losing 2-1 on the opening day at Coventry, followed by a shaky 1-1 home stalemate with Newcastle.
Despite two draws from the first two games, Kenny Dalglish resigned as Magpies manager and Ruud Gullit returned to English football.
Gullit got a rude awakening in his first game in charge, as Michael Owen ripped apart the Newcastle defence with a first half hat-trick in a commanding 4-1 win for Liverpool at St. James’s Park. Three wins and a draw made the Reds the early pacesetters.
Manchester United’s campaign began with a hard-fought comeback to draw 2-2 at home to Leicester, followed by a goalless stalemate with West Ham.
Nottingham Forest returned to the top flight after a season away but began it without their star striker. Pierre van Hooijdonk had gone on strike and vowed not to return to the City Ground.
A brave 2-1 defeat at Arsenal on the first Monday Night Football of the season was followed by narrow victories over Coventry and Southampton but that was as good as it got for Dave Bassett.
In September, Tottenham sacked Christian Gross after less than a year in charge and began their courtship of current Leeds boss, George Graham. Graham’s final match in charge of the Yorkshire side was ironically a 3-3 draw with the North London side he was about to take control of.
Defending champions Arsenal started the season slowly; drawing four of their first five matches but did send out a message of intent in beating Manchester United 3-0 in mid-September. Nicky Butt was sent off for the second time in four days as the Gunners showed their new commanding superiority over the Red Devils.
In one of the best games in Premier League history, Chelsea won a thriller 4-3 at Blackburn on 21 September. Graeme Le Saux and Sebastian Perez got stupidly sent off, as two goals in the last eight minutes from super sub Tore Andre Flo, turned the game around for Gianluca Vialli’s men.
Madness from di Canio
On 26 September, Paolo di Canio disgraced the game of football with a piece of incompetent behaviour at Hillsborough in a Premier League match between Sheffield Wednesday and Arsenal.
Having already been sent off, di Canio pushed referee Paul Alcock to the ground in a bad-tempered match that saw Martin Keown dismissed and the Gunners lose 1-0, their first defeat in the Premier League for nine months.
Despite having reluctantly sold Yorke, Aston Villa set the pace and the signings of Paul Merson and Dion Dublin strengthened their title challenge. They went 12 matches unbeaten at the start of a campaign, their best ever.
Having only scored one goal since his summer move from Lazio, Pierluigi Casiraghi’s career was cruelly cut short after sustaining a serious knee injury in Chelsea’s 1-1 draw at Upton Park in November. Another summer signing in West London, Brian Laudrup went back home to Denmark after feeling homesick in England.
As Laudrup left, Pierre van Hooijdonk returned and scored in his comeback match, a 2-2 draw between Nottingham Forest and East Midlands rivals Derby. Dave Bassett’s side though went 17 games without a win and he was sacked after an FA Cup defeat at home to first division Portsmouth. Ron Atkinson took charge of the sinking ship in the Midlands.
Having lost George Graham to Tottenham, speculation began to grow about Martin O’Neill leaving Leicester behind to take the vacant position at Elland Road. After much deliberation, the Foxes kept hold of their boss as Leeds upgraded their assistant, David O’Leary.
He began to build a talented crop of youngsters and they didn’t leave the top six positions after November. Dutch ace Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink ended as the league’s top scorer, sharing the prize with Michael Owen and Dwight Yorke.
Owen might have been scoring but Liverpool misfired badly and in November, Roy Evans made the emotional decision to leave the club by mutual consent. He admitted about the joint manager experiment; “We tried to make it work but when it isn’t working, surely the biggest mistake would be to carry on to the deficit of this football club.”
Gerard Houllier took sole charge and another managerial change happened, this time at Blackburn. Following a 2-0 home loss to struggling Southampton, Jack Walker sacked manager Roy Hodgson, minutes after the full-time whistle.
In December, Brian Kidd broke the long-time partnership with Alex Ferguson, vacating the no.2 role at Old Trafford to take over the reins at Ewood Park.
Stunning Solskjaer
Ron Atkinson realised the task he had taken on as manager of Nottingham Forest, when he sat in the wrong dugout initially for the visit of Arsenal in his first game in charge!
Despite ending their barren run of 20 games without a win at Everton in late January, Forest were soon hit for eight at home by Manchester United.
The dynamic duo of Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke scored two each and then Ole Gunnar Solskjaer came off the bench and scored a stunning four goals in 18 minutes as a substitute! The 8-1 scoreline remains the biggest away win in Premier League history.
Despite having been top on Christmas Day, Aston Villa’s form disintegrated into the New Year. They lost Stan Collymore to stress-related issues and went ten games without a win at one point, even failing to qualify for Europe.
A three-horse race for the title was now emerging, with Manchester United holding a narrow advantage over London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal. A Dennis Bergkamp goal at the end of January saw Arsene Wenger’s side defeat Chelsea 1-0, ending the Blues unbeaten period of 22 games.
A few weeks later, last season’s top two met at Old Trafford. Yorke missed a penalty, before Nicolas Anelka gave Arsenal the lead. Andy Cole equalised to ensure a share of the spoils. It was clear that this title battle was going to go all the way to the end.
Meanwhile at the bottom, Charlton went on a dreadful run of 14 games without a win, before overcoming Wimbledon 2-0 in February. Alan Curbishley’s men were part of a four way survival scrap, alongside Everton, Blackburn and Southampton, to see which two sides would join the woeful Forest in division one.
Wimbledon broke their transfer club record in January to sign John Hartson from West Ham for £7m. At the time, they were a promising sixth but only one win in their last 17 matches saw them slide to a final position of 16th.
In March, the Dons lost their iconic manager as Joe Kinnear suffered a heart attack in Sheffield, before their 2-1 win at Hillsborough. Kinnear would end up resigning due to these health concerns in the summer.
Harry Redknapp spent the money from the Hartson sale on Marc-Vivien Foe from Lens and Paolo di Canio returned to England, after his 11 match ban for his actions earlier in the season as a Sheffield Wednesday player.
The Hammers were consistent all season, reaching the dizzy heights of second place in November and ultimately finishing fifth to qualify for the Intertoto Cup.
The end for Blackburn
Despite benefiting from Jack Walker’s investment to sign the likes of Matt Jansen, Keith Gillespie and Jason McAteer, Brian Kidd couldn’t steer Blackburn out of the relegation dogfight.
Their form towards the end of the season was not good and as Everton’s Kevin Campbell guided the Toffees to safety with seven goals in four matches, Rovers were dragged into the bottom four.
At just the right time, Southampton did find form, with James Beattie’s crucial winner on the first weekend of May seeing the Saints beat Leicester 2-1 and climb out of the relegation zone for the first time in the season.
The following weekend, Matt Le Tissier produced more magic with a goal direct from a corner in the Saints 2-0 win at freefalling Wimbledon.
Blackburn’s survival hopes had taken a real nosedive, following a 1-3 home loss to Liverpool and then even more damaging, a 1-2 home defeat to already relegated Nottingham Forest.
Ultimately, it was the teacher who sank the pupil as a goalless draw with Manchester United on 11 May consigned Blackburn to relegation from the Premier League. It was an alarming decline from champions to relegation in just four short seasons.
Sadly, Walker wouldn’t see his club in the top flight again, as he passed away in August 2000, aged 71 after a battle with cancer.
A dramatic 4-3 win at Aston Villa meant Charlton kept their survival hopes going into the final day of the season but a 1-0 home reverse to Sheffield Wednesday meant the Addicks one year stay in the Premier League was over.
Even if they had got a positive result against the Owls, it wouldn’t have been enough, thanks to Southampton’s 2-0 final day victory over Everton. The two goals came from the first Latvian in the Premier League, Marian Pahars.
United are the pick again
In April, Chelsea’s title challenge crumbled. They threw away a 2-0 lead at home to Leicester City, pegged back by a dramatic injury time equaliser from Steve Guppy. A desperate scoreless draw with Sheffield Wednesday ended their hopes mathematically a week later.
Nevertheless, Chelsea still sealed third spot with a flying Gus Poyet header enough to beat Leeds 1-0 at the beginning of May. Third place in 1998-99 also meant qualification for the Champions League.
In the title race, there were plenty of twists and turns. Arsenal became new favourites on 5 May when they recorded a 3-1 win in the North London derby at White Hart Lane.
On the same night, a combination of a Liverpool fightback and David Elleray’s controversial decision to send off Denis Irwin saw Manchester United held 2-2 at Anfield.
Arsenal had 75 points, United 72, although the Red Devils did have a game in hand. They went top again on 9 May when a Dwight Yorke header was enough to beat Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium.
Two nights later, Arsenal travelled to Leeds, knowing victory was paramount. Ian Harte missed a penalty and both sides had a host of opportunities until with four minutes left, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s header gave Leeds a 1-0 victory. United’s 0-0 draw with Blackburn 24 hours later meant it went to the wire, with the defending champions a point behind.
Arsenal supporters were cheering on Tottenham for once and the tonic seemed to be working, when Les Ferdinand gave George Graham’s side the lead at Old Trafford.
After spurning a hatful of chances, David Beckham crashed in an equaliser, shortly before half-time. Then, Andy Cole came off the bench and within three minutes of his arrival, chipped Ian Walker to give United the upper hand.
Nigerian international Kanu, who had wowed many with his skills, since a January move to Highbury, got the decisive goal as Arsenal defeated Aston Villa 1-0. It wasn’t enough though, as Manchester United held on to beat Tottenham 2-1 and become the pick of the Premier League again.
Champions for the fifth time in seven seasons, as the first leg of the unique treble had been completed by the narrowest of margins.
They had the best defence, the best strikeforce and lost only three times in the season. Manchester United deserved their place, back at the top of English football.
By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
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