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.
After achieving the treble the previous season, Alex Ferguson was knighted by the Queen in the summer for his achievements.
Although they controversially withdrew from the FA Cup and lost their European crown, they destroyed the opposition in the Premier League, retaining their title by a convincing 18 points over second placed Arsenal.
Founder members of the Premier League, Wimbledon and Sheffield Wednesday both said goodbye, as they went down with Watford.
CHAMPIONS: Manchester United
RUNNERS-UP: Arsenal
THIRD PLACE: Leeds United
RELEGATED: Wimbledon, Sheffield Wednesday, Watford
TOP SCORERS: Kevin Phillips (Sunderland) 30, Alan Shearer (Newcastle United) 23, Dwight Yorke (Manchester United) 20, Andy Cole (Manchester United) 19, Michael Bridges (Leeds United) 19, Thierry Henry (Arsenal) 17, Paolo di Canio (West Ham United) 16, Niall Quinn (Sunderland) 14, Chris Armstrong (Tottenham Hotspur) 14, Steffen Iversen (Tottenham Hotspur) 14, Tony Cottee (Leicester City) 13, Marian Pahars (Southampton) 13
BIGGEST WIN: Newcastle United 8-0 Sheffield Wednesday (19 September 1999)
HIGHEST SCORING GAMES: Tottenham Hotspur 7-2 Southampton (11 March 2000), West Ham United 5-4 Bradford City (12 February 2000), Bradford City 4-4 Derby County (19 April 2000)
PFA PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Roy Keane (Manchester United)
PFA YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Harry Kewell (Leeds United)
Manchester United cemented their position at the top of English football, cruising to their sixth championship in eight years.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s side lost only three games all season, amassed 91 points and scored a whopping 97 goals to clinch the championship, nearly an entire month before the league campaign finished.
After winning all the main trophies in 1998-99, no significant investment was required by the champions but a lot of other moves were made by those attempting to stay in touch.
Gerard Houllier began his first full season at Anfield and made several new purchases, including goalkeeper Sander Westerveld for £4m, defender Sami Hyypia and midfielder Vladimir Smicer.
The PFA Young Player of the Year from the previous season, Nicolas Anelka left Arsenal to join Real Madrid for a colossal fee of £22.3m. In came Brazilian left back Silvinho and strikers Davor Suker and 21-year-old Thierry Henry from Juventus.
Leeds suffered a blow when top goalscorer of the past two seasons, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was sold to Atletico Madrid. They replaced him with youngsters Michael Bridges and Darren Huckerby.
Huckerby’s departure from Coventry was filled by the arrival of Robbie Keane into the Premier League. The Sky Blues broke their club record to sign the Irish striker from Wolves for £6m. Moroccan World Cup stars, Youssef Chippo and Mustapha Hadji also arrived at Highfield Road.
Other moves saw Paul Ince leave Liverpool for Middlesbrough, Chelsea pay relegated Blackburn £10m for Chris Sutton and Steve Bould depart Arsenal and link up with newly promoted Sunderland.
Gullit is the first casualty
The early weeks of the season were dominated by Newcastle United and their chastened manager, Ruud Gullit.
Confidence was high on Tyneside but Alan Shearer was sent off for the first time in his professional career on the opening day, as Newcastle lost 1-0 to Aston Villa.
It began a power struggle between England captain and Dutch manager, not helped by the team’s dreadful defending.
A second half collapse at Southampton and throwing away a 3-1 lead at home to Wimbledon left Newcastle with one point in four games.
For the derby with Sunderland, Gullit dropped Shearer to the bench and on a filthy evening at St. James Park, the Black Cats came from behind to win. The fans were disgusted and Gullit resigned two days later.
Sir Bobby Robson returned home, with the new aim to keep the club in the top flight and Shearer was soon back amongst the goals, scoring five in Robson’s first home match in charge, an 8-0 demolition of Sheffield Wednesday.
In other opening matches, two late goals from Roy Keane saw Manchester United steal the first psychological advantage over Arsenal, with a 2-1 triumph at Highbury. The champions would remain unbeaten until October.
Arsenal would go onto lose at Liverpool the following week, whilst Leeds new signing Bridges, smashed in a hat-trick at The Dell to dismiss Southampton 3-0.
Norwegian Egil Olsen was in charge of Wimbledon following Joe Kinnear’s resignation in the summer. He steered the Dons to an opening day victory at Premier League beginners Watford.
Sheffield Wednesday made the worst start in Premier League history, chalking up a mere one point in their first eight matches.
Goalkeeper crisis at Old Trafford
With Peter Schmeichel having departed in the summer, Manchester United replaced him with Mark Bosnich but the Australian struggled and was quickly dropped.
Italian Massimo Taibi was brought in, with Ferguson famously saying; ‘Massimo is the best goalkeeper in Italy!’
He might have been regretting those words, when Taibi let a weak Matt Le Tissier shot squirm underneath his body in a 3-3 draw between United and Southampton at Old Trafford.
On October 3, it got worse for Taibi as he at fault for at least two of the five goals Chelsea scored at Stamford Bridge. Nicky Butt lost the plot and got sent off for kicking Dennis Wise right infront of the referee as United crumbled 5-0 in West London. Taibi would never play for the club again.
Two weeks later, Chelsea lost their own discipline, when Wise and Marcel Desailly were sent off and they lost at Liverpool.
Then, 2-0 up with 15 minutes to go against Arsenal, Kanu flattered Chelsea with a wonderful hat-trick to give Arsenal an unbelievable victory at Stamford Bridge. Their season never recovered domestically.
Arsenal had problems too, with inconsistent form away from Highbury. A defeat at West Ham in October was made worse when Patrick Vieira saw red and was later banned for six games, after spitting at Neil Ruddock.
Manchester United suffered their second loss of the season in October, going down 3-1 at Tottenham but it was Leeds setting the pace. David O’Leary’s youngsters went top at the beginning of the month and stayed there throughout.
Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday finally won their first match of the season, thumping Wimbledon 5-1 at the tenth attempt but they remained in the danger zone all campaign.
Sunderland surprised many, as they reached the heights of fourth and finished seventh on their Premier League return. This included a 5-0 away win at Derby, a 4-1 battering of Chelsea and Kevin Phillips finished as top goalscorer with 30 goals.
Red card woe for Wenger
Arsene Wenger couldn’t seem to keep his players under control, with more bad behaviour in the North London derby at White Hart Lane.
Freddie Ljungberg and Martin Keown were both sent off in a 2-1 defeat to Tottenham, taking the tally of dismissals in the Wenger reign to 26 in three years.
Sheffield Wednesday’s struggles continued as they were denied a victory in a wonderful match at Upton Park against West Ham.
The Owls led 2-1 and 4-3 but had Danny Sonner dismissed and ultimately lost the game 4-3, to a winner from Frank Lampard.
It wasn’t the only West Ham stunning match during the season. Three months later, Bradford City came to East London, opened a 3-1 and 4-2 lead up during the match but incredibly lost 5-4 to a late goal from another of the promising youngsters coming through the ranks, Joe Cole.
Despite 2-0 reverses at Wimbledon and Arsenal before 1999 ended, Leeds entered the 21st century at the top of table, followed by Manchester United, Arsenal and Sunderland.
United then made the controversial decision to skip the FA Cup competition and enter the FIFA World Club Championship in Brazil. The players enjoyed their holiday but exited this pointless exercise in the group stages.
Chelsea made the headlines on Boxing Day when they travelled to Southampton, fielding a starting 11 without a single British player in the line-up. They bolstered their ranks with the signings of Emerson Thome and former World Player of the Year, George Weah.
In January, Southampton made the tough decision to relive Dave Jones of his duties. A 5-0 drubbing at much improved Newcastle continued a dire run of form that had seen the Saints slip into the bottom five.
Jones was fighting a legal battle to clear his name against child abuse charges. The case was thrown out but he wouldn’t return to the South Coast as Glenn Hoddle took charge instead.
Stan the man moves again
After a troubled period off the field, Stan Collymore moved away from Aston Villa and joined Leicester City in February.
Martin O’Neill seemed to be getting the best out of the temperamental striker; although an incident on a team break in Spain when Collymore was caught spraying a fire extinguisher in a hotel bar, had him on a warning almost straightaway.
In March, he scored a stunning hat-trick on his home debut as Leicester overcame Sunderland 5-2 but the Foxes season crumbled when Emile Heskey was sold less than a fortnight later, in an £11m switch to Liverpool.
Collymore then suffered a broken leg at Derby in April and despite winning the League Cup again, O’Neill resigned at the end of the season to take over at Celtic.
On 20 February, Manchester United visited nearest title rivals Leeds, leading by one point. Andy Cole scored the only goal at Elland Road to increase their advantage and effectively end the title race.
The match was overshadowed by Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to exclude David Beckham following a training ground bust-up. The pair eventually made their peace.
As their poor run of results continued, Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Wilson came under pressure to resign from a group of local MPs.
Although they went onto beat both Bradford and Chelsea, a defeat at Watford spelt the end for Wilson and he was sacked in March. Peter Shreeves was put in caretaker charge at Hillsborough.
Having struggled to find the net at the start of the season, Alan Shearer went onto score an impressive 23 times for Newcastle. These goals included two strikes in a surprising 3-0 win over Manchester United, in which PFA Player of the Year Roy Keane, saw red.
After another strike at Hillsborough sealed a 2-0 win, Shearer announced he would be retiring from international football once Euro 2000 finished.
Eleven on the spin
A hat-trick from Dwight Yorke saw Manchester United record a routine 3-1 home success over Derby County in March.
This started an incredible run of 11 successive victories, which included a 7-1 hammering of West Ham in the process. The title was secured on Easter Saturday, courtesy of a 3-1 win away at Southampton.
Leeds season turned tragic, when two fans were stabbed in Istanbul and died before a UEFA Cup semi-final tie with Galatasaray.
O’Leary’s side was grieving and had lost all momentum when Arsenal won 4-0 in mid-April at Elland Road.
Liverpool had quietly gone about their business throughout the season, which included league doubles over Arsenal and Leeds.
They went second, before a 0-0 draw in the Merseyside derby saw them stumble over the finishing line, with just two points from their last five matches.
Watford’s relegation was confirmed in April, when they lost 3-2 at home to Arsenal. Thierry Henry was making a name for himself, scoring in seven successive matches at one point.
The Hornets won only six games throughout and racked up just 24 points, which at the time, was the lowest in Premier League history.
A surprising 1-0 triumph at Sunderland on Easter Monday boosted Bradford’s survival hopes, which got stronger after they crushed relegation rivals Wimbledon 3-0 at Valley Parade.
With Sheffield Wednesday finding a bit of form, it was going to be two relegated from three in May.
Farewell Wimbledon and Wednesday
Wednesday’s battle came to an end in early May, when a Henry inspired Arsenal helped the Gunners claw back a 3-1 deficit to draw 3-3 at Highbury.
The result secured second place in the table for the North Londoners, although they finished a distant 18 points behind the runaway champions from Manchester.
Wimbledon sacked Egil Olsen, appointing Dons legend Terry Burton in a desperate bid to keep their league status.
A fighting 2-2 draw with FA Cup finalists Aston Villa meant going into the last day, Wimbledon were ahead of Bradford on goal difference.
The Bantams had the more difficult game but a fantastic header from defender David Wetherall in the 13th minute saw them 1-0 ahead against Champions League contenders Liverpool.
Wimbledon worked hard at Southampton but went down 2-0, to goals from Wayne Bridge and Marian Pahars.
Bradford held on for a famous victory which meant that after 14 years in the top flight, the Crazy Gang from South London got consigned to relegation.
Joy broke out at Valley Parade as Bradford defied the critics to stay in the Premier League for a second successive season, although manager Paul Jewell would leave in the summer to become the permanent successor to Wilson at Sheffield Wednesday.
Liverpool’s loss at Bradford ensured Champions League football for Leeds, who managed a goalless draw at Upton Park.
Once again though, it was Manchester United who had been the ones to beat and no-one could get close, in the most dominating season to date.
By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
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